UNHCR and Partners Seek U.S.$34 Million for Nigeria Refugees!

The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday issued a joint call on donors for US$34 million to fund urgent operations to help tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

UNHCR and its 16 partners need the funding to provide protection and life-saving aid to the more than 75,000 people who have to date fled from the escalating violence in north-east Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, and to help thousands more expected to arrive in Cameroon, Chad and Niger by year's end.

The Nigeria Refugee Response Plan, presented to donors today, covers the most immediate protection and assistance needs of up to 95,000 people fleeing Nigeria until the end of the year. Given the upsurge in violence, these numbers will probably need to be revised upwards.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told journalists in Geneva that more than 11,000 refugees crossed into Cameroon and Chad in August alone. Some 15,000 people have arrived in Niger's Diffa region since the beginning of August, many of whom have settled on the islands of Lake Chad.

Attacks in September in Borno and Adamawa have prompted new refugees to make for Cameroon and Niger. "In Cameroon, the newly arrived are occupying school buildings and churches; some are staying with host families and others are living in the open and sleeping rough. The high prevalence of respiratory infections among children is of great concern," Baloch said.

"Over the past weekend, newly arrived refugees told our teams at the border area that insurgents had attacked their villages in the areas of Gwoza, Bama, Pulka and Idagala in Borno state, and stole everything before burning their houses. Some refugees are seriously traumatized having seen their relatives being brutally killed," he added.

Refugees reportedly said that a group of 40 to 60 armed men arrived in their village on motorbikes, telling villagers to embrace a more radical Islam and join their ranks, threatening to kill them.

The refugees escaped their homes at night and walked for days before reaching the relative safety of Kolofata, Mora and Fotokol in Cameroon - a long journey for children who arrived exhausted and with wounded feet. Refugees said that villages were mostly empty on the Nigeria side, with only old and disabled people remaining.

Fearing more cross-border attacks in Cameroon, "We have started to transfer the newly arrived refugees to the refugee camp in Minawao, some 120 kilometres further inland. Since the last week of August, nearly 8,000 refugees have been transferred to the camp, which now hosts over 13,000 people," the UNHCR spokesman said.

However, the volatile security situation in Cameroon's Far North region seriously hampers these relocation efforts, and more than 13,000 refugees remain at the border with Nigeria. In total, Cameroon is hosting some 43,700 Nigerian refugees, according to authorities, including 26,753 refugees who have been registered by UNHCR. Dozens arrive on a daily basis.

In Niger, a growing number of people continue to arrive, with more than 70 per cent of them being women and children. An escalation of the violence in Nigeria and the threat on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, would lead to an even greater influx into neighbouring countries. Some Chadian nationals are also arriving, transiting through Niger to return to their country.

Baloch noted that the displaced were seeking accommodation in local villages and this put pressure on the host communities. "These communities are in areas experiencing chronic food insecurity, environmental problems and a general lack of basic services. Therefore, humanitarian efforts are focusing on strengthening local capacities and services, including health and education facilities, involving the host communities," he said.

Meanwhile, Baloch said that in a bid to better protect the nearly 650,000 internally displaced people in Nigeria's six north-eastern states, UNHCR was helping to set up a protection monitoring system that will allow the agency to identify and profile protection problems, followed by an adequate response.

UNHCR and its partners will also provide shelter assistance and domestic items to displaced people with special needs. UNHCR, as part of the UN relief effort, is appealing for an additional US$5.5 million for these activities in Nigeria.

Nigerian Military Sentences 12 Mutineers to Death!

The Nigerian military authorities have sentenced 12 soldiers to death by firing squad for attempting to kill their commanding officer during a mutiny in the country's northeastern region earlier this year.

Information made available by the Authorities say the men shot at Major-General Ahmed Mohammed's official car at a barracks in Maiduguri, an area where Boko Haram militants remain very active.

The court martial also found the soldiers guilty of insubordination and the use of abusive language, as well as obstructing the evacuation of dead colleagues who died in an ambush.

Nigeria's military, backed by warplanes, has been fighting to push back advances by Boko Haram. But troops have complained about what they say is a lack of equipment and support - an issue that reportedly angered the 12 soldiers.

67 South Africans Killed in Nigeria Building Collapse!

In a statement on Tuesday, South African President Jacob Zuma said sixty-seven South Africans reportedly died in the building collapse that occurred at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria.

