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GUARDIAN Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:00:03 GMT
Oxfam says more troops must be deployed to protect vulnerable civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who are being killed, raped and tortured by the Lord's Resistance Army
Video: People in DRC live in fear of the LRA
Oxfam has called for the redeployment of UN troops in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to protect vulnerable civilians from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army, which has killed more than 2,300 people in the region in the last three years.
The UN peacekeeping force in the DRC (Monusco) is the second largest in the world, with more than 17,000 troops across the country. However, only 850 peacekeepers are deployed in the LRA-affected areas, despite vicious attacks on civilians there in the last two years, according to the charity Oxfam in a new report.
"Only 5% of Monusco troops operate in this area," said Olivia Kalis, Oxfam's DRC policy co-ordinator in Kinshasa. "Yet 20% of total displacements in the DRC are due to....
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GUARDIAN Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:08:13 GMT
Ugandan journalist Paul Kiggundu was beaten to death by a gang of motorcycle taxi drivers because he filmed them demolishing the house of another driver, who they considered guilty of murder.
They accused Kiggundu, who worked for a Christian TV station, TOP (Tower of Praise), of spying for the police.
Three days later, on 13 September, another Ugandan journalist, Dickson Ssentongo, was battered to death with metal bars by unknown assailants.
The 29-year-old news anchor with Prime Radio in Luganda, was also involved in local opposition politics.
Source: IFEX
Journalist safety
Uganda
Greenslade on Africa
Press freedom
Roy Greenslade
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GUARDIAN Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:03:53 GMT
Katine farmers meet with sub-county and district officials to discuss the pros and cons of organising themselves into a cooperative
Katine farmers have begun talks on whether they should organise themselves into a cooperative society as a means of maximising marketing opportunities.
At the moment, farmers have organised themselves into an unofficial association to represent their interests – the Katine Joint Farmers Association (KAJOFA).
But, with a new produce store built to increase farmers' collective marketing abilities, the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a development project in Katine, funded by Guardian readers and Barclays, is now exploring with farmers opportunities to turn the group into a recognised body. This could increase the farmers' chances of accelerating development.
Last month, representatives of KAJOFA met with Amref staff, officials from Katine sub-county, Soroti district commercial officers and other development......
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GUARDIAN Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:10:59 GMT
• Museveni says bill is now a 'foreign policy issue'
• HIV positive people faced death penalty for gay sex
Uganda has indicated it will bow to international pressure and amend draconian anti-homosexual legislation that includes the death penalty for HIV-positive people convicted of having gay sex.
Breaking his silence on the controversial bill – which was put forward by a member of the ruling party – Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, said it had become a "foreign policy issue" and needed further consultation before being voted on in parliament.
The proposed law, which has been pushed by local evangelical preachers and vocally supported by senior government officials, also threatens life imprisonment for anyone convicted of gay sex.
While broadly supported domestically, the legislation has caused a storm of protest abroad and consternation from western donors who fund a large chunk of Uganda's budget.
Addressing a party conference, Museveni said numerous western leaders had spoken to him about the bill.
"When I was at the Commonwealth conference, what was [the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper] talking about? The gays. UK prime minister Gordon Brown ... what was he talking about? The gays," said Museveni.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, had also called him to express strong concerns about the proposed law, he said. "It's a foreign policy issue, and we must handle it in a way that does not compromise our principles but also takes into account our foreign policy interests."
Museveni said the proposed law did not necessarily reflect party or government policy and his cabinet would discuss the bill with David Bahati, the MP who introduced it, before it was put to a vote.
Homosexuality is already outlawed in Uganda under colonial-era legislation. Such is the stigma attached to gay people that no public figure has ever come out. But in recent years some religious leaders have been warning that tougher measures are needed to prevent an increase in same-sex relationships.
Accusations that gay Europeans are offering money to "recruit" Ugandan schoolchildren – a claim repeated by Museveni during his party speech on Tuesday – also seem to have raised the level of homophobia in the country.
The final impetus for the proposed legislation came after a conference hosted last year by three controversial US evangelists who claimed that homosexuality was a curable habit and warned of the danger of the international gay "agenda". The evangelists have since, however, criticised the severity of the punishments in the proposed law.
Under Bahati's bill, "serial offenders" would join HIV-positive people and those who have sex with under-18s in facing the death penalty if convicted of gay sex. Life imprisonment would apply to those found guilty even of touching someone from the same sex "with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality".
Members of the public would have to report any homosexual activity to police within 24 hours or face up to three years in jail, a provision the bill's opponents say would lead to a witchhunt.
Ugandans living abroad who broke the law could be extradited and punished, under the draft bill.
