U.S. To Consider Purchasing Some Food Aid Locally, Acting USAID Head Says At World Food Summit

The U.S. is interested in potentially using more locally-produced food aid rather than U.S. grown food as a way to expand investment in agricultural development in the developing world, said Alonzo Fulgham, acting head USAID, "on the sidelines of a World Food Summit in Rome" on Tuesday, Reuters reports. "The United States is the largest food donor in the world but Washington has been criticized by non-governmental organizations for shipping too much U.S.-grown food to hunger-stricken areas," the news service writes.

According to Fulgham, "Our country is looking at the policy and identifying where we should be buying food locally to increase capacity. … That is all part of our new strategy and the new administration is looking very strongly at it but like all rules ... it has to be negotiated and discussed in Congress."

When discussing the G8’s $22 billion three-year agriculture initiative, "Fulgham reiterated Washington's position that this money would best be channeled through a fund administered by the World Bank, whose head is normally appointed by the United States" (Flynn, 11/17).

At the summit on Monday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) and the World Food Program (WFP) launched "a food-security strategy to help developing nations address food insecurity by investing in agriculture and safety nets, to address hunger exacerbated by the food and financial crises and climate change," BusinessMirrorreports (Abano, 11/17).

According to an FAO statement, "The agencies will address overlaps, find additional synergies … This builds on a portfolio of 400 activities involving collaboration in more than 70 countries. All areas of work are being addressed. In the administrative area, collaboration is aimed at achieving cost reduction, efficiency savings, streamlined business processes and knowledge sharing. Joint tendering and the piloting of a common procurement unit starting in January 2010 are a few examples" (11/16).

Summit Fails To Deal With Large Agri-Business Market Dominance, U.N. Official Says

"In a speech to the summit released on Tuesday before delivery," U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter said delegates had not done enough to address large agri-business corporations' food market dominance, according to a second Reuters article.

De Schutter "said private agri-business corporations operated 'without any sort of control and with often extremely high levels of concentration that represent a serious market failure.'" He noted that the summit declaration is "silent about the right of agricultural workers to a living wage." De Schutter "also said the summit declaration was weak on the production and use of biofuels and on commodity market speculation, despite the impact of both on prices."

At a recent U.N. forum, food and agriculture businesses "said they were already investing millions of dollars in sustainable farm development to secure reliable supplies, cut costs and boost positions on new markets" (Aloisi, 11/17). During his speech, De Schutter noted that failure to address "what he saw as the key factors behind price spikes in 2008" would result in a "new food price crisis," another Reuters articles reports. In an interview, he said, "There are indications already, because oil prices are going up and they are very closely linked to agricultural commodities prices. As soon as a big producer will be in difficulty ... speculation will set in" (Aloisi [2], 11/17).

IPS Examines Farmers' Forum

Though "farmers are not part of the official delegations" at the world food summit, "they came anyhow to express their views, since, they say, it is their communities that are most impacted by the food crisis," Inter Press Service Europe writes in an article examining farmers' perspective on food security.

"Small-scale producers from the Amazonian rainforest, from Africa, the Pacific islands and the Himalayas gathered in Rome for the Peoples' Food Sovereignty Forum (Nov. 13-17), held in parallel to the FAO meetings, to discuss the serious effects of the crisis in their communities." According to the forum organizers, there are more than 1.5 billion small food producers in the world and they "produce more than 75 percent of the world's food needs through peasant agriculture and small scale livestock production, and with artisanal fishing" (Zaccaro, 11/18).

News Outlets Examine Summit Outcome

The Financial Times reports: "The latest in a series of fairly fruitless international gatherings ends on Wednesday in Rome, as the United Nations food security summit draws to a halt amid a plethora of platitudes about feeding the poor." According to the newspaper, "The broad approach of the summit is right to recognise that achieving a safe, reliable, affordable supply of food is a multi-faceted project: technology, trade, markets and aid all need to be addressed. But translating this into practical action has proved difficult – not least because agriculture, with its concentrated groups of farmers and agribusinesses and diffuse groups of consumers, has proved peculiarly susceptible to producer group lobbying." The article looks at some of the reasons why it is challenging to address hunger around the world (Beattie, 11/17).

Incidents involving some world leaders "bolstered criticism" that this week's summit "is long on rhetoric and extravagance and short on solutions for the world's 1 billion hungry," the Associated Press reports in an article examining why some view the meeting as a failure. The article discusses the actions of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who has been "blamed for plunging his people into starvation" (David/D’Emilio, 11/17).

At the summit on Tuesday, Mugabe "defended his controversial decade-long land reform program as a matter of 'equity and justice' and blamed the country's dramatic economic collapse in recent years on what he described as 'neocolonialist enemies' in the West who have imposed sanctions," VOA News reports (Zulu, 11/17). Mugabe – who "is banned from visiting the European Union except under special circumstances, such as United Nations conferences" – called for "the West lift the 'illegal and inhuman sanctions' imposed on him and his government," the Telegraph writes (Squires, 11/17).

According to an article in GlobalPost examining Mugabe's appearance at the food summit, "Zimbabweans – black and white alike – see the irony of Mugabe grasping at the chance to attend an international conference where the theme is food security. Mugabe's policies have turned Zimbabwe from a nation with bountiful harvests to a country perennially d

Kenya: Toxic Maize Pits Farmers Against WFP

Daniel Nyassy

12 October 2009

http://allafrica.com/stories/200910121382.html

Nairobi — About 238 bags of highly toxic maize have disappeared from stores at the Bura Irrigation and Settlement Scheme in a case that is pitting the WFP against farmers in the region.

Fears abound that the maize may have been stolen and found its way into the market.

But the circumstances under which the consignment disappeared from the National Irrigation Board (NIB) godown at Bura are puzzling, and so are the stunning tales from the farmers.

The aflatoxin levels in the missing maize are quite high, and is a real threat to human life. The dangerous maize is said to be on sale in parts of Garissa and Mwingi towns.

Our two days camping at Bura over the weekend revealed that the issue has put World Food Programme (WFP) at the centre of the saga with farmers accusing the international organization of an underhand deal to deny them cash.