According to the report, scores sustained injuries when the multi-storey guesthouse belonging to the church collapsed on Friday.

"This is a particularly difficult time for South Africa. Not in the recent history of our country have we had this large number of our people die in one incident outside the country," said Zuma.

"Our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues that have lost their loved ones in this heart-breaking tragedy.

"The whole nation shares the pain of the mothers, fathers, daughters and sons who have lost their loved ones. We are all in grief," he said.

President Zuma said he had directed various government departments to ensure that relatives of the deceased were taken to Nigeria to identify their loved one's bodies.

Government wanted to ensure that the bodies were repatriated as soon as possible.

Zuma thanked the families of the deceased and the Nigerian government for their co-operation with the South African government.

He also extended his condolences to Nigeria and all other nations affected by this tragedy.

"May the souls of the departed compatriots rest in peace," he said.

U.S. Commits More Resources to Help West Africa Fight Ebola!

Remarks by the President on the Ebola outbreak at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, as released by the Unites States Department of State (Washinton, DC).

The "daunting task" of containing Ebola can be accomplished, President Obama says. "We know that if we take the proper steps, we can save lives. But we have to act fast."

Speaking at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta September 16, Obama said that responding to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis it has engendered is a top U.S. priority.

To contain and combat the epidemic, the United States is working with the United Nations and other international partners to help Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal.

The U.S. strategy aims to accomplish four goals:

•  Control the epidemic at its source in West Africa.
•  Mitigate related economic, social and political effects in the region.
•  Engage the world community in a coordinated response.
•  Fortify global health security infrastructure in the region and beyond.

The United States is supporting a whole-of-government response to the epidemic, Obama said, noting the nation has committed more than $175 million to date to combat the current Ebola outbreak.

New resources announced by the president September 16 include the following:

• A Joint Force Command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to provide regional command-and-control support to U.S. military activities and coordinate U.S. government and international relief efforts.
• Deployment of 65 U.S. Public Health Service commissioned officers to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced Defense Department hospital to care for health care workers who become ill.
• A community care campaign supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that will provide communities and households with protection kits, appropriate information and training on how to protect themselves and their loved ones.

The United States already has sent more than 100 specialists from multiple U.S. departments and agencies, including the departments of Defense, State and Health and Human Services; the CDC; and USAID.

Since March, the United States has spent more than $100 million to address Ebola, including the purchase of personal protective equipment, mobile labs and relief commodities, and support for community health workers.

USAID also has announced plans to make available up to $75 million in additional funding to increase the number of Ebola treatment units, provide more personal protective equipment, airlift additional medical and emergency supplies, and support other Ebola response activities in collaboration with the United Nations, including the World Health Organization, and international partners.

The United States is "prepared to take leadership on this to provide the kinds of capabilities that only America has," the president said, "and to mobilize the world in ways that only America can do."

Obama said he has requested that Congress authorize an additional $30 million to send more response workers from CDC, as well as lab supplies and equipment. His administration also is seeking an additional $58 million to support the development and manufacturing of Ebola therapeutic and vaccine candidates through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

In August, USAID deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to West Africa to coordinate and prioritize the U.S. government's response to the outbreak. The DART -- comprising staff from USAID, CDC, Defense and the U.S. Forest Service -- coordinates key areas of the response, such as planning, operations and logistics. It will be airlifting 130,000 sets of personal protective equipment to ensure health workers can safely do their jobs and is procuring generators to power Ebola treatment units and other response facilities.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently started clinical trials of an investigational Ebola vaccine and continues to support development of additional Ebola antivirals and therapeutics.

USAID and the State Department are providing up to $10 million to support the deployment of an African Union mission sending more than 100 health care workers to the region. State has encouraged other governments to increase aid, coordinate delivery of critical resources and encourage airlines operating in the region to maintain or reinstate service while ensuring appropriate precautions.

The department also is supporting public education efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea on preventing and treating Ebola. In early September President Obama released a message to the people of West Africa to reinforce the facts and dispel myths surrounding Ebola.

The United States is continuing to work with nations around the world to support the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), launched in February. This five-year effort aims to speed up response to public health emergencies by establishing measurable global health security capacity.