Before the legislation was introduced to parliament in September, local gay support organisations, whose members already face harassment, threats and workplace intimidation, have been lobbying the government to amend the country's HIV awareness and prevention programmes, which currently exclude homosexuals. But instead of achieving their aims these gay groups would be banned under the new law.
James Nsaba Buturo, minister of state for ethics and integrity, who is a strong supporter of the bill, said before Museveni's speech that it was likely that the death penalty provisions would be dropped because of the international outcry.
But Frank Mugisha, chair of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a Kampala-based coalition of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex groups, said that even if..
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GUARDIAN Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:48:54 GMT
• Kodjovi Obilale's condition has 'stabilised'
• Goalkeeper still sedated and needing a ventilator to breathe
South African doctors are planning to leave bullet fragments in the stomach of the Togo goalkeeper, Kodjovi "Dodji" Obilale, because they fear they could cause more damage if they tried to remove them.
Obilale, 25, was shot in the lower back on Friday when gunmen attacked the bus carrying Togo's national team to Angola for the Africa Cup of Nations. The bullet fragmented, and some pieces have become lodged in his stomach.
Removing them "sometimes causes more damage than leaving them behind", said the trauma specialist Ken Boffard, who is part of Obilale's medical team at Netcare Milpark hospital in Johannesburg.
Three people were killed and eight injured in the attack.
The Togo squad was arriving in Angola for the tournament when they were ambushed in an attack blamed on militants fighting for the independence of Cabinda, the region cut off from the rest of Angola by a strip of Congo.
Obilale was operated on after being flown from Cabinda to Johannesburg on Saturday, and he has been under sedation since, with a ventilator to help him breathe. Boffard said no more operations are planned.
"I am happy to report that his condition has stabilised. He is in good condition at the moment," Boffard said. "We expect him to stay on the ventilator for the next couple of days and we don't expect his condition to change very much with the next couple of days. Overall, we are happy with his progress."
Boffard said it was too soon to say whether Obilale, who plays for the French fourth-tier club Pontivy, would recover enough to play again, but that doctors were optimistic. He said Obilale was able to move his legs when he was admitted on Saturday.
"He is built like a goalkeeper," Boffard said. "That is very much in his favour. So his condition was reasonable when he got down here."
Efraim Kramer, a Fifa medical officer who has been monitoring Obilale's case, said Obilale's future in football "will have to do with what's in his head or what's in his heart".
Kramer said he was giving the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, and other officials updates on Obilale every few hours.
"An incident like this is a tragic incident and they see it in that light," Kramer said. "And they are obviously concerned about the people that succumbed and their families as well as the patient lying here in intensive care and their families."
Togo
Africa Cup of Nations
Angola
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GUARDIAN Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:58:00 GMT
Uganda news round-up: Opposition parties promise surprise demonstrations after march called off; district administrators 'worst for corruption'; mandatory vocational training in church schools; new brand of female condom launched
Ugandan police have been criticised for heavy-handed tactics in blocking a protest by an opposition coalition this week.
The planned march, organised by the Inter-Party Cooperation, an alliance of the four main political parties, was due to take place on Monday to protest the closure of the CBS radio station and the re-appointment of allegedly discredited top officials at the Electoral Commission. However, a deployment of officers to key locations along the route on Sunday meant the protesters were unable to march and the protest was called off.
The police chief, Kale Kayihura, told reporters that he ordered the deployment of officers on Sunday because he had not been given the required seven days notice that the march was taking place. The opposition claim he had been well informed.
An article posted on the Daily Monitor website today questioned what impact Kayihura's actions could have on future opposition rallies in the run up to 2011 elections. The IPC has promised to organise "surprise" protests in the coming months.
In September, Kampala was rocked by two days of riots when the government banned Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, the king of the Baganda people – Uganda's largest ethnic group – from visiting the capital. More than 20 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police that brought to the capital to a standstill. Hundreds more protesters were believed to have been arrested. The media were censured over coverage of the protests and the CBS radio station was closed by the government for allegedly inciting violence. According to the Monitor, the Uganda president, Yoweri Museveni, said CBS would not re-open until he felt reassured the station would not engage in "subversive broadcasting, sectarianism, and inciting violence".Internal fighting could cost government votes
Government in-fighting could cost the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) votes in next year's elections, a senior official warned this week.
Ofwono Opondo, the deputy spokesman for the NRM, which is holding its national executive committee meeting next week, said the party expected "a major political shift on the ground in our favour" when the country goes to the polls in 2011, but admitted that "our major weakness is internal rivalry. We are likely to have many disputes especially as we head towards 2011, and the challenge is how we shall address them before our delegates' conference".