The manager, Bura Irrigation and Settlement Scheme (BISS) Mr Ben Masawe, declined to comment on the issue, terming it as "very sensitive".

"Our job was to facilitate the farmers with the land and how to take care of the crop. After harvesting, we had nothing to do with it. Whether the maize was toxic or where they sold it, it's not our problem," he said and referred Nation to the District Commissioner Mr Reuben Loyotanan and the Bura Farmers Cooperative Society (BFCS) chairlady Ms Rose Atieno Ochieng.

The matter now had been handed over to the police after the blame game went on for three months with numerous meetings between stakeholders bearing no fruit. Meanwhile, the toxic maize continues to pose great threat to human life.

The farmers on the other hand do not believe the maize is toxic and that most think that it was WFP's ploy to deny them income.

A letter from the Bura District Public Health Officer, Mr Elvis Dhadho, to the DC dated October 2, 2009 instructs the DCs office to investigate the matter urgently.

Titled: "Disappearance of seized white grain whole maize, unweighed 238 bags" the letter urged the DC to carry out "full investigation of the matter which is by law a contravention under Section 30 (10) of The Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act, Cap 254 Laws of Kenya".

Mr Dhadho says the condemned maize stock had been seized by his office after WFP declared it highly toxic and unfit for human consumption.

"The stock was officially seized by my officers after analysis report from WFP indicated high levels of aflatoxin in 975 bags of 50kgs which were in the process of being purchased by WFP from the Bura Farmers Cooperative Society".

The officer added that a series of consultative meetings and joint collaboration interventions between the DC's office, NIB manager, WFP representatives, Equity Bank (which gave a loan to the farmers to grow the disputed maize), public health officers and cooperative representatives in the month of September had failed to resolve the matter.

According to Mr Dhadho, WFP made their report vide a letter dated September 23, 2009 declaring the maize unsafe.

According to WFP's report, samples of the maize were tested in Europe where it was found to have unacceptable levels of aflatoxin.

It says only 10 parts per billion units is the globally acceptable level of aflatoxin. However, the Government accepts upto 20 parts per billion or higher for livestock.

But the Bura maize was found to contain between 890 and 3,800 parts per billion making it extremely dangerous for human and even livestock consumption.

The DC, like the irrigation scheme manager Mr Masawe, wants his office left out of the saga saying it had nothing to do with the business between WFP and the farmers.

"We were not involved from the beginning. It was a project between the irrigation scheme, farmers and WFP. We can't be blamed for the disappearance of the maize which was kept by the farmers and WFP," he said.

He said what he knew was that WFP wanted to buy 975 bags from the farmers and actually bought the first consignment of 500 bags.

"When the maize tested unfit, WFP went ahead to compensate the farmers. They even brought 1,000 bags of maize which they bought from elsewhere in order to give to the farmers as compensation," he said.

The 90 farmers who claim they lost more than Sh12 million in the deal with WFP vehemently dispute the aflatoxin theory of the public health officer and the international organization and dismiss the compensation story.

The Treasurer of the cooperative Mzee Magiri Manene says, "This whole issue is a rip-off. We were selling our maize to local market before at Sh2,000 per bag. We had sold 3,000 bags to Mwingi in the previous harvest before WFP came in".

He said WFP convinced them that they would buy their crop at a better price of Sh 2,600 per bag "and we accepted".

Said Mzee Manene, "WFP came and supervised the growing of the disputed crop all the way to harvesting and storage. All along they confirmed that our maize was perfect.

"They stored it under their supervision in the godown and used their preservative chemicals. Later they even put it in WFP branded bags. How did the maize suddenly turn toxic?"

He said sometime after WFP took the samples away, they sent word that they would come back and buy more maize from the farmers.

"I went out of my way to get 270 extra bags when they told us they would arrive on September 19 to buy more maize," he said adding that the farmers from nine villages of the scheme were shocked beyond explanation when, upon arrival, WFP declared their maize contaminated and unfit.

"What surprised us even more is that WFP brought 1,000 bags of worse maize claiming they were compensating us. This maize is old and mixed with other grains and can not even be sold to consumers," he said.

The chairperson Ms Rose Atieno says, "If they wanted to compensate us, why didn't they give us money? Why give us maize? We agreed they would pay us money for our maize, not maize", she said.

Farmers have cried foul, claiming that thereis more than meets the eye in the whole saga. She said they are unable to service a Sh 12 million loan from Equity Bank which they hoped to pay back after the WFP deal.

Of the 238 bags of disappeared maize, Ms Atieno said farmers went to the cooperative officials and demanded it back following the circus.

"The farmers took their maize away and sold it or consumed it in their homes," she said and asked why no one died from eating this maize if indeed it was toxic.

The farmers want WFP and the ministry of Public health to come clear on the matter and explain to the nation what the truth is.

Puzzle of 238 bags of toxic maize missing from stores

DAILY NATION

By GATONYE GATHURA and DANIEL NYASSYPosted Monday, October 12 2009 at 22:00

Maize suspected to be contaminated with aflatoxins could be circulating in parts of Garissa and Mwingi districts, according to relief aid agencies.

The approximately 238 bags of highly toxic maize are said to have disappeared from stores at the Bura Irrigation and Settlement Scheme.

Another larger consignment from the Bura scheme has been tested and found to contain extremely high levels of aflatoxins that could endanger health.

According to a source within the aid agencies, but who wished to remain anonymous, in September the World Food Programme (WFP) had applied to buy 48 metric tonnes of maize from a group of farmers at the irrigation scheme.

According to the sale agreement, WFP would only buy the maize after testing it for contamination. Samples from 975 bags were sent for lab analysis both in Mombasa and The Netherlands.

The tests, sources say, found the maize to be highly contaminated with aflatoxins, many times over what is considered safe for both humans and livestock.

The maize was found to contain toxin levels of between 890 and 3,800 parts per billion. WFP accepts maize that has no more than 10 parts of aflatoxin per billion while the Kenya government accepts no more than 20 parts per billion.