The United States has committed to working with at least 30 partner countries to invest in model systems to advance the agenda, he said. Specifically, CDC and Defense will work with other U.S. agencies and partner countries to establish emergency operations centers, build information systems and strengthen laboratory security to mitigate biological threats and build partner capacity.

Florida man kills sister while attempting ‘Tombstone’ gun stunt at her birthday party!

A Florida man killed his sister, when he unsuccessfully tried to re-enact some gun play from the movie "Tombstone".

Reports says the 50-year-old identified as Eric Stayton  attempted to holster the weapon, when it slipped from his hand, struck the concrete floor, and fired, a single shot struck his sister Chaires in the neck, as she stood next to her daughter in the home’s carport Stayton began twirling his gun in the air, she later died.

In the 1993 classic western, actor Michael Biehn, as Johnny Ringo, elaborately twirls his pistol during a barroom showdown with Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday.

Stayton attempted the same stunt at the party in his home in Chaires, where about a dozen friends and relatives were celebrating the birthdays of his sister, 39-year-old Renee Chaires, and her 23-year-old daughter.

Chaires, a hair stylist who would have turned 40 this week, Stayton has not been charged in the fatal shooting, which remains under investigation.

Obama To Announce Ebola Czar As Businesses, Senators Press for More!

Administrative sources confirmed that President Obama is expected to announce the appointment of a high-level coordinator to manage the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak during his forthcoming visit to Atlanta.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the President is visiting Atlanta, Georgia-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to receive a briefing from officials at the organization.

Obama will also discuss U.S. assistance to fight the Ebola virus and will thank the doctors, scientists and health care workers who have been engaged in the effort to stop its escalating spread. 

A stepped-up administration plan, which has been discussed by officials from across the executive branch for more than a month, received higher level attention this past week as the scope of the outbreak became more widely acknowledged – at least partly in response to pressure from private sector companies engaged in the most-affected countries and from members of Congress.

ArcelorMittal, a multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg - which has profitable iron ore mining operations in Liberia - has been hosting telephone conferences for a number of weeks among dozens of global companies, mostly in mining, on an Ebola response. After internal discussions, the companies widened the dialogue to include health officials, such as World Health Organization Director Margaret Chan.

Last Monday, chief executives from 11 of the companies operating in the three most-affected countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, made an urgent appeal for the international community "to pool its resources and lend support" to fight Ebola.

"Our companies have made long term commitments to these countries and their people and we intend to honour these commitments," the executives said. "Despite the challenging environment, we are continuing where possible with normal operations, with the health and safety of our employees being the absolute priority at all times."

Riva Levinson, whose boutique Washington DC-based firm KRL International serves both government and corporate clients in west Africa, applauded the private sector efforts as "a valuable tool for mobilization of resources". She noted that the corporate consultations started before global health organizations and governments, with few exceptions, recognized the urgency of a large-scale response.

Businesses have been sharing information and pooling assets for the Ebola fight in a creative and coordinated way that other sectors should emulate, she said in an interview.

"Companies are inventorying their assets to deploy on the front line to support humanitarian and healthcare workers on a real-time emergency basis," she said. Their activities include grading roads, providing equipment, including generators, and contributing materials such as chlorine solutions.

"It's not going to turn the tide," Levinson said of the corporate effort, "but it's going to have an impact."

United States envoys in the three most-affected countries are now points of contact for the broader donor and in-country efforts. There are working groups led by company teams at the operational level in each of the countries, and in Liberia that coordination is managed by a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) from USAID.

Senators Call on Administration and Congress to Act

Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, who heads the Foreign Relations Africa Subcommittee, called for the appointment of a coordinator, saying it is "critical" for the U.S. government to have "one leadership point". Coons appealed to the administration and members of Congress "to dramatically increase our support as communities across West Africa struggle to confront and combat Ebola."

Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy also addressed the Senate, decrying "the lack of urgency exhibited by much of the international community" and governments, "including our own." He paid tribute to "courageous public health workers who have risked their lives" and to the Liberian government for its efforts "in the face of woefully inadequate resources."

Leahy, who chairs the subcommittee that oversees appropriations for the State Department and other international activities and is the Senate's most senior member, said large budget cuts at the World Health Organization contributed to the slow response, with "ample blame to go around."

He said Ebola is "a public health issue, a moral issue, and one that should unite us all to do what is necessary to defeat this epidemic."

