About 210 child soldiers were released by rebel groups in South Sudan’s Pibor area, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed on Friday, May 18, 2018.
A fourteen year old child soldier for the Sierra Leone Army, Abu Kamara, left
Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s Representative in South Sudan, said in a statement issued in Juba, the nation’s capital, that they were released on Thursday.
“Every time a child is released and able to return to their family, it’s a source of great hope – hope for their future and for the future of the country,” Mdoe said.
“We also hope there will be many more of these events until there are no longer any children in the ranks of armed groups,” Mdoe added.
It said 806 child soldiers have now been released across South Sudan since the start of 2018, adding that more children are expected to be freed in the coming months.
UNICEF said the freed children would be reunited with their families and provided with three months’ worth of food assistance and provided with vocational training aimed at improving household income and food security to support their initial reintegration.
According to the children’s agency, an estimated 19,000 children continue to serve in the ranks of armed forces and groups in South Sudan.
The UN agency called on all parties to the conflict to end the recruitment of children and to release all children in their ranks.
The Director General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW), Mr Goni Ahmed, says desertification, if not tackled, will spread across the nation.
Desertification in Nigeria
Ahmed made this assertion when he received the Director- General of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Dr Muktari Aminu Kano, in his office on Thursday, May 18, 2018 in Abuja.
He said that desertification and land degradation were very worrying phenomena that had devastated the northern Nigeria and that if not tackled would spread across the country.
He said the speed at which desertification was moving, destroying farmlands, livestock and even humans, was disturbing and, if adequate measure was not taken, the country might be engulfed with the menace.
The D-G said since the inception of the NAGGW, over 600 km of shelterbelts, 200 km of woodlots, and almost 300 hectares of Orchards had been established.
He said 157 boreholes were sunk and five skill acquisition centres built, among other achievements.
He noted that the project had been faced with some challenges as with any other government projects.
Ahmed said however that the agency was not relenting in seeing that the vision and mandate of the Great Green Wall (GGW) programme was achieved.
He expressed appreciation at the collaboration with the foundation as a window to other international groups, saying that, for the agency to bring back life and hope to the affected people, support from NGOs such as the NCF was welcomed.
According to him, this would help to achieve the goals of the GGW programme in Nigeria.
The Director-General, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Dr Muktar Kano, said he was pleased that what was conceived by President Olusegun Obasanjo and adopted by the African Union had matured.
He said his foundation had prioritised agencies to work with, for maximum input and the NAGGW was found to be a credible one.
He said collaborations such as the one with NAGGW was important, adding that, in the past, so many government projects had not succeeded because of lack of cooperation.
Kano noted that the task of the agency was not only on environmental issues but also on socio-cultural ones such as security, unemployment, poverty and migration, among others, mostly caused by desert encroachment.
He said NCF, as an environmental NGO, works to preserve the natural resources and biodiversity of Nigeria.
“It has partnership with a number of international environmental groups including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), among many others,” said Kano.
He promised to give a major input in bringing in some of these international groups to join in the fight against desertification and land degradation to ensure the GGW was built and completed.
“This will help to tackle desert encroachment and other socio-economic activities in the country,’’ he said.
The number of confirmed Ebola cases in Congo has risen from three to 14, according to the Central African country’s Health Ministry.
Orly Ilunga, the Congolese Minister of Health
“In total since the start of the epidemic, there have been 45 cases of hemorrhagic fever, including 10 suspected cases, 21 probable cases, and 14 confirmed cases,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday, May 18, 2018.
The ministry said just one person had been confirmed dead from the virus, but 25 people are suspected to have died from it.
Earlier on Thursday, the ministry had only three confirmed cases, one of which – the first in a major urban area – had prompted an urgent World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting for Friday to decide what measures should be taken, including the possible declaration of a public health emergency.
Ebola is a highly infectious virus that can cause fever and bleeding.
The death rate runs as high as 90 per cent, but the lethal risk can be reduced significantly if patients are quickly isolated and if they receive fluids.
Earlier this week, more than 5,000 Ebola vaccines arrived in Congo as part of the UN’s efforts to stem the outbreak.
Similarly, the European Commission has released around €1.6 million ($1.9 million) to help tackle an Ebola outbreak in Congo, as well as organising flights to transport emergency staff and equipment to the affected areas.
Of that, €1.5 million will provide logistics support to the WHO and €130,000 will help the Congolese Red Cross perform life-saving interventions.