WFP is said to have offered to replace the 975 bags the Bura farmers had collected and recommended that the bad maize be destroyed. It has since been stored by ministry of Public Health and Sanitation.

Mr Gitonga Mugambi, a chief irrigation officer with the National Irrigation Board, yesterday said the board was doing its own tests and had taken samples to the Kenya Bureau of Standards while the ministry of Public Health had taken samples to the Government Chemist for analysis.

“If the maize is confirmed to be contaminated the necessary steps will be taken to destroy the consignment,” he said.

However, the farmers had also collected another 238 bags which the WFP could not consider buying because they came too late when the fate of the other bags had been decided.

Because this maize had been grown, harvested, dried and stored under similar conditions with the earlier batch, it was also suspected to be contaminated.

It is these 238 bags aid agencies fear have been released to farmers and sold to traders in Garissa and Mwingi.

However, Mr Mugambi says he is not aware of this development, recommending that the only people who can trace the suspect maize are public health officials.

High levels of aflatoxins can trigger a disease outbreak as happened in 2004 and 2005, when 395 cases of severe aflatoxin poisoning were reported, resulting in 157 deaths in Makueni.

The red flag over contaminated maize in the area was raised last October by researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Research shows most residents are exposed to chronic low-level aflatoxins, which increase risks of liver cancer, impaired immune function and malnutrition. Acute high-level exposure, which is less common, causes early symptoms of diminished appetite, malaise, and low fever. Later symptoms, including vomiting, abdominal pain, and hepatitis, signal potentially fatal liver failure.

Writing in the East African Medical Journal, the researchers concluded that the cause of high levels of aflatoxin in maize in Makueni and neighbouring districts was poor handling during harvesting, drying and storage of local produce.

Almost 80 per cent of maize in the area, the researchers said, is stored in plastic bags, which are known to retain moisture and promote aflatoxin contamination.

Spreading maize on the ground to dry increases its contact with the soil, where the aflatoxin-producing fungus resides.

Our two-day investigations in Bura over the weekend revealed that farmers do not believe the maize is toxic and are accusing WFP of an underhand deal to deny them cash for their produce.

The manager of Bura Irrigation and Settlement Scheme, Mr Ben Masawe, declined to comment on the issue, terming it as “very sensitive”. The matter has been handed over to the police after the blame game went on for three months with numerous meetings bearing no fruit.

But the 90 farmers say they lost more than Sh12 million in the deal with WFP.

Mzee Magiri Manene, the treasurer of the farmers’ cooperative, said they were selling their maize to the local market at Sh2,000 per bag when WFP convinced them that it would buy their crop at a better price of Sh2,600 per bag.

“WFP supervised the growing of the crop all the way to harvesting and storage. All along they confirmed that our maize was perfect.

“We stored it under their supervision in the godown and used their preservative chemicals. Later they even put it in WFP branded bags. How did the maize suddenly turn toxic?” he posed.

“What surprised us even more is that WFP brought 1,000 bags of worse maize claiming they were compensating us. This maize is old and mixed with other grains and cannot even be sold.”

Service loan

The chairperson Ms Rose Atieno says: “If they wanted to compensate us, why didn’t they give us money? We agreed they would pay us money for our maize, not maize.”

Farmers cannot service a Sh12 million Equity Bank loan which they hoped to pay after the WFP deal, she said.

Of the 238 bags of disappeared maize, Ms Atieno said farmers went to the cooperative officials and demanded it back.

“The farmers took their maize away and sold it or consumed it in their homes,” she said and asked why no one died from eating this maize if indeed it was toxic.

WFP Kenya: Relief Food in the North Finds Its Way to Shops

Nairobi — Food meant for starving people and being supplied by the government in northern Kenya is being sold in shops in the region -- even as famine continues to claim lives.

In North Horr, a Nation team touring the area had no problem buying a 50kg bale of rice with the Government of Kenya stamp and clearly labelled "Not For Sale".

The 50kg bag of rice was selling at Sh3,000.

When approached, the unsuspecting shop owner volunteered to go and fetch an unopened bale from his house a short distance away, because the one he had in the shop had already been opened for the grain to be sold in smaller rations.

Paid in food

The Provincial Administration concedes that relief food is being sold, attributing it to the fact that transporters and loaders hired to distribute the food are sometimes paid in kind -- given some of the food, which they are then free to sell.

At Tharade, the local district officer confessed that the relief food was being sold because people got more than they needed.

A visit to the expansive region established that nearly a month and a half since President Kibaki launched an emergency programme in response to famine ravaging the country, hunger continues to take a deadly toll.

In Marsabit and the surrounding regions, the hardest hit are the elderly, too weak to endure the hunger that has overwhelmed most parts of the country since the beginning of the year.

Although there is no official figure to show how many people have died due to the food shortage, a survey by Nation in the greater Marsabit established that at least eight people have starved to death since August.

However, the emergency intervention programme is being seen as a sham, especially in pastoralists' areas like the arid parts of northern Kenya and parts of Laikipia and Samburu districts.

Northern region comprises Marsabit, Isiolo and Moyale, which are witnessing one of the worst famines.

Taken a toll

Contacted by the Nation on Sunday, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Special Programmes, Mr Mohammed Ali, accused the Provincial Administration of failing to abide by government rules in the distribution of relief food.

"We have received complaints that district commissioners are not being transparent in distributing the food," said Mr Ali in a telephone interview.

The food crisis has taken a heavy toll on a majority of the people living in this region. Without their livestock, the communities are entirely depending on relief food being supplied by the government and the World Food Programme.

But the WFP food distributed every month is what has kept most people going.

The food is, however, very little because it is only distributed to a targeted group of the most vulnerable.

Their main diet is meat and milk, which are no longer available because herds of livestock have been wiped out by the drought. The few remaining ones have been driven to neighbouring countries by their owners in search of pasture.

While launching the programme in Loiyangalani division in Marsabit South district on August 18, President Kibaki made it clear that the government would use all resources at its disposal to ensure that no Kenyan dies for lack of food.

Two days later, Prime Minister Raila Odinga launched the Crisis Response Centre (CRC) to coordinate the drought emergency effort.