Disputes seem to centre around internal election rules and personality clashes.
Opondo said the party had gained support in the north of the country and the Teso region, in which Katine sub-county, where the Guardian is tracking development work by the NGO Amref, is found.
Opondo went on to criticise the Inter-Party Cooperation (IPC) alliance of four opposition parties (the Forum for Democratic Change, the Uganda People's Congress, Justice Forum – JEEMA – and the Conservative party), calling it "very disorganised and weak". However, he added that the alliance was being taken "seriously" by the NRM.
Last month, the IPC agreed to field one candidate for the presidential election next year in the hope of ousting President Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. FDC leader Kizza Besigye is being tipped by the NRM as the frontrunner for candidacy.
The IPC, set up in August 2008, is being funded by the Swedish government NGO the Christian Democratic International Centre and is attracting interest from the EU and other European bodies keen to see electoral reform in Uganda.
The Democratic party has so far refused to join the IPC alliance. One member, Evaristo Nyanzi, a minister in Museveni's first government who was later jailed for trying to overthrow the president, has backed his party's decision. In an interview with..
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GUARDIAN Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:43:32 GMT
National Union of Disabled Persons in Uganda distributes information on HIV/Aids prevention to end 'myth' that people with disabilities are not sexually active and are free from infection
People with disabilities in Katine sub-county have been given information materials on HIV/Aids prevention and treatment.
The materials, which are available as audio recordings in local languages and in braille, are being distributed under a pilot scheme in Soroti district, in which Katine is located, by the National Union of Disabled Persons in Uganda (NUDIPU), an umbrella organisation of NGOs focusing on work with Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
The African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), which is implementing a development project in Katine, funded by the Guardian and Barclays, has no specific programmes targeting PWDs.
According to Suleiman Kafero, the NUDIPU's programme assistant on disability and HIV/Aids, most materials being distributed by other development organisations did not cater for disabled people, despite this group being particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and infection.
The NUDIPU has begun distributing information materials in the districts of Soroti, Gulu and Masaka, funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA). In Soroti, materials are being given out in the sub-counties of Katine, Kadungulu, the Eastern division and Soroti Municipality.
Although there are no figures on HIV/Aids prevalence rates among PWDs in Uganda, the NUDIPU said anecdotal evidence suggests that this group are increasingly likely to be sexually exploited, particularly women, making them a high risk group for infection. PWDs also experience stigma and marginalisation when it comes to accessing medical services and education about the virus.
Such is the concern about the magnitude of the problem among this group, the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) has injected in UShs 400m (more than $208,000) to scale up the NUDIPU programme to three more sub-counties in Soroti - Tubur, the Northern division and Kateta.Equal rights
The NUDIPU was formed 22 years ago and represents people with physically, sensory and mental disabilities.
Its aim is to promote equal opportunities and the active participation of PWDs in mainstream society. It campaigns for inclusive legislation at local and national level.
The organisation formed its HIV/Aids committee to push for disability issues to be included in national HIV/Aids programmes. As a result, a Uganda disability fraternity five-year HIV/Aids strategic plan was launched in 2007, with the aim of ensuring universal access to comprehensive and quality services for PWDs in Uganda.
"Our main aim is to avert the myth that people with disabilities are not sexually active, and are, therefore, HIV/Aids free," said Kafero. "Ignorance on factual information has been, and is, a problem affecting PWDs and this is what we are fighting."
Speaking to the Guardian last month after meeting Katine PWDs at the sub-county headquarters, Kafero said NUDIPU recognises the fact that poverty among people with disabilities is one of the major reasons the virus spreads because it makes them highly vulnerable to performing sex for money.
Since the programme started in Soroti, Kafero said 82 PWDs have disclosed that they are HIV-positive. He believes the number could be much higher. After educating PWDs about HIV prevention and care, the NUDIPU will help set up support groups in the area.National concern
About 130,000 new HIV infections are recorded every year in Uganda, a trend that has caused concern among public health experts.
In November last year it emerged that the UAC was to change its national HIV/Aids campaign to make it more hard-hitting to combat rising infection rates. The commission is considering returning to fear-driven campaigns.
Last month, researchers announced that clinical trials of a microbicide vaginal gel that was hoped would offer women protection against the virus had.....
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GUARDIAN Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:05:17 GMT
Alice Oriokot dreams of becoming a nurse. And the Guardian's Christmas 2009 appeal aims to offer her and others a chance to make their hopes a reality
During the two years Alice Oriokot was meant to be studying for her A-levels, she was banished from her boarding school on 10 separate occasions because her father could not pay the fees.
