Africa blogwatch
No, this won’t be a daily thing forever, but I’m still getting to know new African blogs. So, here’s today’s round up.
Sudan/Chad/CAR news:
Armed men on horseback killed a worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Chad’s embattled southeast and wounded another, while seven employees of the relief agency and 3,200 displaced people they were assisting remain missing, MSF said on Monday.
That’s approximately as many people unaccounted for as died in 9/11. It must be chaotic there.
And relief workers are also encountering difficulty in the CAR:
The army of the Central African Republic has told aid agencies to suspend their activities in the northwestern town of Paoua until military operations against armed groups in the area are over, the military and aid agency officials said on Monday.
ReliefWeb reports further on the situation in the CAR
As of 16/11, non-state armed groups claimed control of three towns in the country’s north-east, allegedly occupied in progression: Birao, Ouanda-Djallé, Sam-Ouandja and Ouadda. France has reportedly agreed to requests for military support from CAR. Meanwhile the armed groups in question have, according to media, called for dialogue with the Government: accusing the President of running the country along ethnic lines, they are believed to be offering to halt their offensive, if the President should agree to share Government with them.
Recent armed operations by non-state groups in the country’s north-east, have caused an estimated 10,000 additional IDPs, many of whom fled south to the town of Bria – the next declared target of the armed groups in question. But between 5,000 and 10,000 people, according to local sources, are in turn reported to have fled from Bria.
Meanwhile, in the Sudan, fleeing civilians are short on blankets and food and have limited access to water.
Speaking of water, here’s the latest on the floods:
Forecasts are still for the worst flooding in a fifty-year return period in some regions (Lower Shabelle, Beletweyne) and for the worst in a ten-year return period in others (reflecting river levels rather than amount of rainfall). It is estimated that to date 300,000 people have been affected by the flooding on both Shabelle and Juba rivers. According to an AFP report, nine people have been killed by crocodiles and the death toll from the last three weeks of flooding is an estimated 52.
From Kenya: We decided to climb trees, but the water continued to follow us up the trees. And, at the same time, drought “is threatening the livelihoods of 15 million people, mostly pastoralists who depend on livestock and agriculture for their way of life. ”
Ethiopia has also faced both flood and drought this year. And there’s also the problem of access to clean water:
In 2006, one of the consequences of lack of clean water hit home: an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea left 279 Ethiopians dead and sickened 28,880+- others. Dirty water carries the microorganism that can cause that illness.
Here’s an August 2006 document on requirements for potable water supply rehabilitation in Ethiopia.
Non-flood-related and non-Darfur-related news:
UN Chief’s Scorecard of Success And Failure.