Members of the CRC are drawn from various ministries and their work is mainly to coordinate distribution of the government relief food to the district level.

In August, food valued at Sh881 million was distributed to 145 districts affected by the drought, according to Mr Ali, who coordinates the CRC.Food worth more than Sh800 million was released again last month.

Mr Ali said that the centre was now releasing the October consignment, worth Sh1.1 billion.

But is all the food reaching the deserving people?

In Chalbi district of the greater Marsabi,t where old people are starving to death, each family received an average of four kilogrammes of maize and rice and about a kilogramme of beans in August.

Last month the district did not receive its rations, which, according to Mr Ali, was due to delay in arrival of the food.

"The food arrived late and distribution process could not be finalised on time. But the food has now been distributed and people in Marsabit should be receiving it," said the PS.

The Chalbi District Officer, Mr Moses Chepkorom, said people were starving because the August, rations were only enough to sustain a family for a day or two.

However, Mr Ali said he was shocked to hear that.

"Each person was supposed to have 10.5 kilogrammes of cereals (maize and rice) from the deliveries we gave the DCs in the greater Marsabit," he said.

Sold in shops

They were supposed to get beans and cooking oil, which only reached very few people.

Even as Mr Chepkorom insisted that the relief food for August was not enough, the same food was being sold in shops.

Residents of the district are pointing fingers at the members of the Provincial Administration, who have the duty of distributing the food.

During an interview in his office in Maikona town, Mr Chepkorom did not deny that relief food was being sold in some areas.

"Probably the relief food being sold is the one given to transporters as a transportation fee when they transport it to the interior parts of the district," he said.

What he could not explain is why his office was using private transporters and yet the food is supposed to be moved by the military, the Administration Police and the National Youth Service using government trucks.

When the government has to hire private transporters, Mr Ali made it clear, DCs had been provided with money to meet the costs.

At El Gade village in North Horr location, residents told Nation that they had received 30 bags of maize from their August rations.

But 10 bags were given to the transporter who took the food to their trading centre.

Mr Chepkorom also explained that owners of stores where relief food is kept before distribution, mostly in the interior of the vast district, are paid with the same food.

Even loaders were not paid cash, but given food, he added.

In Tharade, the DO said people got more relief food than they needed.

"Here we blundered as we took a lot of food but realised that most of the inhabitants had migrated with their livestock," said Mr Chepkorom.The people who got the excess food resorted to selling it.

There are some centres, the DO further explained, where they could not transport the relief food because they were far-flung.

One problem hampering smooth delivery of the relief food, and which Mr Ali agreed was a real bottleneck, is lack of clear guidelines on the distribution process. The World Food Programme and other agencies have for years distributed relief food through a local committee.

It is local people who elect the relief food distribution committee members.

And the committees are answerable to both the relief food beneficiaries and the distributing agents. But in the emergency response intervention, relief food distribution is the sole responsibility of the Provincial Administration.

District commissioners are the overall coordinators of the distribution, while district officers and chiefs coordinate at the grassroots.

Mr Ali promised to take action against the DCs in Marsabit and other areas where leaders have raised complaints about the distribution of relief food.In Wajir South, Mr Ali said three chiefs had already been charged in court in connection with sale of relief food.

Mr Ali said people should not remain silent when they see government officials selling relief food.

"They should write to me and the permanent secretary for internal security to complain," he said.

And he promised that action would be taken against district commissioners in the area if it is established that they are involved in the sale of relief food.

"We cannot allow government officials to take advantage and start selling food meant for the hungry," he said.

Another WFP scandal in Kenya ?

Prime Minister Raila Odinga Tuesday directed the Drought Crisis Response Centre to investigate reports that the Provincial Administration was involved in theft and sale of relief food in Northern Kenya.

The Prime Minister has also asked the Crisis Centre and the Ministry to look for ways of entrusting the distribution of relief food to relief agencies while confining the provincial administration to providing security to the agencies.

He referred the agencies to the 2004 directive in which the government directed that relief food from the WFP and the government be distributed through agencies that include religious organizations, NGOs and the Kenya Red Cross.

The order came in the light of reports of massive theft of food by members of the provincial administration.

He asked the Ministry and the crisis centre to revert to this arrangement immediately while they track down culprits who must be punished.

The PM noted that so far, there have been no complaints over food handled by the Red Cross in Northern Kenya.

Fraud

But new districts like Garba-Tulla, Laisamis and Samburu East which still rely on the provincial administration to distribute the food are experiencing problems with the handling and distribution of the relief food.

Food has not reached residents of these areas as it should because of fraud being committed by government officials.

There are complaints in Isiolo, Garba-Tulla, Samburu East and Laisamis, where the governmnent food is being handled by the provincial administration.

The PM noted that he has received reports that administrators often reduce by as much as half food meant for the hungry population and retain the portion for themselves.

Some of the food being stolen belongs to schools, even special schools like that for the deaf, children's home and orphanages, community based organizations or self help groups and internally displaced persons.

The PM said it is unacceptable that the government should spend so much money and go out begging for food to save starving people only for the same food to end in the granaries of officials who don't need it.

The PM directed the Ministry to probe reports that food ratios are reduced for institutions like schools and the school heads are still compelled to sign for the total ration.

He called for investigations into food allegedly being distributed to IDPs in Northern Kenya who do not exist in the area.

Suicide Bomber Kills 5 At Pakistani U.N. Office

By REUTERS

Filed at 10:35 a.m. ET

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber dressed as a paramilitary soldier attacked an office of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing five staff, government and U.N. officials said.

Pakistan security forces have made gains this year against al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban militants who have set off bombs in towns and cities aimed at security forces and government and foreign targets.

But hopes that the militants were in disarray following the killing of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in a U.S. missile attack in August suffered a setback when the new Taliban chief surfaced to deny differences in his ranks.

The suicide bomber was disguised as a paramilitary soldier and got into the WFP compound after asking a guard at the gate if he could use a toilet, a government minister said.