On the House side of the U.S. Congress a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday by the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations to hear from the National Institutes of Health and other experts.

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Did South Africa really rig Guinea’s elections?!

We know that the South African government takes a huge interest in African affairs. We know that South Africa’s diplomats move in the very highest corridors of continental power, and play a leading role in mediation and peace-building in some of the continent’s most trouble-prone areas. 

We know that South Africa considers itself to be the African superpower – politically, economically, diplomatically – and we know that it feels the weight of expectation that this label brings with it, and the responsibility to act accordingly.

But just how involved are we prepared to get? And what exactly are our motivations? On Friday, the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism published an extraordinary claim on the front page of the Mail & Guardian. 

It comes from a court in New York, where a mining company is fighting to regain lucrative exploration rights that were recently confiscated by Guinea’s new government. Their defence is that this new government had no authority to rescind its rights, because it was fraudulently elected – and that the South African Secret Service helped to rig the vote.

The mining group in question, BSG Resources, has a shady history itself in Guinea. In 2008 it was the beneficiary of an unusually generous deal with Guinea’s government (led then by the decrepit dictator Lassana Conte, who would die shortly afterwards, leaving his country in a dangerous, violent limbo from which it is still recovering).

Even in an industry renowned for corruption and exploitation, this deal was especially toxic. It covered the rich iron ore deposits in the remote but picturesque Simandou Mountains, but BSGR had no previous experience in iron ore. The blocks apportioned to Simandou had been owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, who was none too happy at their sudden appropriation. BSGR’s efforts to develop the blocks were half-hearted at best, their true motive evident when it sold a 50% stake in its Guinean business to another mining giant, Vale, for an astonishing $2.5 billion – a huge sum, very little of which was intended to find its way back into Guinea.

And then, of course, there were allegations of corruption, which are being contested yet again in the court in New York. The new authorities in Guinea – led by President Alpha Conde – have already found that BSRG’s contract was obtained illegally, through bribing officials with bags of cash and diamond-encrusted watches, and has revoked it.

But BSRG are claiming that President Conde should never have come to power in the first place. It has named several well-known South Africans as defence witnesses to prove that, in fact, the 2010 election was fixed with the help of the South African Secret Service and several South African companies. 

These include former President Kgalema Motlanthe; former Cabinet Minister and multi-millionaire Tokyo Sexwale; and former intelligence sector bosses Moe Shaik and Gibson Njenje (good luck getting that lot into a court room). BSRG argues that this was designed to secure access to Guinea’s lucrative mining assets for the companies involved.

What to make of these allegations? Of course, BSRG is hardly an impartial observer. It has lost billions in potential revenue, and is fighting desperately to get it back (or, at the very least, to improve its tarnished reputation). And, as yet, they have offered no evidence to back up their claims.

“Although some aspects of this tale are anchored in reality, amaBhungane has been unable to substantiate the central claim of [South African Secret Service]-sponsored electoral rigging,” concluded Craig McKune and Stefaans Brummer, the authors of the amaBhungane story.

Nonetheless, given South Africa’s track record on the continent, it’s hard to dismiss the allegations entirely.

For one thing, several intelligence sources have told the Daily Maverick that South Africa’s involvement in specific African contexts is much more widespread, and often more direct, than is publicly admitted. 

The lid on this secret world was lifted briefly in March last year, when 14 South African soldiers died in heavy fighting in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. 

Most people didn’t know that South African soldiers were there in the first place; those that did thought they were merely on a training mission. It later emerged that they were actually there to protect President Francois Bozize, playing an active role in the conflict – all without parliamentary approval or oversight.

For another, this is not the first time that South Africa has been accused of acting for its own commercial benefit. In more good work, amaBhungane reported in May that South Africa’s military involvement in the CAR was entwined with a series of ANC-linked deals in that country. 

And in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where South Africa has sent over a thousand soldiers to assist a UN force, President Jacob Zuma’s businessman son Khulubuse Zuma just so happens to own two oil licences worth in the region of R100 billion. 

These, too, are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg – the entwining of commercial and political interests that characterizes domestic politics in South Africa is a model that is being exported on the continent as well.

We don’t know if South African spooks rigged Guinea’s elections in 2010, and we certainly hope they didn’t. But if that court in New York finds that there was some nefarious South African involvement – well, we wouldn’t be all that surprised.

Source: DM