Armed men storm firm in Nigeria's delta

Around 20 armed men stormed the headquarters of a South Korean oil services company in Nigeria's lawless delta and stole more than $30,000 (17,000 pounds), police said on Sunday, in the latest attack on foreign firms. Full report Reuters 29 Jan 2006.

Nigeria rebels claim more attacks

Nigerian militants who say they have kidnapped four foreign oil workers and attacked on a Shell oil platform say they have carried out more attacks.
The group says it attacked platforms run by the Total and Agip oil firms. Both companies have denied the claims.

The increased tension in the Niger Delta region has pushed up oil prices to more than $67 (£38) a barrel.

The four foreign workers, who are said to be in good health, have been held hostage for close to a week.

In a statement, the previously unknown rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said its ultimate aim was "to prevent Nigeria from exporting oil".

"We will attack all oil companies, including Chevron facilities," it said. "Pipelines, loading points, export tankers, tank farms, refined petroleum depots, landing strips and residences of employees of these companies can expect to be attacked."

"We know where they live, shop and where the children go to school," it added.

The group want local Ijaw people to benefit more from the region's oil wealth and are demanding the release of separatist leader Mujahid Dokubu Asari, being held on treason charges, by Friday.

Full report (BBC) 18 January, 2006.

Armed men attack Shell oil platform in Nigeria, military says

Associated Press reports that armed men opened fire Sunday on soldiers guarding an oil platform run by Royal Dutch Shell in the swamps of Nigeria's southern oil-rich delta, the third assault in less than a week on Shell facilities in the troubled region, a senior military official said:

Soldiers guarding the Benisede facility in the west of the Niger Delta returned automatic weapons fire, but it was unclear if they had lost control of the oil platform, said Brig. Gen. Elias Zamani, commander of a special task force charged with security in the volatile oil region.Zamani had no other details and said the military was investigating.

On Wednesday, gunmen attacked Shell's EA platform in shallow waters near the delta coast, seizing a Bulgarian, an American, a British and a Honduran. A major Shell pipeline leading to its Forcados export terminal was blown up the following day.

Though Shell resumed some production cut last week, the first two attacks initially forced a 10 percent drop in Nigeria's oil exports.

A previously unknown militant group, Movement for Niger Delta Emancipation, claimed responsibility for first two attacks, warning all Western oil companies to leave the Niger Delta for their safety and calling on the government to release militia leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.Dokubo-Asari campaigned for secession and greater local control of oil wealth before he was jailed in September and charged with treason.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports. The country produces about 2.5 million barrels a day."

See AP report in full 15 January, 2006:

Digimotion Digital Album - Powerful stuff, check it out.

See my latest entry at Sudan Watch: Digimotion Digital Album - Powerful stuff, check it out.

Ingrid Patetta films Niger's nomads of the Azawak valley

Ingrid Patetta is a french documentary filmmaker and video editor.

Funny we should share the same first name. Ingrid stumbled upon my blog Niger Watch blog during a search on blogger and emailed me.

Note Ingrid's blog featuring a video she shot in Niger about the nomads of the Azawak valley, and website showing video 'Agadez, Gateway to the Sahara'.

Malawian President declares food shortage national disaster: No money for Malawi?

The news wires are circulating various reports on alarming news from Malawi. Contango's post entitled "No money for Malawi" says while the world's attention is drawn to northern Pakistan and India, there is not enough money to get food for the people of Malawi. Excerpt:

"These are real people, and it's time to listen when an African President speak like this:

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has declared a national disaster over the food shortages which are threatening almost half the population. In a radio and TV broadcast, the president said the crisis had worsened and the country needed more help.

UN estimates suggest about five million people will need aid after Malawi's worst harvest for more than a decade. Mr Mutharika had been criticised for denying reports of deaths from hunger-related illnesses in Malawi.

And, as the BBC points out; It is not just Malawi which is threatened - across southern Africa, the UN estimates that 12 million people will need help in the coming year."

Apologies to Contango for cribbing whole post but I am supposed to be on a break from blogging over next 5-6 weeks and can't keep up with everything on the Sudan and Uganda without going into full swing.

Just wanted to post this news on Malawi incase any readers here can throw light on what is going on. I am posting it here in Niger Watch to keep some examples of how news of food shortages/famine emerge, especially after Niger turned out not to be a famine at all [see earlier posts here below how world was accused of turning its back on the starving children of Niger].