A WFP spokesman, Amjad Jamal, said five members of staff had been killed, four Pakistanis and an Iraqi. Two of the Pakistanis were women.

"I went to my office on the first floor and as I sat on my chair there was a huge blast," WFP official Arshad Jadoon told Reuters outside the tightly guarded office in a residential area of Islamabad.

"All of a sudden, a smoke cloud enveloped the building and we came out where wounded people were lying," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the attack was a heinous crime.

"This is a terrible tragedy for the U.N. and for the whole humanitarian community in Pakistan," he said in a statement condemning the bombing "in the strongest terms."

The United Nations temporarily closed its office in Pakistan after the blast for security reasons, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Two foreign U.N. workers were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a hotel in the northwestern city of Peshawar in June.

Monday's blast led to a brief spate of selling at Pakistan's main stock market but the market recovered to end 0.35 percent higher at 9,487.95 points.

"NO DIFFERENCES"

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had been saying the back of the Pakistani Taliban has been broken but the militants have struck back with several bombs in recent days as the army prepares to launch an offensive on their main bastion in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border.

New Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud met a small group of journalists in South Waziristan on Sunday to dismiss speculation of infighting over leadership of the alliance of 13 factions.

Pakistani and U.S. officials had said they believed that Hakimullah might have been killed in a firefight with a rival faction led by commander Wali-ur-Rehman weeks ago in a dispute about who should take over from Baitullah.

Hakimullah looked relaxed and a little fatter than when a group of reporters last met him late last year as he sat with Rehman on the ground under a sunny sky with other Taliban commanders as armed guards stood by.

"Wali-ur-Rehman is sitting beside me and the only difference between us was that he was asking me to become Taliban leader and he was insisting on me taking charge," Hakimullah said in comments broadcast on Dawn TV.

Malik repeated his assertion that the back of the Pakistani Taliban had been broken but he warned of more attacks.

"They are like a wounded snake," Malik said, adding that captured militants had told interrogators some bombers had been sent off on missions last month.

"So in coming days, two or three suicide bombings are expected," he said.

Malik said the bombers were trying to destabilize the country but the nation was united against them.

"In a matter of a few days we'll take action against them as we took in Swat, Bajaur and Mohmand," Malik said, referring to three northwestern areas where security forces have attacked and pushed back the militants. He did not elaborate.

Speculation about an assault on South Waziristan is rising as the United States has been stepping up pressure on Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban factions based in northwestern enclaves.

With Afghan violence reaching new heights, the United States is weighing options on how to deal with the insurgency eight years after driving the Taliban from power.

The U.S. commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said in an assessment leaked last week Afghan insurgent leaders were based in Pakistan.

Pakistan denies that but many analysts say Pakistan is acting only against militants which are a threat to itself, like the Pakistani Taliban.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Sahar Ahmed; Writing by Robert Birsel)

Somalia: Demonstration against WFP staged in Bosaso

http://www.somaliweyn.org/pages/news/Sep_09/30Sep23.html

Mogadishu Wednesday 30 Sep 2009 SMC

Wide demonstration aginest World Food Programme was on Wednesday staged in the town of Bosaso in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in eastern Somalia.

The demonstrators had placards, depicted with starving children and elder people, and it was generally based on the closure of feeding centers which were ran, by World Food Programme in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

“We are Internal Displaced People, who have fled from the day-to-day clashed in the capital Mogadishu, and we have been relaying on the feeding centers of WFP, and we don’t know how our fate is going to be now after the shutting down of the centers where we have been feeding from” said Halima Noor a mother in the town of Bosaso who was among the beneficiaries of the feeding centers speaking to Somaliweyn radio over the wire.

The demonstrators who were mainly from southern Somali, and have also added that the wet food which they were used to be given is now changed to dry food which is given to the local residents, instead of the IDPa.

However the closure of the World Food Programme comes after along discussion between WFP officials and the officials of Puntland state.

Mohammed Omar Hussein+2521-5519235 shiinetown@hotmail.com

Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”

Q & A: Eritrea´s food shortage amid calls for UN sanctions

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/printFriendly/121052

Michael Abraha

September 28, 2009

Photo: Woldeyesus Ammar

Eritrea is in the spotlight again following the killing on September 17 of 21 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu by Al-Shabab militants who the African Union and the UN allege are supported by Eritrea. AU member states are pressuring the UN to sanction the Eritrean government. In July, an AU summit in Libya unanimously voted to punish Eritrea for "escalating" the Somali crisis. Meanwhile, the World Food Program has been denied access to Eritrea and has expressed concern that food is not reaching the most vulnerable – especially children and pregnant women.

To sort out and comment on these and other issues is Wolde Yesus Ammar, exiled head of one of the opposition groups, the Eritrean People´s Party. He first looks at the increasing AU impatience and outrage against Eritrea.

Ammar: The outrage against the one-man regime in Eritrea is real. Since its creation 18 years ago, the Eritrean regime has continued to flout all rules of the game expected from a sovereign state accepted in the international community of nations to behave as a responsible actor. And as you very well know, the outrage against the regime in Asmara is local, regional and international – and for very good reasons. To limit my response to your question, Africa is outraged because the belligerent regime of Isaias Afeworki has already done enough damage to his own people as well as to peoples of the entire region. It has been proven many times by UN monitors and others that the irresponsible regime in Asmara has been stocking and adding fuel to the conflict in Somalia for many years now. That regime repeatedly ignored calls of regional and international bodies not to violate the arms embargo to actors in Somalia. Today, even the regime´s buddies in Tripoli and Khartoum could not condone what Isaias is doing against the best interests of peoples and member states of the African Union. In a word, Africa is outraged because the regime of dictator Isaias has long remained a factor of instability and conflict in a region with over 150 million people. Limiting the damage is overdue, and the Eritrean, African and world-wide outrage needs to be pursued to its logical conclusion.

Q: How will sanctions affect ordinary Eritreans?

