[AfricaWatch] News Around Africa

 

New report reveals recurrent humanitarian crises in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern provinces

 

Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is in the grip of an emergency. For two decades, persistent conflict in its eastern provinces and instability in other regions and a dysfunctional health system have led to recurrent humanitarian crises and outbreaks of disease.

In a report released today, the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) uses its medical data and the testimonies of patients and staff to expose the true extent of the medical and humanitarian emergency lived through every day by the people of DR Congo – especially in the country's conflict-affected eastern provinces, one of the places where MSF works. The organisation calls for immediate action to put an end to the persistent suffering.

In "Everyday Emergency: Silent Suffering in Democratic Republic of Congo", MSF concludes that many of the people in need of humanitarian assistance in the country do not have access to it. Many communities are cut off from medical care due to poor infrastructure, displacement and conflict, and adequate assistance is not being provided in rural and conflict-affected areas by aid organisations and by the state. At the same time, violence against civilians, medical staff and property is commonplace, and healthcare providers are regularly required to suspend operations, leaving people deprived of the medical care they urgently need.

MSF has also found that many vulnerable people in the conflict-affected provinces of eastern DR Congo are excluded from healthcare by a cost recovery system exercised by official health structures and NGOs. Though the national healthcare system theoretically guarantees free healthcare in emergency situations, people are still made to pay, despite living in a warzone.

 

"Infrastructure and a health system that are hardly functioning, ongoing conflict and a lack of respect for humanitarian and health workers, a pervasive cost recovery system that requires patients to pay for healthcare even in situations of crisis .... All of these factors have had a catastrophic effect on the health of the people of eastern DR Congo," says Annemarie Loof, Operational Manager for MSF.

As for the 2.96 million people who are currently displaced in DR Congo – and in particular the large numbers of "hidden" displaced who are living with host families or hiding in the bush – the situation is dire. These people receive little to no humanitarian assistance; and if they do, it is irregular and infrequent. Meanwhile, there is increasing pressure on aid providers to channel assistance to certain 'liberated' zones with a view to stabilising conflict-affected areas and strengthening the authority of the state.

"Outbreaks of diseases like measles, malaria and cholera occur year after year in eastern DR Congo. Yet the health system is, in most cases, unable to prevent them or to respond," says Dr Jatinder Singh, MSF Medical Coordinator in DRC. "As a result, many people suffer and die, and the tragedy is that much of this human suffering could be prevented."

Immediate action must be taken to end this longstanding suffering. MSF calls for armed actors to respect civilians, humanitarians and medical facilities, and for better provision of humanitarian aid that is timely, flexible, appropriate and based solely on people's needs rather than their location or any kind of a political agenda. The organisation calls for the removal of financial barriers to healthcare for the vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas in eastern DR Congo, and improved prevention and response systems for disease epidemics.

 

Tanzania, long cautious, is caught in Rwanda feud

 

By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, March 9, 11:10 AM

 

KAMPALA, Uganda — The East African nation of Tanzania — long a force of quiet power in the region and a voice of restraint and non-interference in other countries' affairs — is embroiled in a potentially ugly feud with Rwanda and its press after Tanzania's president urged Rwanda's government to negotiate with a Congo-based Rwandan rebel group.

Since those comments last year on the sidelines of an African Union summit Rwanda's government has rebuked President Jakaya Kikwete, suggesting he sympathizes with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR rebel group. Rwanda insists there can be no negotiations with rebels whose members are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that saw more than 500,000 people killed.

 

More:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/tanzania-long-cautious-is-caught-in-rwanda-feud/2014/03/09/5ea10570-a77b-11e3-8a7b-c1c684e2671f_story.html

 

 

Kenya tourism suffers amid security scares, global slowdown

 

On a golden beach near the coastal city of Mombasa, the mood among locals whose livelihoods depend on foreign sunseekers is gloomy as Kenya's neighbours are stealing away price-conscious tourists.

 

"Business is bad. There are not many tourists, I haven't sold anything for two weeks," complained Kazungu, a 27-year-old who touts boat excursions and souvenirs on the golden sands of Nyali beach.

The beach is full of Kenyans, but few foreigners.