“All must be done to isolate the Ebola cases, especially since there has been a case in Mbandaka city,” said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Christos Stylianides.
The EU is also ready to deploy its pool of voluntary specialists and medical assets, and its Copernicus satellite will provide emergency mapping services to help reach affected areas, a statement says.
The Executive Director of the National Environment Agency of The Gambia has said that protected areas play a fundamental role in the conservation of biodiversity, as well as ecosystem services, including providing services such as water, timber and food, in addition to cultural and spiritual services. But he however disclosed that protected areas are under heavy and increasing threats from anthropogenic pressures, which are now being exacerbated by climate change.
Momodou Jaama Suwareh
Momodou Jaama Suwareh made this submission during the opening ceremony of a two-day Strategic and Technical Workshop on the finalisation and endorsement of the Nuimi-Saloum Transboundary Management Plan recently held at the Senegambia Beach Hotel. The environment boss revealed that climate change impacts have already been observed on biodiversity and the impacts are causing shifts in the distribution of species, as well as reductions in population sizes, and even extinctions of local populations.
This means that protected areas that have been created to protect certain species or ecosystem types may not do so in the future. He, however, noted that such sites may become important for other species or ecosystems of conservation concern, and thereby play a key role in helping them to adapt to climate change.
Protected areas, he added, are also a very useful tool in mitigating climate change, by optimising carbon sequestration and storage, by preventing deforestation and forest degradation which constitute a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and by supporting ecosystem-based adaptation for the benefit of people.
In order to design appropriate management and adaptation actions, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of the vulnerability of protected areas in the face of climate change and the suitability of the existing protected area network. According to him, between 2010 and 2015, the Gambia implemented a full-size GEF project which focused on the impacts of climate change on protected areas and the site selected for pilot activities was the trans-boundary area between Niumi National Park in The Gambia and the Delta du Saloum Park in Senegal.
The Niumi National Park was established in 1986 and covers 7,758 ha from Barra at the mouth of the River Gambia and it encompasses Jinack Island and a natural extension of the Saloum Delta National Park. Additionally, he revealed that Delta du Saloum was established in 1976 and is located in the central West of Senegal in the Sine Saloum natural region. It covers 76,000 ha and was established as a biosphere reserve in 1981 and recognised as a wetland (Ramsar site) of international importance in 1984.
Since 2008, two national parks (Niumi National Park in The Gambia and the Delta du Saloum Park in Senegal) formed a complex ecosystems classified as wetland of international importance and a protocol of agreement between The Gambia and Senegal for the trans-boundary management of protected areas, known as the Jinack Protocol, which specifically applied to the Niumi-Saloum trans-boundary site signed in 2001.
A draft trans-boundary management plan for the Niumi-Saloum complex was created in October 2010 and would have been updated as part of the PARCC project to take into account climate change aspects.
The importance of the two-day workshop, Suwareh noted, cannot be over-emphasised because it aims to facilitate collaboration between the two national parks by promoting networking, exchange of ideas and share lessons learnt, prepare key stakeholders and communities to better support the process.
Furthermore, he said, it will help the participants to complete all the steps that have been undertaken so that relevant stakeholders from Senegal and Gambia can come together review, finalise and validate the management plan for its upcoming implementation in the current and future projects and programmes.
He reiterated that bringing together these two institutions will help advance the work identified to consolidate the achievements which has already been known, and that the management plan would be focused and finalised with the help of experts and the different actors involved in the management of trans-boundary ecosystems.
He however challenged all to do justice to the working documents through a thorough review and active participation. Suwareh acknowledged the continuous partnership, financial as well as technical support from partners especially Wetlands International for the works they have been doing in the region.
More than half the global population lacked access to essential healthcare services, the latest annual report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
Peter Salama, WHO’s Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response
The report, titled “World Health Statistics: Monitoring Health for the Sustainable Development Goals”, is WHO’s annual snapshot of the state of the world’s health.
The 2018 edition contains the latest available data for 36 health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators.
In total, more than 50 SDG indicators measure health outcomes or health service provision.
“Less than half the people in the world today get all of the essential health services they need,” the report stated.
According to the report, weak health systems in a large number of countries are at fault for the lack of access to basic health services.
“In many countries, weak health systems remain an obstacle to progress and lead to shortages in coverage of even the most basic health services, as well as poor preparedness for health emergencies,” the report stated.
The WHO report disclosed that for the period of 2007-2016, 76 countries reported having less than one physician per 1,000 of the population.
