Briefs
FrontLines - February 2010
Aid Groups Say
Southern Sudan
Peace Shaky
NAIROBI, Kenya—
Southern Sudan could see a
return to chaos and warfare
if the international community
does not strengthen the
2005 peace deal that ended
more than 20 years of civil
war, a group of aid agencies
warned Jan.7, the Associated
Press reported.
The first multi-party
elections in more than two
decades are set for April,
and the groups said in a
report that a referendum on
independence for the south
in January 2011 also could
re-ignite the war that killed
2 million people.
The 10 aid agencies—
including Oxfam International,
Save the Children, and
World Vision—also worry
about disputes between the
south and north over oil.
The report, entitled
‘’Rescuing the Peace in
Southern Sudan,’’ said some
2,500 people were killed
and 350,000 others were
displaced in 2009.
Civilians Key to
New Afghan-
Pakistan Strategy
WASHINGTON—Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton on Jan. 22
unveiled a strategy to stabilize
Afghanistan and Pakistan
that calls for sending
more civilian experts to the
region, AFP reported.
Clinton called for
increases of experts in
Afghanistan beyond the
nearly 1,000 U.S. civil experts due to be deployed in
the next few weeks. Plans call
for rebuilding the Afghan farm
sector, improving governance,
and reintegrating extremists
into society.
The strategy also calls for
helping Pakistan fight an
Islamist insurgency and enact
political and economic reforms;
and countering extremist voices
in both countries.
“I believe this strategy offers
the best prospect for stabilizing
Afghanistan and Pakistan,”
Clinton said.
The Afghanistan and Pakistan
Regional Stabilization
Strategy was produced by the
Office of the Special Representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan,
Richard Holbrooke, who
briefed the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on it.
Zimbabwe Faces
Food Shortages
HARARE, Zimbabwe—
Nation Online, a local news
source, reported Jan. 19 that
Zimbabwe is facing massive
food shortages again this year
with crops already wilting in
many parts of the country due
to a prolonged dry spell.
The USAID-funded Famine
Early Warning System Network
(FEWSNET) predicts that, as a
result of the poor rainfall and
the severe shortage of agriculture
inputs, 2.2 million Zimbabweans
will need food aid. |
Thousands marked World AIDS Day 2009 on Dec. 1 with commemorations and other special events.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) showcased the work of young artists who
designed separate posters to capture the message of youth awareness and engagement in the fight
against HIV/AIDS. PEPFAR kicked off a competition for the poster designs on World AIDS Day 2008,
and people between ages 5 and 20 from five continents entered with their designs. The posters are
now part of the exhibit “Celebrate Life,” which launched on World AIDS Day at USAID and will
travel around the world this year. The above poster was submitted by S. Varsha, age 13, India.
|
Close to half of Zimbabwe’s
population has depended on
donors for food in the last nine
years.
In November, the United
Nations reduced by almost 50
percent its request for donations
to assist Zimbabwe’s poor, following
positive changes in the economic situation. Aid agencies
now fear the cuts in funding
will see more people going
without food this year.
Middle East Faces
Water Shortage
The Middle East is facing its
worst water crisis in decades,
National Public Radio reported
Jan 7.
For three summers, the
annual rains failed to come.
Farmland dried up across the
region in Iraq, Syria, southeast
Turkey, and Lebanon. Experts
say the climate is warming in
the Fertile Crescent, the area of
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
contributing to the water shortage
and helping to create a new
phenomenon—water refugees.
Droughts for several consecutive
years and the damming
of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
have the Middle East facing
its worst water crisis in decades.
This winter, rain has barely
settled into the hard, cracked
farmland in northern Syria.
There was a time when the
fields were green most of the
year, but the summer droughts
have taken a toll.
Child Soldiers Leave
Nepal Maoist Camps
SINDHULI, Nepal—Thousands
of former child soldiers
who fought for the Maoists in
Nepal’s decade-long civil war
began leaving the U.N.-monitored
camps where they have
spent the past three years, AFP
reported Jan. 7.
Most are now adults, but
some were as young as 13 when
they joined the rebels and have
had little formal education.
“My hands have only been
trained to use guns,” said 23-year-old Bhawana Chaudhary,
who was just 17 when she
joined the army.
More than 200 young men
and women swapped their blue
People’s Liberation Army
(PLA) uniforms for civilian
clothes and began their journey
home after an official ceremony
at the Sindhuli camp in central
Nepal. They are the first of
almost 24,000 former Maoist
fighters confined to U.N.-supervised
camps as part of the 2006
peace agreement to be formally
discharged.
Polio Fight Goes On
in Afghanistan
KABUL—Successful antipolio
action depends on vaccinators
being able to reach and
immunize every under-5 child
in 13 volatile districts in the
southern provinces of Kandahar,
Helmand, and Farah,
according to the U.N. World
Health Organization (WHO).
“These 13 districts are high
priority areas and if we succeed
in fighting the virus there, we
will eradicate polio in the country,”
Tahir Pervaiz Mir, WHO’s
polio eradication officer in
Afghanistan, told the U.N
agency IRIN.
“The virus is localized and
we want to finish the job at the
earliest [opportunity] and not
allow it to spread beyond the
southern region,” he said.
About 84 percent of Afghanistan
is polio-free but the disease
remains virulent in the 13
districts, where health workers
have little or no access.
Most of the 38 polio cases in
2009 were reported in the
south, though one case each
was reported in the provinces of Kapisa, Ghor, Nangarhar, and
Nuristan.
Gates Foundation
Pledges $10 Billion
for Vaccines
DAVOS, Switzerland—The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
will donate $10 billion
over the next decade to
research new vaccines and
bring them to the world’s
poorest countries, the Microsoft
co-founder and his wife
said Jan. 29, the Associated
Press reported.
Calling for government
and business contributions,
they said the money will raise
immunization rates and make
sure 90 percent of children
are immunized against diseases
such as diarrhea and
pneumonia in poorer nations.
“We must make this the
decade of vaccines,” Bill
Gates said in a statement.
“Vaccines already save and
improve millions of lives in
developing countries.”
He said the commitment
more than doubles the $4.5
billion the foundation has
given to vaccine research over
the years.
The foundation said up to
7.6 million children under 5
could be saved through 2019
as a result of the donation. It
also estimates that an additional
1.1 million kids would
be saved if a malaria vaccine
can be introduced by 2014. A
tuberculosis vaccine would
prevent even more deaths.
From news reports and other
sources.
★
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