Category: Regional

IGAD anticipates a week-long heat stress in South Sudan

The IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Center has anticipated what it calls ‘episodes of elevated heat stress in South Sudan’ from now up to the end of this month.

In its weekly weather forecast released yesterday, ICPAC said temperature is predicted to be warmer than average across the Greater Horn of Africa.

According to environmental health and safety experts, heat stress includes a series of conditions where the body is under stress from overheating.

Heat-related illnesses include heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat rash, or heat stroke, each with its own symptoms and treatments. Symptoms can range from profuse sweating to dizziness, cessation of sweating, and collapse.

The IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Center now says South Sudan is expected to experience the heat stress from April 23 for seven days.

Other countries that are expected to experience the heat stress within the same period are Sudan, eastern Kenya, and central to southern Somalia.

However, during the same period, ICPAC predicted heavy rainfall in parts of western and northern Kenya, north-eastern Uganda, southern Ethiopia and Somalia.

Last month, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry issued an extreme heat advisory – forecasting temperatures varying from 41 to 45 degrees Celsius for two weeks in Juba and most parts of South Sudan.

Joseph Africano Bartel, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Environment, urged the public to take precautions and avoid direct exposure to sun rays.

Bartel cautioned the public to avoid tedious outdoor activities during the daytime, stay hydrated, take cool showers, stay indoors as much as possible and avoid direct sunlight.

He also suggested regular check on those most at risk including infants, elderly and critically ill several times a day and advised against leaving children or pets alone in closed vehicles.

If in South Sudan, you are also encouraged to wear light weight, light-colored clothing, find an air-conditioned shelter if possible, and the phone number of your doctor or health facility readily available in case of emergency.

 

 

 

Burundi appeals for aid as rains, floods displace 100,000

The government of Burundi and the United Nations have launched an appeal for financial aid to cope with the “devastating effects” of months of relentless rainfall that has displaced nearly 100,000 people.

East Africa has been experiencing torrential rains in recent weeks that have cost the lives of at least 58 people in Tanzania in the first half of April, and 13 people in Kenya.

Burundi, which the UN says is one of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, has been pelted by almost non-stop rain since September, with its main city of Bujumbura ravaged by floods.

“The heavy rainfall due to the El Nino phenomenon is causing severe flooding linked to overflowing rivers and the rising waters of Lake Tanganyika. Landslides, strong winds and hail continue to expose communities to different vulnerabilities,” Interior Minister Martin Niteretse and UN resident coordinator Violet Kenyana Kakyomya said in a joint statement Tuesday.

Between September and April 7, a total of 203,944 people were affected while the number of internally displaced people increased by 25 percent to 96,000, they said.

The statement referred to a “loss of human life”, without giving any further details, adding that homes and livelihoods, crop fields and infrastructure had been destroyed.

The government of President Evariste Ndayishimiye has been under fire for several weeks, particularly from civil society groups and the opposition, which are calling for the authorities to declare a state of emergency or natural disaster.

Usually there are two rainy seasons between September and January and March to May, but the situation has been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Weather forecasts predict rainfall significantly above normal until May and “the government and humanitarian actors need financial resources to face the growing challenges and avoid a deterioration” of the crisis, the joint statement said.

It said 306,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Burundi, ranked by the World Bank as the poorest country on the planet in terms of per capita GDP.

In the economic capital Bujumbura, which lies on the northeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, several neighbourhoods have been flooded, roads and bridges destroyed, and some hotels and hospitals abandoned because of rising water levels.

The water level in Africa’s second largest lake reached 77.04 metres (over 250 foot) on April 12, just 36 centimetres shy of its 1964 record, disaster prevention agency head Anicet Nibaruta said on Friday, according to Burundian media.

El Nino often has devastating consequences in East Africa, where in December alone, more than 300 people died in torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

From October 1997 to January 1998, massive floods caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region.

UK imposes sanctions on 3 businesses funding Sudan war

The United Kingdom on Monday imposed sanctions on three businesses allegedly funding military parties involved in the conflict in Sudan.

Britain said Alkhaleej Bank, Al-Fakher Advanced Works and Red Rock Mining will face an asset freeze, limiting their financial freedom.

The decision comes at the marking of the first anniversary of the war between rival military factions that has left millions of people displaced, desperately in need of assistance.

“A year on since the outbreak of fighting, we continue to see appalling atrocities against civilians, unacceptable restrictions on humanitarian access and an utter disregard for civilian life,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said.

“The businesses that support the warring parties must be held to account, alongside those responsible for human rights abuses.  The world must not forget about Sudan,” he added.

The UK has urgently called for an end the violence.

Last month Britain pledged an 89 million pound ($111 million) aid package for Sudan.

 

Continue reading UK imposes sanctions on 3 businesses funding Sudan war

France hosts Sudan conference a year into ‘forgotten’ war

France is hosting an international conference on Sudan on Monday, exactly a year after war broke out in the northeast African country, leading to a humanitarian and political crisis.

France is seeking contributions from the international community, and attention to what officials say is a crisis crowded out of the global conversation by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

A ministerial meeting on political matters is to be accompanied by talks about the humanitarian situation in Sudan, which organisers said would include dozens of representatives of Sudan’s civil society.

“The idea is to move this crisis up to the top of the agenda,” said Christophe Lemoine, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry.

“We cannot let Sudan become a forgotten crisis,” he added.

In addition to humanitarian issues, officials said there were also political dangers, such as the possible break-up of Sudan into splinter states.

Sudan is experiencing “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory” and “the largest internal displacement crisis in the world”, the United Nations said recently.

Aid workers say a year of war between rival generals that broke out on April 15, 2023 has led to a catastrophe, but the world has turned away from the country of 48 million.

“The civilians here are enduring starvation, mass sexual violence, large-scale ethnic killing, and executions,” said Will Carter, Sudan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Millions more are displaced, and yet the world continues to look the other way.”

An estimated 1.8 million people have fled Sudan — many to neighbouring Chad, now also suffering a humanitarian crisis — and 6.7 million have been internally displaced.

Only five percent of the 3.8-billion-euro ($4.1 billion) target in the UN’s latest humanitarian appeal has been funded so far this year, according to the French foreign ministry.

“We don’t have the ambition to cover the whole sum, but we have hope that the international community wakes up,” said one ministry official.

The ministerial meeting, behind closed doors, notably brings together representatives from Sudan’s neighbours, as well as from Gulf nations and western powers, including the United States and Britain, along with regional organisations and the UN.

Meanwhile, actors from Sudan’s civil society, including activists, unionists and journalists, will get together to discuss “a possible peace process, and what happens after the war”, an official said.

Laetitia Bader, at NGO Human Rights Watch, said she hoped that the conference would deliver “a very tough message” to the belligerents, including threats of sanctions.

The warring parties had blocked access for humanitarian assistance, pillaged foreign financial aid and targeted humanitarian workers in attacks, she said.

“This conference is very important, but it should not become an excuse to turn the page and forget about Sudan, again,” she added.

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