A: It is well understood that sanctions adversely impact on the lives of ordinary citizens when trade relations with the outside world are cut; when all means of communication are suspended and diplomatic relations severed. The world has witnessed sanctions having a crushing impact on ordinary citizens in Iraq and other places. Sanctions do have increased harshness when applied in a poor country like Eritrea that depends for literally everything on import of goods and services. But, hold on!, the Eritrean people have lived under undeclared sanctions for long time now. The absence of good relations with neighboring peoples is sometimes worse than much publicized UN sanctions. The people of Iraq suffered enormously because the politics of Sadam Hussein led to the shutting down of borders with neighboring peoples in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Likewise, the Eritrean people already suffered, and are still suffering, because of the regime´s self-inflicted sanctions on people-to-people contact and trade with Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and until recently, the Sudan. Commerce and trade relations with their neighbors are vitally important to the poor Eritrean people and their almost inexistent private sector than trade relations with Japan or Germany or America. Therefore, our people are already under nameless but still suffocating sanctions caused by the callous regime itself.

Sanctions, like war, have to be applied as a last resort and when everything has failed to avert a real problem. In the case of dictator Isaias and his party (PFDJ), all local, regional and international attempts made in the course of the past two decades to correct the malaise in our country have failed. Thus, the time appears to have come to resort to a severe action against the regime. However, while declaring international sanctions, one will have to look into minimizing the collateral damage on the population. The UN system has acquired some experience in this field and it can take measures to soften the burden on the population while sharpening the edge of the total embargo in ways that can harm the very core of the PFDJ military/security apparatus. The UN system can further develop new mechanisms which some call ´smart sanctions´, and make sure that humanitarian assistance is properly channeled to the needy people in Eritrea who are not getting it now.

Q: The last known UN estimate was that two thirds of the Eritrean people depended on external food aid. This was based on international field reports. Now the World Food Program says it has been denied access to the people to determine the level of food shortage in Eritrea. Politics seems to be standing on the way in matters strictly humanitarian. Why?

A: It is true that two thirds of the Eritrean people are in urgent need of external food support. It is also true that many international NGOs that could have helped Eritreans in many ways were denied entry into the country and many others expelled from Eritrea on unjustifiable allegations. Likewise, the UN agencies in Eritrea, including the WFP, have been denied free access to the country. One can easily see that the international community is not properly addressing the Khmer Rouge-type of politics of insanity of Isaias and his small clique. In November 2008, a joint delegation of my party and that of the Eritrean Democratic Party submitted a memo to concerned UN agencies in Geneva and another memo to the EU alerting them about a hidden hunger in Eritrea which was being covered up by the regime. People continue to die of hunger in Eritrea and the regime does not care about it. The UN agencies know that on a weekly basis hundreds of Eritreans are crossing the border to neighboring countries because of economic hardship.

WFP is now telling the world that it could not have access to Eritrea to assess the already existing food shortage there. And what is the use of knowing the magnitude of the problem if WFP will not be allowed to distribute its supplies to the people? Eritreans are living under a tragic humanitarian situation that requires a stern measure to resolve it and save lives. In other words, Eritrea requires a coordinated humanitarian intervention by the international community before it gets too late. The regime there must be told by the UN Security Council that it can no longer overlook its disregard to take care of its own people who are now quietly dying and being dispersed in the surrounding region. The talk of imposing sanctions on the regime in Asmara should, therefore, be accompanied by a humanitarian intervention program slated to distribute basic food supplies and services to the very needy people in Eritrea. The Security Council can, and should, send ´UN Guards´ or some other force to look into the implementation of the humanitarian program. Otherwise, it is meaningless for the UN and the international humanitarian community to say that the regime has denied access to a dying population – and stop there.

Q: A great deal of Eritrea´s food aid comes from the European Union. Does the EU have a means of ensuring that its aid is reaching the needy?

A: The European Union cannot be sure if its humanitarian supplies and other project support grants are reaching the Eritrean people. The regime suspects everybody, including its own functionaries. And if PFDJ cannot trust the apolitical WFP, how can one expect it to trust and give free access to monitors and officials of the European Union to see if their support is reaching the needy people? It is unimaginable.

The EU was among the first to be ´harassed´ by the Eritrean regime back in 2001 when the dean of EU ambassadors, Italy´s Antonio Bandini, was expelled from Asmara following a mild EU ambassadors´ protest against human rights violations in Eritrea. The EU is still talking of "keeping an open window with PFDJ" and ceaselessly supports it for hardly understandable European self interests – no more, no less.

Q: The government hopes it will start collecting income from gold and other minerals next year. How will this new source of revenue impact Eritrean politics?

A: Any factor, including revenues that can strengthen the regime in Asmara, will directly contribute to worsening of conflicts and instability in the entire region, as has been the case since the coming to state power of the ever belligerent Isaias in the early 1990s. Remember the hostilities of the past (1994 with the Sudan, 1995 with Yemen, 1996+2008 with Djibouti, 1998-2000 with Ethiopia) without even referring to what the Asmara clique has done in its early days for change of regime in the Congo and its continued tampering with the conflict in Somalia. Latest reports also indicate that the regime is starting to meddle again in the complicated North-South politics of the Sudan and in is supporting extremists in Yemen.

Therefore, it will be everybody´s responsibility to see to it that Isaias Afeworki does not get any more access to increased revenues from mineral exports from Eritrea. Today, the Eritrean population is a ticking bomb ready to explode. Our people inside the homeland as well as those in the Diaspora do not expect the PFDJ to change its entrenched behavior, and any additional resources will not be used for any purpose other than the regime´s futile militarist adventures. I expect a popular explosion in Eritrea in the event of this regime starting to export gold from Bisha, Zara or Emba-Derho. The Eritrean opposition camp will also re-organize itself to see to it that the regime does not get access to added resources for increased political suppression of our people.

Q: There has been talk in Eritrean Diaspora media about how to deal with religious and regional issues in a future secular Eritrea. There does not seem to be enough separation of state and religion in the country today. The government appoints heads of the Christian and Moslem faiths, for instance. How do you view the government's involvement in religious matters, and what role should religion play in Eritrean politics.

A: The one-man regime in Eritrea is in absolute control of everything in the country, including our long-established religious denominations and intuitions. The ongoing aggressions of the regime against religious institutions are nothing but to be condemned in the strongest terms possible.

