Namibia declares emergency in areas hit by floods
Namibia’s president has declared a state of emergency in areas hit by what he said could be some of the worst floods in recent memory. President Hifikepunye Pohamba told reporters 92 people had drowned since flooding began in early February and 5,032 people had been left homeless. “Crop fields are submerged in water and I send out an urgent appeal to the international community for assistance … as the current flood is worse than a year ago and could be one of the worst in recent memory,” said Pohamba. About 100,000 children have been unable to attend classes after the floods forced 218 schools to close.
Josef F. Gets Life for Incest, Slavery and Murder
A verdict was handed down Thursday in the trial of Josef F., the Austrian man who kept his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar and raped her repeatedly. Josef F. fathered seven children with his daughter over the course of 24 years, including one who died shortly after birth.
Nigerian rebels attack pipelines
Nigerian militants this week attacked an oil pipeline in the oil-producing Niger Delta region and gunmen blew up a pipeline belonging to the American oil giant Chevron, causing them to stop pumping 11,500 barrels of oil. Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of oil, but militants have cut production by around a fifth since 2006. In other news, a victim of a horrific attack in the Niger Delta has described how gunmen raped pregnant women hijacked from two passenger boats. The women were forced to lie down on the ground while the gunmen sang and danced around them, one victim said. It is the first time that a Delta attack like this has been made public.
Uprooted continue to return home in northern Uganda
Northern Ugandans uprooted during two decades of fighting between the Government and a notorious rebel group is continuing to return home, the UN humanitarian arm announced March 17. The clashes between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) drove nearly two million people from their homes, devastating infrastructure and services. Less than one-third of original internally displaced persons (IDPs) are still in camps as of February, marking a nine percent decrease since last November, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Aid partners to assess state of Western Sahara refugees on UN-led visits
Concern over malnutrition among long-term refugees from Western Sahara have sparked two assessment missions to their camps in western Algeria by humanitarian partners, the first of which embarks March 18, the UN refugee agency announced March 17. Staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) will accompany representatives of donor countries and their partners from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on a three-day mission to the camps of Sahrawi people.
TIMOR-LESTE: Abortion laws in spotlight
A call for more lenient abortion legislation in Timor-Leste, a predominantly Catholic country, is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists. Abortion is criminalized under a penal code dating back to the Indonesian occupation of 1975-1999. Fokupers is one of several NGOs pushing for the government to relax the law. The issue was highlighted in Dili, the capital, at the second international Women for Peace Conference from March 4 to 6, where Maria Barreto, program manager for advocacy at Fokupers, told attendees that abortion should be decriminalized in certain situations.
Afghan President kicks off UN-backed polio immunization drive
President Hamid Karzai has kicked off a United Nations-backed polio vaccination drive targeting some 7.7 million children in Afghanistan, one of four countries, along with India, Nigeria and Pakistan, where the disease is still endemic. By administering the vaccine to children at the presidential palace March 15, Mr. Karzai launched the campaign, which is led by the Afghan Ministry of Health and supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
European rights court rules Turkey abused women and girls
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on March 17 that Turkish police had abused two teenage girls suspected of supporting Kurdish separatism and authorities had failed to investigate their complaints properly. Judges found credible the claims that Nazime Ceren Salmanoglu and Fatma Deniz Polattas, who were 16 and 19 at the time, were physically and sexually abused when police arrested them in 1999 during an operation against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), according to a statement from the court. The abuse included sodomy and forced virginity tests, which violate conventions against discrimination, the statement said.
UK ‘lags behind’ in helping poor
The UK is spending proportionally less on its poorest families in its efforts to fight recession than any other rich nation except Russia, the Save the Children charity claims. After comparing G8 countries’ stimulus packages, Save the Children demanded ministers set aside GBP 3 billion for low-income families in this year’s Budget. The call comes as charities mark the 10th anniversary of Labour’s pledge to eradicate child poverty. The Treasury says “decisive action” has helped people hit by the recession.