The Economics of Famine in Niger

Excerpt from a post on the economics of famine in Niger at DropoutPostgrad:

A U.N. report found that prices in markets in Niger have shot up sharply because of profiteering, said James Morris, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, speaking from San Francisco. Some traders, he said, have raised prices in anticipation of the arrival of aid groups, which often buy food locally to save on transport costs.

Visit www.niger1.com for daily updates about the famine in Niger.



Paul Stoller artwork courtesy Gallery Bundu
http://www.niger1.com/hausa.htm



Touareg son
Courtesy http://www.niger1.com/touaregculture.htm
Learn more about Touareg culture

Submissions Welcomed For Spotlight On Darfur 2

If you wish to contribute a blog entry for Spotlight on Darfur 2, please contact Eddie Beaver at Live From The FDNF in time for 16 October 2005 deadline.

Jim Moore, co-founder of Sudan: Passion of the Present, recently posted a note from Eddie on this initiative with an important PINR report from Michael Weinstein.

Note, Catez Stevens in New Zealand initiated and hosted Spotlight on Darfur 1 round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world. Jim Moore, in praise of this, writes:

"In my view this work is so fine as to be almost historic. It combines the literary quality of a small, carefully edited book, with the global accessibility of works on the web."



Last May, Catez also produced The Darfur Collection.

Image courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers Live 8 Live From The FDNF Darfur Collection Spotlight on Darfur

UN plans to end large-scale food aid to Niger

BBC news Sep 16 says Niger's prime minister lashed out at donors, saying it was necessary to stop the aid so that Niger does not become reliant on aid:

Niger's PM agrees with UN plans to end large-scale food aid, which he described as an affront to the country's dignity.

"Our dignity suffered. And we've seen how people exploit images to pledge aid that never arrives to those who really need it."

The UN's World Food Programme maintains that cutting aid now will allow food prices in Niger to normalise after escalating during months of severe shortages.

MSF has warned that with almost a million people not yet fed, it is too soon to stop aid.

BBC's Hilary Andersson in Niger says that almost a million people who need it have still received no food aid at all and it is now six weeks since the aid began flowing into Niger in large quantities. She says that large numbers of young children are still dying in feeding centres.

An assessment by MSF this week indicates that more than 40 people a day are dying in just one area that they surveyed.

See full story by BBC September 16, 2005.

Sudan: Spotlight on Darfur 1 and The Darfur Collection

Huge thanks to Catez Stevens in New Zealand for initiating and hosting Spotlight on Darfur 1, a great round up of posts authored by 14 different bloggers from around the world.



Catez also produced The Darfur Collection last May.

Please email Catez at Allthings2all if you have a post for the next Spotlight on Darfur 2 or 3.

Picture courtesy Tim Sweetman's post Let Us Weep.

Thanks to Global Voices for their third post and links to my blog Congo Watch featuring this initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all aid bloggers blogburst

Katrina aid - Blogbursts - Spotlight on Darfur 1 and Darfur Collection

Further to an earlier post here below, I have just received word from Catez saying Spotlight on Darfur has been put forward to 5 September as the blogosphere has had planned blogbursts on Hurricane Katrina aid. This means bloggers can email Catez with posts until Sunday 4 September.

Thanks to Global Voices for picking up on my post at Congo Watch publicising the initiative.

Tags: Darfur Sudan Africa allthings2all Hurricane Katrina aid bloggers blogburst Global Voices

Can aid do more harm than good? Who is spinning lies?

As noted here in previous posts, Niger's President Mamadou Tandja recently said his country was experiencing food shortages but not a famine. He accused aid agencies of exaggerating the food crisis for their own gain, raising serious issues about the way aid emergencies are handled.

American blogger Ethan Zuckerman points out that Henri Astier, a BBC correspondent, after talking to aid workers and experts on African aid, concluded, on balance, that President Tanja was probably right and quoted Professor William Easterly of NYU, as saying:

"There were localised food shortages this year - but they were not particularly acute, and are now easing.

What Niger is experiencing is not a sudden catastrophe, but chronic malnutrition that makes people vulnerable to rises in food prices."

Note, the report also quotes Professor Easterly as saying

"I think NGOs and rich country media do have an incentive to paint too simplistic and bleak a picture, as was the case in Niger's food crisis."