There is no way to let religion-based politics to take grip of a future Eritrea. All Eritreans deserve a secular (or call it a civil) state that respects all religions and religious institutions which can contribute in many ways in the daily life of our people without becoming part of the government itself. The talk in Eritrean Diaspora media that you mentioned in regard to religious and regional issues in future secular Eritrea deserve to be handled in a responsible manner and not in a way that can easily polarize our fragile setting. However, I see this question to be very important and can be treated in a separate interview between us two to which I am willing to submit myself. And Thanks a lot for today´s interview.

Press conference on World Food Programme, Millennium Villages Project partnership

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)

Date: 28 Sep 2009

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Millennium Villages Project announced the launch of a new partnership aimed at dramatically reducing hunger and malnutrition across Africa, at a Headquarters press conference today.

"This is a wonderful day, for me personally and for the Millennium Villages Project, in partnering with the World Food Programme," said Jeffrey Sachs of the Millennium Villages, a project involving eight villages and more half a million people in sub-Saharan African communities working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

With 1 billion people -- one out of every six people -– waking up and going to bed hungry, the World Food Programme needed to "leverage the full range of our tools", its Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, with Mr. Sachs at the press conference, told correspondents. "Hunger is on the march. "Hunger is on the rise. And it is right now the most threatened Millennium Development Goal," she warned.

Mr. Sachs said that over the past couple of years working at numerous sites, the "dynamic, remarkable, on the ground, real time, flexible" WFP had engaged a range of powerful programmes that fought acute and chronic hunger, such as school meal programmes, food-for-work and nutritional fortification and supplementation, to name just a few.

His recent visit to a Millennium Village in Ethiopia had illustrated to him and his colleagues the profound transformation of WFP environmental rehabilitation on food security, he continued. Through a food-for-work programme, a large number of percolation ponds and check-dams had been built to capture rainfall in a dry area. "It was marvellous. I have never seen anything like the extent of the transformation of the landscape taking place in that community in a way that was providing life-saving water management and food security. Many people don't know about that aspect of the World Food Programme's activities."

The goal of the partnership, he explained, was to utilize the powerful tools of WFP in Millennium Villages, and through their joint forces, resources and tools, eliminate the villages' defining characteristic of chronic malnutrition and create "undernourishment-free zones" that had sufficient and nutritious food.

The Millennium Villages Project, itself a partnership programme of non-governmental organizations, corporations, scientists, civil society, United Nations departments and agencies, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, was created to bring science, partnership and the United Nations together. The new endeavour with WFP would strengthen the goals and objects.

He noted that the Millennium Development Goals summit in 2010 would be the last time the world as a whole got together to review and further the course towards the 2015 deadline. "We have the tools for success on all counts -- the tools for success to fight acute hunger, the tools for success to accelerate progress to the MDGs and the tools for success to achieve them by the year 2015. I am going to do everything with my breath to help make that a reality," he pledged.

Ms. Sheeran further explained that WFP's partnership with the Millennium Villages Project would deploy the full range of the Programme's tools and help utilize the Millennium Villages as a platform for best practices. Engaging in such a holistic approach would bring together some of the best minds of the world with the local wisdom, dreams and hopes of the villagers themselves, and would enable the villagers to solve their problems and give them the tools to do so. "This is not your grandmother's food aid."

Holding up a red food cup from the school feeding programme in Rwanda, she illustrated that filling it with food was just the beginning. Feeding a child a cup of food every day was life-saving, but adding a de-worming pill meant the child was being fed and not the worm, and adding vitamin A could end night blindness. The focus now was not just on filling the cup, but also on addressing what was in the cup.

Even more importantly, she stressed, 80 per cent of the cash received by WFP purchased food from the developing world's farmers themselves, the majority of whom were women. "When you fill this cup with food from farmers that are often completely cut off from markets and don't have a chance to sell what they produce, it is a powerful, powerful solution to breaking the cycle of hunger."

She added that WFP had successfully implemented that practice in war zones and in other difficult environments, and participating farmers were now able to expand into greater markets. WFP and the Millennium Villages Project had already commenced that system in Millennium Villages in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania, and were currently reaching more than 80,000 children.

The partnership would also be addressing the impact of malnutrition on children under the age of 2, she said. Recent science was now showing that children deprived of appropriate food never recovered from the loss to their brains and bodies. Through establishing "undernourishment-free zones", the partnership would hopefully demonstrate to other countries that standing up to the challenges of hunger and malnutrition was possible.

When asked what concrete steps the new United States Administration was taking to further implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and honour its official development assistance (ODA) commitment, Mr. Sachs drew attention to the approval of large funding for global health since United States President Barack Obama had assumed office, as well as the Administration's commitment to small-holder agriculture and the fight against hunger. At the recent Group of Eight (G-8) summit, the United States had announced a $20 billion, three-year effort for small-holder farmers, which could enable Africa to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Ms. Sheeran, when asked about the situation in Somalia and the possible diversion of food to Kenya, recalled that the danger to humanitarian workers was great, but that the commitment to reach the most vulnerable remained steadfast and strong. An internal investigation into the possible diversion was being conducted and would be reported to correspondents once the results were complete. Meanwhile, there was strengthened security at the warehouses and pathways. "It is probably our most challenging environment to operate in the world, but we're committed to stay and reach people, despite the loss of life to WFP staff and others."

She was then asked about the life-long impact of malnutrition in the first two years of life and the resulting costs that WFP and other agencies had to bear later, and the commitment of the Millennium Villages Project and WFP to investing in those problems before they became emergencies.

She drew attention to a book by WFP about the cost of malnutrition in Latin America. It showed that there had been losses of up to 11 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in some countries -- such as Guatemala -- owing to a loss of brain power. That was a high cost to society. When WFP had tracked a group of children from under age 2 to adulthood, it had found that the group that had been properly nourished earned up to 50 per cent more income approximately 30 years later than the control group. That was powerful evidence that investment in nutrition could have a huge impact on a nation's resources, talent and economy.