 

At the Nyali International Beach Hotel, a 170-room luxury facility, a handful of tourists are at the bar while a couple are sunbathing beside the pool, but the hotel is evidently not busy.

"For the last three years it's been very low," admitted Tsuma Ndune, a 38-year-old kitesurf instructor who works further down the beach.

He said business was roughly a third of what it had been during Kenya's better days.

In Mombasa, a local cooperative making handicrafts, Akamba, has also seen its turnover halved since 2007, the year when Kenya -- once seen as a beacon of stability in East Africa -- took a turn for the worse and erupted into violence following disputed elections.

"Most tourists have gone since 2007 and the election unrest, business just hasn't been the same," said Akamba's director Jackson Mwaniki, adding that the global financial crisis had combined to provide a perfect storm for Kenyan tourism.

"Most of the tourists that are coming to Kenya are saying that they have been hit... the purchasing power to them has also gone down," he said.

The post-election violence of 2007 to 2008 resulted in a 30 percent drop in tourism over the following year before recovering three years later, according to official figures.

 

But business dropped in 2012 and appears to have continued its downward trend -- amid security fears linked to the war in Somalia and kidnappings along the coastline by Somali gunmen, fears of renewed political violence during the 2013 elections and the Westgate shopping centre attack later in the year.

Tourism is crucial part of Kenya's economy: according to the most recent figures from 2011, the sector directly or indirectly accounted for 14 percent of gross domestic product and roughly 700,000 jobs, or 12 percent of the workforce.

For Tomas Garcia Hertz of Vintage Africa, a Kenyan tour operator offering safari and beach packages, the country has failed to adapt to a punishing international business climate.

"The overall economic situation in our overseas market is not the best. In a way we tend to forget that the economic crisis is still very much alive and many people around the world are scared about their jobs," he said.

But he said costs and overheads in Kenya have continued to rise -- such as a sales tax rise and hikes in national park entry fees -- and that competition was tough, especially Tanzania where the Serengeti reserve and island of Zanzibar are cheaper alternatives to the Masai Mara and Mombasa's beaches.

"Clients worldwide are definitely price sensitive, and when you're offering them a safari adventure in Tanzania for much less money than Kenya then it obviously becomes a major criteria."

Park entry fees in Tanzania are now lower than in Kenya -- 60 dollars per person per day for the Serengeti compared to 80 dollars for the Masai Mara, which is just across the border.

 

"If you look at a family of four who wish to stay in the park, you're talking about a huge amount of money even though you haven't yet even travelled to the country, you haven't stayed anywhere, you haven't eaten, you haven't been transported," he said.

Hertz also complained the Kenyan government appeared oblivious to the troubles in the tourism sector.

"One would think that the government is very much aware that this Kenya destination needs a lot of support. I think they have just lost contact with reality on the ground and nobody is taking any measures to correct that," he said.

"Kenya is making things difficult... to sell Kenya as a destination".

 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/incoming/2014/03/09/kenya-tourism-suffers-amid-security-scares-global-slowdown

 

 

Israel Secretly Ships African Asylum Seekers to Uganda: Report

 

Israeli figures say there are some 52,000 Africans in the country illegally, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea.

Israel is secretly transferring African asylum seekers to Uganda, Haaretz newspaper reported, quoting a senior Israeli government official.

The paper said that, over the past month, dozens of people agreed to leave for Uganda and some had already departed.

The Israeli immigration service spokeswoman could not be reached by AFP for comment.

Last June, a government official told the Israeli Supreme Court agreement had been reached with an unnamed third country prepared to take in Africans seeking asylum in Israel.

Interior Minister Gideon Saar said last month 1,500 Africans who entered Israel illegally were due to leave the country by the end of February. That compared with 765 in January, 325 in December 2013 and 63 in November.

Israeli figures say there are some 52,000 Africans in the country illegally, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea. They managed to enter the country before the completion late last year of a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt brought the flow to a virtual halt.

The government says most are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees, but media reports say that few asylum requests have been examined and hardly any approved.

Israel does not send Eritreans home because of the potential danger facing them there and it cannot repatriate Sudanese, as it has no diplomatic relations with Khartoum.

