NEWS BRIEFS
8 June 2016
The daily News Briefs constitute a compilation of current media coverage of the Ethiopian, East African/Horn of Africa regional or global humanitarian situation. They are not a product originally produced by OCHA Ethiopia and, therefore, do not necessarily reflect the UNOCHA-Ethiopia position on any given issue. The views expressed herein are attributable only to the original source and may not in any circumstance be regarded as stating an official position of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
Ethiopia“This is a climate crisis” (NRC)
“The drought in Ethiopia is not a one-off event,” says Abdifateh Ahmed Ismael. He is the President’s advisor with humanitarian affaires in the Somali region. “The world must understand that the drought affecting Ethiopia is a climate crisis that will haunt people for generations,” he warns.
You see them almost everywhere; dead animals lying on the arid ground as horrific reminders of the catastrophe this country is facing. The pastoralists affected by the drought all say the same: The drought took most of the livestock, then the recent heavy rain killed the rest. An estimated one million animals have died due to the recent droughts in Ethiopia.
Worst drought in lifetime
On the way to the drought-affected Hariso village in the Somali region we meet Madina Aden (48). Her small shelter is shared with at least ten other women, and a baby. In the shadow on the side of the tent lies four goats. The only ones she has left.
“I used to have 200 animals,” she says. “I had camels, cattle, sheep, donkeys. But now, look, I only have these left,” Madina adds, points towards the goats. Then Madina echo what so many other pastoralists affected by the drought are telling us; “I have never seen a drought like this. Never. And I am 48 years old now.”
Dramatic change
In Ethiopia, the country worst affected by El Niño, 10.2 million people require food assistance and 6.8 million people need emergency health assistance and water. More than 8 of 10 Ethiopians live in rural areas where many families are dependent on their own agricultural production, living from harvest to harvest. When the harvest fail, it means trouble for many.
Drought comes often
In his office in Jigjia, in the Somali region of Ethiopia, Abdifateh Ahmed Ismael is worried. He knows too well that this drought is not the last.
“20 years ago the Somali region used to see 2-3 droughts once every ten years. But in the last 20 years that has changed dramatically. Because of climate change we see an increasingly amount of droughts and a new severity of drought. On top of that the droughts are coming back once every two to three years,” he says.
Short recovery
The result is that people do not get enough time to recover from the last drought before the next one comes.
“The recovery period that people used to have was around 7 or 8 years. This has now been reduced to 1 to 2 years. For pastoralists that is not enough for a recovery period. And because of that pastoralists are driven out of their livelihood loosing their livestock,” he says. Adding that deforestation and urbanisation adds to the looming crisis.
Lost dreams
Not far from Ismael’s office in Jigjiga town we find the village of Barisle. Two girls are holding hands as they explain what has happened to all the dead livestock lying around the village.
“They died due to drought,” Ayan (8) says, while her friend Asma(9) explains the word drought. “It is lack of livestock, lack of food and hunger,” she says.
The two girls never attended school. When asked what children do in school they don’t have an answer. As children of pastoralists they have spent all their life herding goats and sheep. They have experienced drought before, they say, and they have moved on.
No where to go
The families of Asma and Ayan have relied on coping mechanisms learned over many generations. When drought occurred people simply migrated to less affected areas. But the population has exploded in Ethiopia over the last 50 years, from 22.2 million to 95.5 million. In addition, there has been a boom in commercial agriculture, leaving grazing and watering areas used in the dry season inaccessible.
For many families, there is nowhere left to move when disaster hits. Asma and Ayan shows us the last cow in the village. The meagre cow has nothing left but her skin and bones.
“When I grow up I want to have hundred cows,” Asma says. “Me too, hundred,” says Ayan.
Need for change
If Ismael heard the dreams of the two girls in Barisle he would probably smile of recognition. He himself used to be a pastoralist when growing up.
“I used to herd livestock during my childhood, but just because I had access to education I am sitting here now talking about these issues. If not, I would probably be a desperate pastoralist somewhere in the Somali region,” he says. Adding that education is the key investment to ensure pastoralists’ an entry point to other livelihoods.
The climate change will not allow these children to continue the same path as their parents, according to the experienced humanitarian. Too much land has been degraded.
“We need the international community to partner with us in reducing vulnerability to this drought, through building resilience, livelihood diversity, programs that will help people produce food without depending on the rain,” Abdifateh says.