Also 87 countries reported having fewer than three nursing and midwifery personnel per 1,000 of the population.
According to WHO, medicines for palliative care and pain management are considered essential.
However, data from health facility surveys conducted nationally in 29 countries during the period 2007-2017 showed that only 64 per cent of public sector facilities surveyed in low income countries.
Also, only 58 per cent of public sector facilities surveyed in lower middle income countries stocked medicines for pain management and palliative care.
The report identified that apart from access to basic and necessary healthcare, challenges also persist in attaining the eight Millennium Development Goals [MDG], which range from combating AIDS, malaria, and other diseases to reducing child mortality.
“In spite all the progress made during the [MDG] era, major challenges persist in the MDG priority areas.
“These challenges will need to be addressed if further progress is to be made in reducing maternal and child mortality, improving nutrition, and combating communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria,” the report stated.
The SDGs were adopted by UN member states in 2015 as the world’s objectives for the next 15 years.
They comprise 17 interlinked goals and 169 targets to be achieved globally by 2030.
WaterAid Nigeria on Thursday, May 17, 2018 warned that efforts to fight Ebola and other diseases threatening the nation and continent cannot be successfully sustained unless the world’s poorest are given the tools they need to fight the disease – clean water, decent sanitation and good hygiene (WASH).
An Ebola patient receiving treatment
The international charity organisation, working in 34 countries across the globe, renewed its call for improvements in access to water, sanitation and hygiene in schools, healthcare facilities and public places in the country as reports surfaced of a fresh outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
About 50% of schools and 42% of healthcare facilities in sub-Saharan Africa are without access to water, according to the organisation. In Nigeria, almost a third (29%) of hospitals and clinics in the country do not have access to clean water, the same percentage do not have safe toilets and one-in-six (16%) do not have anywhere to wash hands with soap, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
This, adds, the organisation, puts patients and healthcare workers at unacceptable risk of infection, including some of the most vulnerable members of society – new mothers and their newborns. WaterAid points out that about one-in-five deaths of newborn babies in the developing world are caused by infections with a strong link to dirty water, poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions; and that Nigeria has one of the largest numbers of neonatal deaths worldwide.
WaterAid Nigeria Country Director, Dr ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye, said: “Good hygiene, and in particular handwashing with soap, have significant impact on the health and wellbeing of the global population. It was one of the ways in which Nigeria fought and won against the deadly Ebola virus in 2014. We cannot be lax in our attitude and neglect to consistently practice good hygiene. Ebola is back on the continent and it is frightening to think that we could all be at risk if we don’t take the necessary precautions and early enough.
“Other diseases such as monkey pox, cholera and Lassa fever are also continuing to threaten public health in the country; and these diseases can spread further and faster without sanitation and hygiene practices to block their path. An outbreak in one area can quickly become a city-wide, national or international epidemic.
“It is important that we promote consistent and long-term behaviour change throughout the year and as a crucial part of everyday life beyond just special global campaign days or when there is the threat of disease. WaterAid is committed to supporting the Government of Nigeria, at all levels, to improve access to these basic life-saving services and integrate water, sanitation and hygiene in education and health for improved and holistic outcomes in these areas.”
Out of all water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, hygiene promotion, and particularly handwashing with soap, has been identified as the most cost-effective disease control intervention; and forming an important additional barrier to the spread of Ebola.
Nigeria is at the precipice of a sanitation and hygiene catastrophe, said WaterAid, pointing out that about 60 million people (33% of the population) are currently living without adequate access to water; over 120 million people (67%) do not have a decent toilet and about 47 million people (26%) practice open defecation.
It adds: “The reality is that countries that have been affected by Ebola have some of the worst water, sanitation and hygiene coverage in the world. The poor WASH situations in these countries have limited infection prevention and control and exacerbated the impact and reach of the Ebola outbreak.
“The benefits of water, sanitation and hygiene are clear and well understood; improved WASH has direct impacts on health. Getting to zero, staying there and ensuring Ebola preparedness for any future outbreak requires major investment in WASH. Effective infection prevention and control (IPC) relies on safe water, basic sanitation and good hygiene.
“The Federal Government’s recent declaration of a state of emergency in the WASH sector couldn’t have come at a better time. It must serve as a wake-up call to each and every one of us to do whatever we can to remedy the situation. Everyone has a role to play. We are calling on state and local governments to follow the Federal Government’s lead and declare WASH states of emergencies at the local levels of governance.”