Naturally, the experience was humiliating. Every child is given a three-week grace period at the beginning of the term, when they can attend classes even when their fees have not been paid. After this, the school administrator will begin to chase them, demanding the money, and, if it is not forthcoming, he will send them home.
"It is terrible when you are sent home. You are traumatised," says Josephine Abalo, manager of the Ugandan charity the Mvule Trust, which the Guardian is supporting in its Christmas appeal. "The teacher's salary often depends on the fees that you pay. They say: 'Why are you here? Get out of class!'"
But far worse than the humiliation was the disastrous impact the exclusions had on Alice's academic chances. Every time she found herself on the bus, making the long journey home, she knew the prospect of passing her A-levels in physics, chemistry, biology and agriculture was getting slimmer and slimmer.
Each time she would have to wait two to three weeks at home, in the district of Kaberamaido in Teso, until her father – a low-paid primary school teacher, struggling to bring up 12 children – received his salary. She would copy her friends' notes and try to persuade the teachers to help but soon she began to find it hard to follow the lessons.
From early childhood, Alice has been hoping to train as a nurse and this should have been an eminently achievable ambition. Not only are there plenty of jobs available because hospitals are short-staffed, but she was academically gifted enough to make her way into college. She passed her O-levels with eight credits, a score that none of her seven older brothers and sisters had matched, and even now she laughs with delight at the memory of outranking the boys.
She gained the grades despite the fact that she was sheltering with her parents in a temporary camp for families displaced by the violent insurgency that swept through this part of Uganda six years ago, living in a hut where no one was permitted to light paraffin lamps at night, for fear of attracting the attention of enemy rebels.
Her teachers told her parents that she was talented, and her fellow pupils elected her head girl. For a while her prospects looked promising.
However, poverty intervened. Her final A-level grades were very poor – she failed biology and got only passes for the rest. Her father had hoped she would get a government scholarship to study further, but it was obvious that her results were not good enough. There was no chance to retake the exams, because by that point there were more, younger siblings to educate and her parents said her opportunity was gone.
"I was very disappointed when I saw the results. I knew my future was not going to be OK. I cried," she says, sitting the late afternoon by her mud-walled home, in a distant, rural region of Uganda. The family's hens are pecking at the purplish sorghum crop, laid out to dry on the swept mud yard. Alice's mother is listening, dressed in a washed-thin Unicef T-shirt (many people here wear T-shirts donated by aid agencies, a legacy of the fighting and natural disasters that have plagued the region). She remembers how she quarrelled with her daughter when the results came through, before reflecting that it would have been hard for her to excel, given how frequently she was made to leave class.
Alice, 20, is a good example of the kind of student the Mvule Trust hopes to help with its programme of scholarships: someone who is bright, motivated and ambitious, but who has been unable to fulfill their potential because they are too poor.
She searches in her house (three paces wide) to find her school...
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GUARDIAN Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:50:56 GMT
Twelve members of national side go missing and presumed to be hiding in bid escape authoritarian regime in Asmara
A dozen members of Eritrea's national football squad have disappeared in Kenya after the team was knocked out of a regional tournament.
They are presumed to have joined the tens of thousands of Eritreans who flee their country each year to escape an increasingly paranoid and repressive regime. The disaffection is particularly strong among young people who face decades of open-ended national service once they leave school.
The players absconded after losing their quarter-final match 4-0 to Tanzania in the annual CECAFA tournament for east and central African nations.
Nicholas Musonye, the general secretary of CECAFA, said that a guide assigned to the team reported that 12 members of the 25-strong team had vanished.
"The tour guide waited for them in vain at the airport on Saturday when the team was [due to travel] back home," he told Reuters.
"We think they are hiding somewhere with the intention of going somewhere, or just intending to remain here. We have alerted the authorities to help track them down."
There has been no word from the Eritrean government, which routinely denies that people are fleeing the country. But Musonye said that Tesfaye Gebreyessus, the president of Eritrea's football association, had confirmed the players did not return to Asmara with rest of the delegation.
It is not the first time the country's sporting stars have sought asylum abroad, despite a reported government policy that requires all athletes to post a bond of several thousand US dollars each time they travel overseas.
In 2006, four members of the Red Sea football club disappeared in Nairobi after playing an African Champions League qualifier.
Last year, six runners representing the formidable Eritrean national athletics team were granted political asylum by the Home Office when they slipped away from government minders after competing in the World Cross Country Championships, in Edinburgh.
