admin February 25th, 2012
Across Africa there are a number of small wars going on that do not even get the attention (and that belatedly) of Somalia – ‘honoured’ this week by a one-day international conference in London with David Cameron and Hillary Clinton in attendance.
Just one of these is the ongoing struggle in South Kordofan between the Sudanese government and largely Nubian rebels – the latter allegedly backed by the black Christian government of South Sudan.
Continue Reading »
Tags: David Cameron, Famine, Hillary Clinton, Somalia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria
admin February 21st, 2012
It’s a while since we have talked about our progress on this blog. But as part of preparing our Annual Report, we’ve been working out how many people have been helped by African-made goods sourced through Advance Aid. Through the emergency relief goods deployed to Dadaab camp in 2011 – emergency kits for World Vision International (WVI) and jerry cans for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) – Advance Aid assisted an estimated 29,400 people.
Kits for distribution at Dadaab
And with the goods already pre-positioned in Nairobi and other points around Kenya we have provided the means to assist a further 85,500 people in 2012. And as 2012 has only just begun, these numbers can only rise as additional orders are gained.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Catholic Relief Services, Dadaab, emergency kits, jerry cans, Kenya, Local manufacturing, Nairobi, natural disasters, tarpaulins, World Vision
admin February 18th, 2012
As if East Africa didn’t have enough to worry about, unrecognised states that have themselves half broken away from failing states are now falling victim to internal squabbling and threats of secession.
So Reuters is reporting that the breakaway territory of Somaliland is battling its own secessionists who are, in effect, threatening to break away from a breakaway. Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 but it is a sign of the weakness of the government in Mogadishu that this state of affairs – an independence declaration within the boundaries of a recognized state – has been allowed to go unchallenged for more than 20 years.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Baroness Amos, OCHA, Puntland, Somalia, Somaliland
admin February 17th, 2012
Just over a year ago the whole world was fearful of war, death and displacement in Sudan. The referendum in early January had gone off remarkably smoothly and the South was set to secede, but still there was fear of war at any time between January and July – when South Sudan was due to become Africa’s newest state.
All of that went off pretty smoothly, with limited disruption. The world breathed a sigh of relief. But now the border tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, not to mention the troubled question of oil, has seen war break out, with heavy fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states that has driven more than 130,000 Sudanese refugees into Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Continue Reading »
Tags: Blue Nile, Ethiopia, Famine, Sahel, Somalia, South Kordofan, South Sudan, Sudan, UN, UNHCR