The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) wants the Anambra State Government to review and implement the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Structure Plans designed for three urban areas of the state.
Awka, capital of Anambra State
The Anambra State Chapter chairman of the institute, Mr Joachim Ulasi, made the call when he led a delegation on a visit to the Chairman, Anambra State Physical Planning Board, Mr Chike Maduekwe, in Awka, the state capital, on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
Former governor, Peter Obi, through the UN-Habitat initiative, produced a 20-year structural plan for Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi in 2009.
The plan contained policies and proposals for land use, city beautification, road infrastructure, industrial development, housing, waste disposal, water supply and health and educational facilities.
The state is said to be the first in the country to adopt structure plans for its cities, but was soon abandoned due to absence of the required laws to back it.
“There is need for the structure plan to be reviewed and implemented to guide physical planning as it is done in Lagos,” the chairman said.
Ulasi said the ceding of Awka Capital Master Plan to Awka Capital Development Authority (ACDA), away from the Physical Planning Board, would render the board redundant.
“The Act establishing ACDA is mainly for infrastructural development of Awka and not for development control, which forms the responsibility of the Physical Planning Board.
“We have also heard that government is about to implement Greater Onitsha Development Agency and Greater Nnewi Development Agency.
“If passed into law by the state Assembly, the board will have only rural areas to handle leaving the urban areas to these agencies,’’ he said.
Ulasi also expressed concern at the improper constitution of the board, noting that town planners were not appointed into the board to assist planning in the state.
The chairman urged the state government to appoint experienced and professional engineers and architects into the 21 local planning authorities.
He pledged the cooperation of the institute in the review and implementation of the UN-Habitat Structure Plans for the state.
Also speaking, Mr Victor Okpoko, the General Manager, Anambra Physical Planning Board, said the state was backward in terms of planning.
“We have missed a lot of opportunities from foreign donor agencies following the delay or non-implementation of the Structure Plans.
“There is too much politics over planning in the state which is not in the interest of the state and its revenue,” Okpoko said.
Responding, the Chairman, Anambra Physical Planning Board, Mr Chike Maduekwe, said government was currently carrying out demolition of illegal structures, including petrol stations located near residential areas in Onitsha.
The chairman said majority of the people of the state have expressed happiness, surprisingly, over the ongoing demolition exercise.
He, however, appealed to the “big men” whose structures were affected to understand that the original master plan of the state must be reclaimed as contained in the plans.
Maduekwe pledged to utilise the expertise of the institute to actualise the state government’s objectives of implementing the structure plan for the state.
He also urged the delegation to put their submissions in writing for presentation to the state governor.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved $100 million senior loan to Nigerian firm, Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals Limited, to support the company’s plans to double its fertiliser production from 1.4 million tons of urea to 2.8 million tons per annum.
Bags of fertiliser
The bank’s intervention follows a previous loan extended to Indorama Fertiliser in 2013 for the commissioning of another urea fertiliser plant with a production capacity of 1.4 million tons per annum. The completion and exploitation of that plant in 2016 helped turn Nigeria from a net fertiliser importer to a self-sufficient producer, and now a net exporter of fertiliser. In 2017, 700,000 tons of urea were exported to West Africa and North and South American markets. Production from the new plant will predominantly target export markets.
The project will also address the problem of inadequate fertiliser utilisation, which is considered one of the principal constraints to agricultural growth and development in Nigeria, and the entire African continent.
“This Project will build upon the success of Train-I in increasing the domestic supply of urea fertiliser in Nigeria, making it easily available and leading to cheaper prices for the Nigerian farmer,” said Abdu Mukhtar, Director for Industrial and Trade Development at the AfDB. “It will also help further address labour issues in a local region wracked by poverty, inequality and political tension by creating high paying technical jobs and will count towards climate change abatement by reducing amounts of flared gas.”
Fertiliser production support is well aligned with regional and national priorities, as well as the bank’s assistance strategy in Nigeria, and is an important step towards the bank’s goal of radically transforming Africa’s agriculture sector and making the continent self-sufficient in food.
Despite a large population of farmers, Nigeria spends at least $6 billion per year on food imports. A contributing factor to low domestic crop yields is low consumption levels of fertiliser in Nigeria – and indeed Africa as a whole, which averages only 10-15% of global levels.