The sports stars' flight echoes a wider trend that has turned Eritrea, with a population of just 5 million, into the second biggest source of asylum seekers in the world. Since exit visas are extremely difficult to obtain, many young many and women risk their lives by trying to escape on foot through harsh terrain to Sudan and Ethiopia.
President Isaias Afewerki's insular government, which has abolished the free press, political opposition and religious freedom, often punishes the escapees' families with large fines or jail terms.
Eritrea
Xan Rice
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GUARDIAN Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:24:27 GMT
Ezekiel Eituno is one of the most successful farmers in Gweri, a neighbouring sub-county to Katine. He believes Katine farmers could learn a lot from what he's done. But they need to be committed
Work being undertaken by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and Farm-Africa will have limited impact on the Katine community unless residents take the lead and help themselves, a farmer from a neighbouring sub-county has warned.
Ezekiel Eituno, a "model" farmer from Gweri sub-county, north-east Uganda, said solutions to the poverty in Katine do not need to come from the donor community but can come from within. He said donor support should enhance the efforts already being made by residents. Model farmers are those who are deemed successful in their enterprises. They promote good practices to their communities and use their farms for demonstrations.
"Amref will not put money in your pockets. If you are not careful you might remain poorer than before the coming of Amref," Eituno told leaders of Katine's 18 farmer groups during a recent visit to his farm. The visit was organised by Amref under the livelihoods component. Amref hopes the visit will inspire Katine's farmers to improve their living conditions.
According to Eituno, even if the Katine project gave residents more support, without them working for themselves little would be achieved.
He said he made good use of the information given to him through the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), which seeks to inform farmers about new varieties and ideas, offered him training. "There is no magic. All I do is to implement whatever knowledge I receive from NAADS," he said. As a fellow farmer who knows the sort of hardship endured by farmers in the Teso region over the past two decades, through war and cattle raids, Eituno implored Katine farmers to take advantage of what Amref was doing to help develop themselves.
He said after war had destroyed Teso's economic fabric, the only hope farmers are left with is improving farming techniques and diversifying, such as investigating citrus farming because the fruits are more durable.
Eituno is one of the most successful farmers in Gweri sub-county. He has successfully started citrus growing, poultry, goat rearing and fishing. People from around Uganda, including the president, Yoweri Museveni, and as far as Kenya and Ethiopia, have travelled to his farm to view his work. He has been given a "walking tractor" from the president.
But Eituno says the only secret to his success has been commitment.Lessons learned
Having finished his education after primary school, Eituno said he realised that it was only through improved agriculture that he would be able to change his life.
Initially residents considered his efforts crazy, questioning his sanity when he started planting citrus fruit trees on his 3-acre land. Now nearly everyone in the area has planted them.
From his 400 citrus trees, Eituno is able to earn approximately UShs 10m (around $5,340) a year and UShs 9m from poultry in six months. His daily earnings from selling eggs is about UShs 50,000. Eituno spends about UShs 20,000 to feed the 350 hens a day. From his earnings he is able to send his children to good boarding schools, build decent accommodation and help his brother pay university fees.
Eituno says he is doing as well as a government worker, if not better. "When civil servants are fuelling their cars, I also fuel my motorcycle. When they take their children to good schools, I also take mine. I move with high profile people in this country and beyond - just through my work," he told the farmers.
Eituno is chairman of the Dokolo Gweri Farmers' Initiative (DGFI), which was formed in 2001 with 35 members (10 women and 25 men), when the government introduced the NAADS programme. The group focuses on citrus growing, poultry, goat rearing and fishing.
"We are united and whenever we have training, we come as a group, after which everyone goes back..
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GUARDIAN Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:52:56 GMT
Uganda is on course to become one of the top 50 oil producers in the world. But will the proceeds change the lives of the country's poorest?
When Martin Eceku, 62, from Katine, in north-east Uganda, found out that oil had been discovered on the country's western border, he says the find could reduce transport costs in the region. And if jobs are created in the oil industry, perhaps children from the sub-county could head west for work. He recalls the period of Kenya's post-election violence in early 2008, when fares for the 30-km journey from the health centre in Katine to the nearest town of Soroti town shot up from UShs 2,000 to UShs 10,000.
Eceku, who suffers chronic chest pains, has not made the connection between oil, government revenues and how it has the potential to improve his life, and that of the poor service delivery in much of rural Uganda. This financial year, Katine's budget for developmental activities works out to be around $2.30 for each of the estimated 30,000 residents. The main Tiriri health centre is under-staffed and often suffers shortages of essential medicines.
But it's a connection that is being made many Ugandans.
Economically, these are interesting times for the 30 million people living in Uganda.