In 2012, rising tensions over the growing number of illegal migrants exploded into violence when a protest in south Tel Aviv turned ugly. Demonstrators smashed African shops and property, chanting "Blacks out!"

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up moves to expel them, saying they pose a threat to the state's Jewish character.

The government has opened a sprawling detention facility in the Negev desert to house both new entrants and immigrants already in the country deemed to have disturbed public order.

The UNHCR has condemned Israel for ignoring the reasons asylum seekers have fled their countries of origin and for failing to provide "those with protection needs" with "access to refugee status determination."

Thousands of asylum seekers have demonstrated recently outside parliament and migrant detention centres to protest immigration policy.

 

http://news.sudanvisiondaily.com/details.html?rsnpid=233067

 

 

Zambia Federation of Associations of Women in Business has observed that Women's Economic Empowerment is key in fighting Gender Based Violence GBV.

Speaking in an interview ahead of international women's day celebrations, Federation Chief Executive Officer Maureen Sumbwe notes that Gender Based Violence (GBV) and women economic empowerment cannot be divorced hence the need for stakeholders involved in empowering women to accelerate the rate at which they are helping women to expand and access finances for their businesses.

 

Ms Sumbwe says economic independence empowers women to leave abusive spouses as they are able to fend for themselves without depending on anyone once they are alone.

Meanwhile the Federation CEO says the association will tomorrow visit Chainama Hills Hospital ward seven for women which it adopted seven years ago as part of it women's day celebrations.

She calls on members of the public to spear a thought for in institutions such Chainama Hills Hospital as they are not in these institutions by choice but due to many factors which includes GBV in some cases.

 

"As an Association we recognizes the significant role Women play in society therefore, we note that as we Celebrate International Women's day

We should bear in mind that what has brought the patients at Chainama Hills Hospital can happen to any of us due to a number of factors such as everyday stress that Women go through including Gender Based"

Zambian Women will tomorrow join the rest of the glob in celebrating International Women's Day which falls on 8th March annually.

And Gender Links Zambia country Director Sara Longwe has called on the public to ensure that they take keen interest in the fight against Gender Based Violence GBV.

Ms Longwe observed that there is need for the publics' involvement in fighting the GBV scourge as living it to the victims to fight on themselves alone would be too late.

"Gender Based Violence should be everybody's business not just the ones who happen to be in the midst of it cause it is too late then, so prevention is most important". She noted.

She also observed that part some of the reasons for the high prevalence of gender based violence is the almost nonexistence of extended families as the social economics of the country is forcing families to stick to nuclear families something she advised families to rethink.

"We are becoming more nuclear families, social economics reasons are the many drivers of that but we need to rethink cause extended advises families eases they suffering of the children".

And speaking at the same event Gender Links Deputy executive director Kubi Raina said Zambia has the highest prevalence rate for GBV as shown by a recent research done in 6 southern African countries.

 

Ms Raina said research which was done in 4 provinces indicates that the country has 89 percent prevalence rate for GBV cases amongest women.

She called for new prevention strategies in fighting the scourge as the strategies that are being used now seems not to be producing the desired results.

"Clearly it shows that we haven't really strategised effectively around prevention as we have focused more of the funds on treatment, more of it is about campaigns but prevention needs to be more". Said Ms Raina.

 

She further noted the is need to scale up physco Social canceling facilities in the country as the facilities are almost non-existent.

She said emotional violence is the most prevalent kind of GBV hence the need for physco-social canceling facilities in the country.

"Emotional Violence is very damaging because if you are hurt your injuries will get better but how do you heal the brain or the heart? the services for that are almost non- existent, can you go to a shelter and say that am emotionally abused?" She wondered.

The duo said this in lusaka to day where Ms Raina announced the dates for gender links SADC Protocol summits which will start with 14 preparatory district summits during March and April in Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagscar, Mozambique, Nambia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zibbabwe, before culminating in a regional summit in Johanesburg from 26-28 may 2014.

 

This year the regional summit will call on governments to account for their commitments to gender equality critical to the countdown towards 2015.

The summits will also witness the launch of a movement from a strong post 2015 global and SADC gender agenda.

 

http://www.lusakatimes.com/2014/03/07/womens-economic-empowerment-key-fighting-gbv/

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