Mr. Sachs responded to an inquiry about the contribution from agriculture to the greenhouse effect and its possible impact on WFP's new food initiatives. Acknowledging the complexity of the relationship between greenhouse gases, agriculture and food initiatives, he noted that the new food initiative would not materially change those greenhouse gas numbers, but stressed that "you do not solve the problem of greenhouse gases on the backs of starving people".

WFP partners with Columbia University to feed hungry

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/29/content_12123374.htm

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The World Food Program (WFP) and the Millennium Villages project announced on Monday joint action that will help scale up local anti-famine initiatives around the world.

"The potential is what we can learn and what we can scale up," said Executive Director of the WFP Josette Sheeran. "It will help us understand how to work in other villages, and how to help the mutilize their own skills to overcome hunger issues."

The Millennium Villages project, spearheaded by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, implements community-led action plans to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

By joining forces with the Villages project, the WFP will deliver locally grown food to hungry people living in 80 villages in 10 countries -- Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The project demonstrates how the MDGs can be fulfilled in even the poorest of regions, said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute.

One in six people worldwide do not have enough food to eat, said Sheeran, a figure that continues to increase.

Food insecurity threatens economic security, environmental security, and national security, as was seen in 2008 when food prices rose dramatically and created a global crisis.

The cost of failing to address acute and chronic hunger earlier rather than later can divert millions of dollars from a country's gross domestic predict (GDP), said Sheeran, who noted that Guatemala looses 11 percent of its GDP as a result of malnutrition.

The WFP assists 100 million people a year, a drop in the bucket compared to the one billion people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

Working in conflict situations makes delivering assistance extremely difficult, said Sheeran, citing Somalia as the most challenging environments in the world.

Upon being questioned by a reporter about stolen WFP food being sold in Somalia, Sheeran said the WFP is conducting an investigation into allegations that Somali contractors misappropriated aid and provided financial aid to insurgent groups.

In February, the Wall Street Journal reviewed a UN internal report that said the food-distribution system in Somalia posed "considerable risk to the reputation and effectiveness of the organization."

The UN agency in Somalia, one of the largest, is in an epic battle against poor security and funding shortages as it tries to distribute aid for the 3.5 million people in need of food assistance.

The WFP recently announced it has shut 12 feeding centers for mothers and children due to a 60-percent lack in funding.

Press conference by United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia

Source: United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)

Date: 23 Sep 2009

Failing to respond to Somalia's increased need would result in a "future of miserable destitution" and could tip the region into a far greater level of crisis, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia said today.

At a Headquarters press conference, Mark Bowden drew attention to the increasing and acute scale of the crisis, saying that Somalia was a priority case and that the implications of not responding carried the potential to destabilize the region through the movement of Somalia's population out of the country.

Mr. Bowden said that in the past 18 months, the scale of the crisis had continued to deteriorate, and 3.6 million people -- nearly half the total population -- were now in need of continued support. And yet, Somalia had been hit by a downturn in global humanitarian assistance.

Somalia was now moving into its fifth season of drought, which dramatically effected the population, he said, noting a spike in malnutrition among children. The drought was also impacting a greater part of the country, in particular Somaliland and Puntland, as well as the epicentre in central and southern Somalia.

Added to its woes, Somalia also hosted the largest displaced population globally, with some 1.5 million displaced people living in conditions that were some of the worse in the world -- "worse even than in Darfur", he added.

He said that Somalia was dependent on large levels of external assistance, and it was the most difficult and complex environment in which humanitarian organizations presently worked. However, despite attacks on humanitarian workers and the many other obstacles, assistance levels had been maintained.

At the same time, the appeal for assistance had not been adequately met, and critical shortages remained in water sanitation, health and nutrition, which further endangered relief operations. A far clearer picture about commitments for relief aid through the end of the year was needed.

Asked whether the World Food Programme (WFP) had used trucking companies which gave money to Al-Shabab, jeopardizing funding from the United States and the United Kingdom, and if the withholding of food was then being used as a political weapon, Mr. Bowden said he did not believe there was any "run off of money" to Al-Shabab. He said measures were being taken to minimize any risks and that a risk management strategy had been introduced.

In terms of using food as a political weapon, Mr. Bowden said that humanitarian efforts in the area had a very fortunate asset in the Food Security Analysis Unit. That "very transparent mechanism" had extensive coverage across the whole of Somalia, which conducted regular monitoring and assessment.

Asked if WFP had hired military contractors with funds allocated for food, in order to protect food supplies, Mr. Bowden said that was "for sure" not the case, adding that the United Nations had its own security system which strictly prohibited employment of armed guards. Instead, efforts in the region relied on the local population and route assessments, and, in some parts of Somalia where there was a functioning government, safeguards were provided for United Nations staff and resources.

When asked how work being done by the humanitarian community had been affected by the United States air strike and if that had jeopardized efforts, Mr. Bowden said that it was too early to assess what the strike meant in humanitarian terms. He reiterated that the main challenge was that 60 per cent of the population in need of assistance resided in areas controlled by Al-Shabab and that it was vital to continue providing assistance in those areas. At this stage, people were not associating the air strike with the humanitarian effort.

Responding to a question about whether there were areas in Somalia in which either centres had closed or where there was no humanitarian access, Mr. Bowden said that yes, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) vaccine storage unit had been robbed and looted in Jowhar, but had since resumed operations.

A correspondent asked about threats issued by Al-Shabab against the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) and the United Nations Political Office in Somalia (UNPOS) -- but not WFP or UNICEF -- and whether Al-Shabab viewed UNDP, UNDSS or UNPOS as overly partisan.

Mr. Bowden said those statements by Al-Shabab were "propagandist in nature". In fact, at the time, neither UNDP nor UNPOS had been working in any of the areas talked about by Al-Shabab. It was especially unfortunate that DSS had been mentioned in that respect, since that body was crucial for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

He added that the Somali population as a whole had worked and lived with the United Nations "for many, many, many years" and had a deep knowledge of the United Nations system. That could be used either in a negative way or work very profitably to provide better assistance for Somalia.

For information media • not an official record