In October 2006, Uganda confirmed it had struck oil, after more than 80 yeas of official suspicion.
The president, Yoweri Museveni, who once described himself as "not a very religious person", held a national prayer ceremony where he thanked God "for having created for us a rift valley 25 million years ago", and the successive layers of vegetation that had turned into good quality petroleum. The president also thanked God for giving "us the wisdom and foresight to develop the capacity to discover this oil".
Three years later, on October 9, as Uganda marked 47 years of independence from Britain, Museveni's national address was less about God and more about his certainty about the future.
"No one, in Uganda or internationally, can now doubt the country's steady and deliberate path to a middle-income country status in the near future," he said in Kampala. "This is more so with the reasonable discoveries of oil, which, without any doubt, will accelerate our progression to middle-income country status… With the recent discoveries of oil in western Uganda, the country's prospects for domestic revenue and self-reliance in financing public investments and programmes are much brighter today than any other time in the past."
Museveni's buoyancy is well-founded. Exploration companies have confirmed hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in the Albertine Graben region – some 23,000sq km along Uganda's border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Officials from Tullow Oil, the most dominant of four companies with exploration licenses, recently revealed that their find alone – 800 million barrels – could yield more than 100,000 barrels of oil per day for anywhere between 15 to 30 years. Given that exploration has so far covered only a third of the Albertine Graben area, a senior government geologist recently told the government-owned New Vision newspaper that Uganda's extractable deposits should be in excess of 2 billion barrels.
Uganda currently needs only 11,000 barrels of oil per day, which means there would be a lot of potential to export.
Tullow officials estimate that at present prices, Uganda's oil would be worth some $2bn per year, which amounts to around two-thirds of the country's budget for the current financial year.
And with the Italian oil Eni announcing last week that it is buying a stake in two exploration blocks in the country, predictions are now that Uganda could soon become one of the top 50 oil producers in the world.Complex journey
Since 2006, Museveni has said that any money from oil, when production eventually starts, will be used to fund government programmes, like energy and transport infrastructure. He repeated this message in October.
But the journey from the....
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GUARDIAN Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:57:42 GMT
Development agencies cannot hope to bring about lasting change in the communities in which they work. They can only provide short-term relief, argues Karen Treasure
Boreholes and basic health or education services do not and cannot represent "development" even in the most expanded interpretation of what development is. They are means to make survival easier for people whose very existence is threatened by such shortages, not necessarily the building blocks of a more advanced society. In which case such services ought, arguably, to be more properly referred to as relief aid or assistance.
But the differences between relief and development become difficult in practice. The fact that most projects are now called development has an historical context.
Emphasis on relief, that is relieving the suffering of those in dire hardship, is the essence of humanitarianism. But in relieving the suffering of those in camps for refugees and displaced persons around the Great Lakes region, prompted by genocide in Rwanda in 1994, it was noted that camps were becoming a place for warlord factions to rehabilitate and regroup, therefore prolonging their violence and ultimately working against humanitarian objectives.
In other contexts, it was noted that in areas where hardship was acute, relief agencies would first move in to provide for survival and once suffering had been relieved to a certain extent, another set of agencies, those concerned with development, would arrive to try to organise a better functioning society. In the changeover between these different sets of agencies, there was an exodus of local knowledge. Development agencies had to remake contacts and build a new rapport with local people, making operations highly inefficient.
The line between relief and development is, at best, extremely blurred, and of course development is inconceivable if people are struggling to survive. But, in practice, this line is drawn with little relation to the communities where projects are enacted, being more relative to the demands for relief elsewhere and, therefore, the extent to which a particular community can be judged to be most in need of assistance.
This relief-development continuum is well known. It indicates that much relief aid can be developmental and vice-versa, that development aid often necessarily begins with relief. The need to do something overrides the need for accuracy in terminology, in this case creating a situation in which only those agencies that provide emergency rations during disasters are referred to as relief agencies, and the standard catch-all title for all other agencies and projects in impoverished communities has become development agencies. But this means that many development projects are in many ways condemned to failure because no matter how successful they are at providing essential services for survival they are, in many cases, inevitably going to fail at bringing about tangible development outcomes.
Moreover, development cannot wholly be dependent on the conditions within communities. It is also inherently linked to stability and some form of good governance at state level.
Agencies providing services in communities are not external to processes that shape global political economy and, therefore, the conditions of statehood in which communities exist. If it is accepted that development is inherently linked to these dynamics, then a raft of other questions are raised about interventions that aim to provide a means for basic survival in communities. What is the purpose of a state if it is not to guarantee these basic rights for its citizens? What is the meaning of political engagement in communities where demands for improved services need to be made to temporary organisations or stakeholders, which are ultimately difficult to hold to account? Is the provision of basic services by external organisations, while increasing the possibilities for survival within the community, actually working against....