Need for long term thinking
In the village of Berisle the need for water is most urgent. “We collect rainwater, that’s all,” and old lady from the village explains.
Due to the latest droughts humanitarian agencies have been trucking water to the affected communities.
“The international community must understand that emergency response is okay as it saves lives, but we also need to have investments that reduces the need for emergency response in the future. You can support probably a million dollar in a small community that has been affected by the drought in a year. But you can spend 200 000 dollars to support the same community to drill a borehole and that addresses the problem not only during emergency but also addresses the problem of water shortage completely,” Ismael says.
Prepared but need help
As the fastest growing economy in the world, Ethiopia is now far more resilient to shocks like El Niño, and better positioned to meet its challenges. But resources are still lacking. The UN has called Ethiopia’s condition “a deteriorated humanitarian situation” and although the El Niño phenomenon itself is subsiding, its devastating human impact will increase in the coming weeks and months. The El Niño-related food insecurity is projected to peak between December 2016 and April 2017.
Mohamed Hassan, Head of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) operations in the Jigjiga region in Ethiopia talking to a child affected by the drought. "I am afraid more lives will be lost if not more aid is being delivered," he says. Photo: Tuva Raanes Bogsnes.
“We must remember that El Niño is not a one-off event but recurring global phenomena that we must address for future generations. We must highlight the need for long-term development,” says Mohamed Hassan, Area Manager for Norwegian Refugee Council in Jigjiga and Dire Dawa.
Hassan used to live in Ethiopia and Somalia as a child. After more than 20 years he has now returned to work with humanitarian response in the drought affected communities.
Water is life
On a hilltop outside Halobiyo village in the Fafan sone of Ethiopia a group of children is eager to answer the question about the importance of water. They all know too well that water is life. The children here have been moving around with their parents, but as the livestock and the agricultural land disappeared they had to come to the village for help.
The local community is themselves dependent on food aid, but as the leader of the village says, they could not do anything but to share the little they had. But when it comes to water, this village had nothing.
“Normally they would collect water when it rains but when it doesn’t rain for two years they are in trouble,” Mohamed Hassan from NRC says.
Building capacity
To ease the burden on this community NRC has build a water reservoir in the village. The water scheme, locally named berkad, collects the rainwater, filters it before people can collect it from a water pump. The sound of the pouring water is a welcoming one in this area.
“Before I had to walk half day to collect water from far away,” Kadrah says, while balancing a jerry can full of water on her back. “For me the access to water has changed my life,” she says.
“If we could drill permanent water sources like boreholes, then people would live much better also after we leave,” Mohamed Hassan says. “We must help people to become more self-reliant, and build individual and community capacity to respond to future shocks.”
Ismael agrees. He is busy trying to convince donors and governments that people need to be given alternatives to traditional livelihood. People need to be dependent on something that is more resilient to drought. Because the drought will re-occur, again and again.
ILLEGAL ARMS TRADE, CONTRABAND, TRAFFICKING POSE SECURITY CHALLENGE (The Reporter)
n his ten-month report to the House of People’s Representatives (HPR), Kassa Teklebirhan, Minister of Federal and Pastoralist Development Affairs (MoPDA), underscored the seriousness of the security threats that are posed by the illegal arms trade and contraband trade across the boarders and the deep-rooted human trafficking activities in the country.
In a comprehensive national security inventory that that the Ministry has conducted for the past ten months, Kassa brought to light some of the unadvertised and publicized security threats to Ethiopia among which an exacerbated level of cross boarder illegal arms trade which is fueling the various regional and national security threats to the nation.
“Among the major factors that exacerbate conflicts, is illegal arms trade. Huge amount of arms are being smuggled into the country in many directions and it is already posing a serious security threats to the nation,” Kasaa told MPs.
He further said that in spite of elevated efforts by various regional governments to curb the illegal arms trade, the threat is far from being brought under control. According to Kassa, the scattered efforts by the various regional states and the securities agencies of the federal government are not bearing fruit in the fight against illegal arms trade.
According to Kassa, the challenge starts with the absence of comprehensive and uniform legal framework governing the fire arms sector. He also said that the various regional and federal controlling agencies require a common legal framework to work with and that has not come forth until now.