So, going by the above [which does not appear to touch on issues of African politics, land ownership rights, corruption, looting, violence and arms dealing] they seem to be saying:

food aid can distort 'functioning' markets, causing increased food insecurity in the long term;
regional solutions are needed to solve shortages that are not regional famine - so long as participating governments allow that trade to happen and international donors are able to help subsidise food to poorer areas when neccesary.

Note, Ethan praises the BBC saying it provides a terrific space where people from outside Africa can discover, if they listen, that their proposed solutions are often - strongly and validly - opposed by the people they're trying to help.

Unless I have missed something, there still seems to be no proper explanation of who was behind the surge in alarming media reports falsely accusing the world of turning its back on the starving people of Niger.

Who is doing the spin? And why are they getting away with such misleading news? My guess is we are left to believe aid agencies are the culprits. Propaganda is everywhere in the media. It's hard to believe much of what is published. There is so little investigative reporting, the media treats us like simpletons, feeding us by the minute with nuggets of junk.
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Irish Famine Memorial in Boston



Lest We Forget - Irish Famine Memorial in Boston
Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/79586895@N00/35958094/
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EU starving the developing world

Captain Marlow writes an insightful post on the EU starving the developing world. The post ends by saying:

"Sadly, everything has become a political issue and it is now impossible to trust reports on biotech, ecology, global warming. Numbers are manipulated to score political points, not to describe facts. The various activists seem to have played a self-defeating game here, since no one believes their alarmism anymore. The problem is that we all lose if we play this game instead of seriously looking for solutions."

Tags: Niger media aid famine crisis BBC Ethan Zuckerman Africa corruption lies donors spin propaganda Irish famine Boston

Spotlight on Darfur 1 and The Darfur Collection

Last May, Catez Stevens at Allthings2all in New Zealand kindly put together The Darfur Collection.

Now, Catez is initiating and hosting Spotlight on Darfur 1 starting September 1. It will feature posts on the current Darfur situation from various bloggers. If you are a blogger and would like to send in a post for inclusion in the Spotlight on Darfur please email Catez for details.

Eugene Oregon at Coalition for Darfur helpfully writes Reminder: Spotlight on Darfur 1.

Note, Catez is planning a regular series of Spotlight on Darfur. If you have missed Darfur 1, there is still plenty of time to prepare a post for Spotlight on Darfur 2 or 3 or 4 ...

Large areas of the aid system are in urgent need of reform

The government has been accused of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of African aid in Malawi.

BBC's Five Live Report found more than GBP 700,000 was spent on hotel bills and meals for US workers over four years. BBC Aug 28, 2005 report excerpts:

The National Audit Office said it may mount an investigation into the use of consultants by the Department for International Development (DFID).

One project in Malawi funded by the DFID has been accused of using international flights to fly in pens and notebooks bought in Washington DC.

Patrick Watt of charity Action Aid said: "(This is) another example of aid money not really getting down to people who most urgently need to benefit from it."

He said: "It's an example of phantom aid, when what Malawi needs is real aid."

Conservative international development spokesman Andrew Mitchell said there appears to have been a breakdown in "transparency and accountability".

"DFID need to get a grip and explain what has happened," Mr Mitchell said.

US agencies which had been brought in as consultants included the National Democratic Institute (NDI), used on a project to improve the parliamentary committee system in Malawi.

The GBP 1m donated to the project from US funds was used solely to pay for NDI staff there, the BBC report said.

Over the four years of the project, the DFID donated GBP 3m to the project. Of that, GBP 586,423 was spent on hotels in Malawi for the NDI staff. Another GBP 126,062 was spent on meals.

An ex-staff member said computers, notebooks and other stationery had been bought in Washington DC and flown over rather than bought locally.

World Learning, a US group which had been brought in to distribute GBP 4m of British money to strengthen Malawian society had to cancel the project after six months and a cost of GBP 300,000. Dozens of local staff face losing their jobs.

Mr Watt said the large amounts of money spent of administration and overseas staff meant "there are large areas of the aid system that are in urgent need of reform".

Malawian campaigner Rafiq Hajat said: "Where you have so-called experts who come from outside, charge exorbitant fees, live a five-star lifestyle and then go back having left a couple of reports mouldering on the shelf, that's how I would define phantom aid."

Africa to announce TB emergency

BBC Health Correspondent Ania Lichtarowicz reports today that health Ministers from across Africa are meeting in Mozambique to discuss the growing numbers of tuberculosis (TB) cases across the region.

Africa is particularly hit because of co-infections with HIV and a lack of health infrastructure to monitor and treat the disease.