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GUARDIAN Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:05:40 GMT
African version of Spitting Image has delighted big audiences by ridiculing corrupt politicians
A rapping president describes himself as "a real bad dude"; a prime minister and vice-president fight over lavatories; and a set of parliamentarians suffer from a brain disease called "corruptophaelia".
Welcome to Kenya, as seen and portrayed by Africa's version of Spitting Image, a daring puppet satire that is steadily pushing the boundaries of free expression and outraging the Nairobi elite. The XYZ Show, now preparing for its second series, proved a huge hit when it was launched in May. Its well-aimed barbs delighted a devoted and growing audience, while scandalising the politicians who are the show's main target.
One cabinet minister denounced the programme as "weird", while another complained that villagers were mistaking the puppets for the real-life equivalents. But to the relief of viewers, the government decided not to order it off the air, even after a clip entitled "What if Kenya was perfect?", which depicted President Mwai Kibaki and the prime minister, Raila Odinga, in jail in The Hague for crimes committed during last year's election violence.
"As soon as that episode ended, my friends were calling me to see if I'd been arrested," said the creator of The XYZ Show, Godfrey "Gado" Mwampembwa, the best-known newspaper cartoonist in east Africa.
Gado has been working on the idea since 2002, when he visited the set of Les Guignols, the cult French puppet show. Given the Kenyan public's obsession with politics and the local history of comedy, he believed that there was a ready audience for the continent's first televised puppet satire.
Initially, although the Kenyan media is among the freest in Africa – Gado's biting cartoons in the Daily Nation newspaper are proof of that – major television stations and corporate sponsors judged that lampooning the country's leaders before a potential audience of millions was a step too far.
Undeterred, Gado sent a sculptor to France for a month to learn how to make puppets – the sculptor returned home with a lifesize latex Kibaki – and produced a pilot episode with financial help from a few western donor organisations.
Citizen Television, a popular private station, eventually agreed to broadcast the show on a late night Sunday slot and to sign away editorial control to Gado. One of the first episodes satirised a sex boycott by MPs' wives angry at their husbands' refusal to work together in the coalition government. "We had people calling the station straight away to say it was taboo to talk about politicians having sex," said Wachira Waruru, managing director of Citizen Television. "Others said we were disrespecting their leaders by making them say stupid things."
Other viewers complained that the programme was too timid. With politicians providing no shortage of source material, Gado's all-Kenyan production built more puppets and took more risks with the content. Odinga's outburst over the lack of a red carpet and VIP lavatories at an official function inspired the lavatory fight episode.
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, notorious for suing local newspapers for defamation, was mocked for describing a massive hole in the budget as a typing error. A doctor explained the MPs' corruption disease by dissecting the insect-ridden brain of former president Daniel arap Moi – who might well have locked Gado up in his torture chambers over the episode were he still in power. Even Kibaki's wife, Lucy, famous for storming a newspaper office after midnight over a story that upset her, was seen as fair game.
It did not take long for the political class to counter-attack. Public services minister Dalmas Otieno moaned in a press conference that the Kibaki puppet had had its nose twisted by one of the other characters. Aides to Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka complained to Citizen about their boss being shown "giggling like a schoolgirl" and questioned if the show was politically........
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GUARDIAN Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:45:18 GMT
News round-up: Famine early warning system predicts drop in the number of Ugandans facing extreme hunger over next six months; Museveni seeks greater links with Egypt; calls for more action against pneumonia
The US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) has predicted that the number of Ugandans facing extreme hunger will fall over the next six months, from 2.11 million to 1.38 million.
As the second season harvests begin in Uganda, the network reported this week that food security would improve in all parts of the country between October and March next year, including the northern and eastern regions, where Katine sub-county is located. The network stated that improved harvests would allow "the highly food insecure population in these regions to move to moderate food insecurity levels".
However, the network warned that the continued dry conditions in the Karamoja region, were "expected to limit livestock access to pastures and water, reducing livestock production and forcing pastoralists and agropastoralists to migrate westward to dry season grazing areas earlier than normal".
In July 2009, the Ugandan government acknowledged that food shortages in the country had reached famine levels, with Soroti, the district in which Katine sub-county is found, being among the regions identified.
Museveni calls for end to Africa protectionism
Uganda president Yoweri Museveni has called on world leaders to work together to end protectionism and promote industrial growth in Africa.
At the two-day China-Africa summit, being held in Egypt, Museveni praised China for opening up its market for African goods and trade, reports New Vision.