The project supports the medium term economic recovery and growth plan of the Government of Nigeria and the bank’s regional strategy to link regional markets in West Africa. 20% of the urea exports will be made to South Africa and West Africa (Cote D’Ivoire & Senegal). Regional integration will be further strengthened by the export of increased agriculture production in Nigeria.
The Indorama Eleme Complex has been a success story of public private partnerships in Nigeria, with several benefits including import substitution of raw materials to over 450 downstream industries; increased crop yields of over 30%; training of 200,000 farmers on the proper use of fertilisers expected to reach two million by 2021; creation of 50,000 jobs, and an annual contribution of $2 billion to Nigeria’s GDP. The estimated $1.1 billion cost of the project is to be financed with equity of $100 million and debt finance of $1billion which will be provided by development finance institutions. All the financiers are said to been provided their final Board approvals for the project.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Gabonese ministry of health are to set up a safety plan to prevent the spread of Ebola in the country after the outbreak of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. Photo credit: pbs.twimg.com
Gabonese authorities, in a statement on Thursday, May 17, 2018, said it had become necessary to strengthen the capacities of health workers and epidemiological surveillance along the borders and at airports.
According to WHO, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Gabon are on the list of high risk countries.
No cases of Ebola fever have been reported yet in Gabon.
The Gabonese authorities had suspended flights and maritime connections from affected countries and restriction of the issuance of entry visas to Gabon to passengers coming from area affected by the epidemic as measure to prevent the spread.
Congolese and United Nations officials were racing on Thursday, May 17, 2018 to prevent a runaway Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
WHO spokesman, Christian Lindmeier
They are working out the logistics of keeping newly acquired vaccines well below freezing in a steamy region on the equator with unreliable power.
World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, said the U.N. body would convene an Emergency Committee meeting on Friday to consider the international risks.
This is DRC’s ninth epidemic since the disease was identified in the 1970s.
However, this outbreak is its most alarming because of the risk of transmission via regular river transport to the capital Kinshasa, a city of 10 million.
There have already been 44 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of Ebola, and 23 people have died.
Potentially, most worrying is a confirmed case in Mbandaka, a city of about 1 million connected to Kinshasa by the Congo River.
“This does change the way we need to respond,” Peter Salama, WHO’s medical emergency programme head, told the media in Geneva.
“Overnight, Mbandaka has become the number one priority for preventing this outbreak from getting out of control.”
The other Ebola cases were spread across sites in remote areas where the disease might not travel quickly.
An experimental but highly effective vaccine is being deployed, with health workers being vaccinated first.
But it normally needs to be kept 80 degrees Celsius below freezing in a humid region where daytime temperatures hover around 30.
“For now, the cold chain is guaranteed at – 80 degrees until Kinshasa,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga told Reuters.
“There is a fridge that will be prepared (on Thursday) … in Mbandaka and that will be at -80.”
“This vaccine is no longer experimental. The effectiveness has been proven and validated,” he added.
“Now that we are facing the Ebola virus we must use all the resources we have.”
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told the media that the vaccine can still be effective for up to two weeks if stored in a fridge at between 8 and 2 degrees above freezing.
To avoid criticism received during the huge former Ebola outbreak, which killed 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia from 2014 to 2016, WHO is moving fast on Congo’s latest outbreak.
The emergency committee will decide whether to declare a “public health emergency of international concern”, which would mean getting access to more resources, Lindmeier said.
The Kinshasa government reported the outbreak on May 8, one day after two samples tested positive.
Within days the WHO was sending experts, preparing a helicopter “air bridge” to the site, and planning a vaccination campaign.
The nightmare scenario is an outbreak in Kinshasa, a crowded city where millions live in unsanitary slums not connected to a sewer system.
Several public transport boats a day head from Mbandaka downstream over the river to the capital.
They are so overloaded with people that they sometimes topple over, their toilets are usually filthy and water for washing absent.
“If this Ebola outbreak ever reaches Kinshasa, what we are going to see is death here,” Jean Marie Mukaya, a resident of the city, told media.
“Because it is very dirty here, the government and the population must … get rid of all the dirt.”
Already the WHO has warned that there is a “moderate” regional risk because the disease could travel along the river to Central African Republic and Congo Republic.
But it has said the global risk is low because of the remoteness of the area and the rapid response launched so far.
Even if the logistics of the ‘fridge bridge’ prove easy enough to overcome, “the vaccine is not a magic bullet,” Salama told Reuters this week, especially since health workers have been infected.
“Having healthcare workers infected is usually a ‘canary in the mine’ for potential amplification,” he said.