The WHO hopes that by making TB a regional health emergency, it will put the disease back on the agenda.

Red Cross worker's Niger diary - UN chief promises aid for Niger

Red Cross worker Mark Snelling is about to return from Niger to London - in his diary he writes of signs of hope and says:

There will be many lessons for the world to learn from Niger once the emergency has passed.

Donors, governments, NGOs and the media must examine why we need to wait for a crisis to erupt before we fully respond. But we can also be proud of work well done.

Aid work must not be sentimentalised. Narcissistic rescue fantasies do not save lives.

There are ugly politics and crazy decisions here, just like everywhere else.

I have encountered some of the best people I've ever met in the humanitarian world, and on occasion some of the worst.

Blanket criticism of aid intervention will not help anyone either. Human suffering will always be with us, whatever we might say about making poverty history.

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UN chief tours impoverished Niger

Kofi Annan visits eastern Niger to view a crippling food crisis that critics say the UN is failing to address properly.

Full story at BBC.
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UN chief promises aid for Niger

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has promised Niger all the aid it needs to cope with the food crisis.

He was speaking after meeting President Mamadou Tandja at the end of his two-day trip to Niger.

The talks follow criticism of the UN's response to the shortages, which are affecting more than 2.5m people, with 32,000 children facing death.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said this week the UN's response was inadequate.

Mr Tandja has also criticised the UN effort, saying the problems have been exaggerated.

"We discussed the food crisis in Niger and in the region, and measures that ought to be taken to ensure what has happened this year, does not happen in the future," Mr Annan said. "But quite a lot of it requires regional cooperation."

He was also meeting local officials from UN and other aid agencies.

The UN has run an appeal but has been accused of not acting quickly enough and of not ensuring that the aid gets to those who need it most.

Less than half the $81m (GBP 45m) called for by the UN has been pledged by international donors, the organisation says.

Full story at BBC Aug 24. 2005.

Patriarchy in Niger - The men take control

From British blogger Mick Hartley:

The men take control.

Mainstream media and bloggers write about food aid to Niger

In his post about mainstream media, blogs and Niger, British blogger Tim Worstall points to an interesting blog entry at Owen's musings on Niger, markets and famine.

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

Niger way of life 'under threat'

A report from BBC today says Niger's way of life is under threat if Niger's nomads to not get long-term help to rebuild their herds and livelihoods.

"For Niger's nomads, the situation is desperate. To these people, losing your animals is like losing your life savings. Without their animals, they have no means of survival," said Natasha Kofoworola Quist, Oxfam's Regional Director for West Africa.

"Twelve centuries of nomadic culture are threatened with extinction if these people do not get long-term help to rebuild their livelihoods," she added.

The food shortages were caused by an early end to last year's rainy season, locusts and chronic long-term poverty in Niger, the second poorest country in the world.

"Food aid alone will not solve this crisis. For nomads who have lost all or most of their animals, the harvest will make little difference," said Ms Kofoworola Quist.

[Someone has just emailed me saying: "As I said before: 'Too many people in the wrong place'. This planet doesn't give a damn about 'twelve centuries'."]

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought

West Africa hunger map - Africa hunger 'likely to worsen'

Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso have also been badly affected by food shortages.

Click here for information at BBC news online on the situation in each country.

British blogger Keith asks: What will you do?
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Africa hunger 'likely to worsen'

BBC report August 11, 2005:

The number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has soared from 88 million in 1970 to 200 million in 1999-2001, the research found.

The overall percentage of malnourished Africans has actually remained constant over the past 30 years, at about 35%.

Absolute numbers have gone up due to Africa's population growth.

The report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that the Millennium Development goal to halve child malnutrition in Africa by 2015 will fail unless more radical steps are taken now.

It says the number of malnourished children could grow from 38.6 million now to 41.9 million by 2025.

Indirect causes of malnutrition include poor governance, lack of investment in agriculture, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to markets.

Building roads and boosting the information and communication technology sectors would have a positive impact, too, because it would improve productivity and create new markets, the report says.

In order to reach the target of halving hunger by 2015, at least $303bn must be invested - a prospect the report describes as "daunting".

"When the United Nations' member countries meet on 14 September, they have the opportunity to make good on the promises made five years ago," said Mark Rosegrant, the lead author of the report.

"If they are serious [about fulfilling their promises], they need to accelerate the pace of change in Africa."

Tags: Niger famine food crisis Africa drought