"Africa is the land of ancient civilization and Egypt is the cradle of civilisation of mankind. However, for the last 500 years we have lagged behind in social economic development," he told the meeting.
He said while Europe experienced industrial revolution, Africa, including Uganda, "remained in the pre-industrial times". "We must work together to end protectionism."
Museveni also held talks with Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak about cooperation in tourism, agricultural processing, and developing Uganda's infrastructure, including roads and railways, and its energy sector.
China has pledged US$10bn in low-interest loans to African countries over the next three years to strengthen the country's ties with the continent. China's president, Wen Jiabao, has shrugged off suggestions of neocolonialism in its dealings with the continent.
Child deaths from pneumonia
Around 27,000 children in Uganda die every year from pneumonia, the Uganda Paediatric Association (UPA) has claimed.
To mark World Pneumonia Day, last week, the UPA blamed the high number on the misdiagnosed by parents and care-givers, or because anti-malaria drugs were used in the initial treatment.
According to a report in New Vision, only one in five care-givers can recognise the signs of pneumonia and only about half of infected children receive appropriate medical care.
"Pneumonia contributes to 60% of the in-patient admissions in any hospital in Uganda," said Sabrina Bakeera-Kitaka, president of the UPA.
According to Unicef, pneumonia kills 4,000 children a day, more than the combined number of deaths from HIV/Aids, malaria and measles.
Pneumonia, which is a severe inflammation of the lungs caused by a bacterial infection, can be treated with antibiotics that cost less than $1 yet the disease has not been a priority for policy makers or donors.
Fifty organisations from across the world have joined the Global Coalition Against Pneumonia to commemorate World Pneumonia Day.
The coalition, which includes the Antibiotic Consensus Society of Uganda, Pneumonia Advocacy and Working Group of Uganda and the UPA, was established in April with the intention of raising awareness of pneumonia as a public health issue.
Poor facilities for the deaf
Limited access to education and support is hindering the achievements of the 1.8..
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GUARDIAN Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:26:00 GMT
Air Zimbabwe airliner hit animal as it taxied at Harare International airport
It has to be one of the less likely hazards in aviation – a plane was forced to make an emergency stop in Zimbabwe after hitting a warthog on the runway.
The Air Zimbabwe airliner veered off the runway at Harare International airport yesterday after colliding with the animal, a commonly-found wild pig with protruding tusks.
"Unfortunately, our plane, which was going to Bulawayo, hit a warthog on the runway and was forced to make an emergency brakes stop," Peter Chikumba, the chief executive of Air Zimbabwe, was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association.
"The plane had 34 passengers ... fortunately they are all safe, and no one was injured."
The Chinese-made MA 60 aircraft hit the warthog while taxiing along the runway minutes after the departure of Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of Congo leader who was in Harare for talks with Zimbabwe's unity government.
A passenger on board the 5.15pm flight said the plane skidded off the runway after hitting the warthog.
"The passengers were all evacuated, but some of us are scared and traumatised over the whole incident," the passenger said. "The plane was damaged as it skidded off the runway."
Air Zimbabwe said it had an "enviable safety record".
Zimbabwe
Air transport
David Smith
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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www.thenational.ae Mon, 20 Jul 2009
Handing the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, in Sharm el Sheikh last Friday was like crowning the Libyan leader, Col Muammar al Qaddafi, “king of the kings of Africa”, commented Fahmy Huweidi in the Moroccan daily al Masae.
“If NAM has become an archaeological specimen that plays no role in current events, the African kings are not much different,” the writer said. “The former, if you will, is just political folklore, and the latter more of a popular joke.”
For his part, Shamlan Youssef al Issi wrote in the Emirati daily Al Ittihad that the NAM summit focused excessively on the multiple threats that globalisation poses to developing countries, which is rather odd considering that NAM members are caught in the net of global affairs.
The truth that NAM still denies is that the interests of most Third World countries revolve around the American orbit: they rely on the US in matters of economic, logistical and humanitarian aid, and, more critically, American military assistance and protection.
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NEWS SUMMARY
Uganda frees five bomb suspects
Kenya pipeline fire 'kills 100'
Rwanda hopes to boost French ties
Kenya acts against the unkindest cut
Malawi 'family cabinet' attacked
Archbishop seeks Mugabe meeting
Activist dies in DR Congo unrest
Rwanda terror trial to go ahead
US envoy: Cancer 'killing Mugabe'
AUDIO: Will Zimbabwe MPs get circumcised?
Uganda bans 'regime change' rally
Zimbabwe MPs shun circumcision call
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