Similarly, growing contraband trade levels in Ethiopia are also proving to be another source of security problem for Ethiopia, according to the Minister. “The muscle and the tactics that are used by the contrabandists have grown consistently in the past year,” Kassa told MPs.
The expanding levels of human trafficking are also another challenging issue for the country’s security, Kassa noted in his report. According to his report, in spite of concerted effort to curb human trafficking across the nation, trafficking is among the major challenges that country faces today.
Kassa admitted that trafficking has not shown any signs of decline even with the introduction of a nationwide campaign and efforts to curb the challenges. What was more interesting was the analysis of the Ministry, which suggested that human trafficking is in fact helping out the various armed groups that are waging war against the nation. Most of these groups gain their power from human traffickers working across Ethiopia and the region.
In a grand scale, the report has also covered the number of security shook ups that the country went through during the past ten-moths. Primary among these were the somewhat stretched popular protest in the Amhara and Oromia regional states. Kassa said failure to address fundamental maladministration issues, lack of strong political commitment to address the grievances, poor inter-state coordination and to some extent legal loopholes are to blame for the deterioration of security in the country in the past ten months.
Nevertheless, in complete synchrony with what Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn has said in the parliament few months ago, Kassa also assigned some blame to what he called “anti-peace elements” for seizing the opportunity that was created by the failure of the government at various levels to address grievances created in country.
The recurring conflict between the Nuer and Anwak ethnic groups and the tragic loss of lives there was another issue that Kassa dwelt on in his report. Although most of the issues have been resolved thanks to the intense dialogue that was conducted among security forces in the region, who were alleged to have taken sides in the conflicts, Kassa stressed that lessons have to be drawn from the tragic experience specifically regarding the slow response of federal forces in the face of ensuing violence.
Ethiopia gears up zeal to contain gas emission(WIC)
Addis Ababa, 07 June, 2008(WIC)- The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change said Ethiopia is persevering to reduce the emission of gases that exacerbate climate change.
Senior Public Relation Expert with the Ministry, Mohamed Ibrahim, told WIC that a research conducted recently has come up with the result that Ethiopia is emitting an estimated 150 million megawatts of carbon-dioxide and methane every year.
If not contained, this amount is expected to reach 400 mega tones by 2030, he added. And this could cause dangerous climate change in the country.
Government’s effort to abate this malice has so far brought changes in forest coverage that the coverage in the country has grown from 3 percent to 15 percent during the last couple of decades
The government has planned to reduce the amount of gas emission to 145 million mega tons by 2030 via the implementation of various green economy schemes, he noted.
Cognizant of this, the government has established the Ministry to separately administer the issues of climate change, forest and the environment as well.
Mohammed reminded that Ethiopia is a signatory of various international climate change agreements since 1992 E.C.
Bureau eyes new approach to curb human trafficking Featured (The Ethiopian Herald)
Addis Ababa Labour and Social Affairs Bureau is working to reach out the city residents through health extension programme intervention on issues of human trafficking. The bureau is closely working with city administration health bureau.
At an awareness training programme organized for health extension workers to create awareness on human trafficking, Bureau Deputy Head Teshale Yona said that the bureau has been engaged in curbing the illegal migration and human trafficking and creating for returnees.
According to Teshale, brokers tell fictitious stories to students, youngsters, and unemployed people as they live better in Arab and European countries.
He said to address the challenges and avert the attitudes of the society the bureau has started working closely with urban health extension workers.
Health Extension Programme (HEP) is an innovative community based health care delivery system aimed at providing preventive health care services. Therefore, he said the programme could be a viable strategy to curb illegal migration and human trafficking.
As front line workers close to households and communities, these urban health professionals have a unique opportunity to address issues of illegal migration and human trafficking.
A health extension worker from Akaki Kaliti Woreda Three, Yordanos Abera on her part said working in changing the attitudes of the society would help to protect citizens from any possible danger.
RegionalDadaab closure top Uhuru, Somalia President Hassan Mohamud talks (The Star)
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somalia counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Tuesday held bilateral talks at State House, Nairobi.
The talks between the two Presidents focused on the decision to close the Dadaab refugee camp, rules affecting aviation between Kenya and Somalia, and cooperation on security.
President Mohamud, who is on an official trip to Kenya and visited the Dadaab refugee camp on Monday, was accompanied by senior officials of his government.