Monthly Archives: March 2017

Food security in Yemen has deteriorated further since the last IPC analysis conducted in June 2016. An estimated 17 million people, which is equivalent to 60% of the total Yemeni population, are food insecure and require urgent humanitarian assistance to save lives and protect livelihoods. Among those, approximately 10.2 million people are in IPC Phase 3 crisis and 6.8 million people are in IPC Phase 4 emergency. Nationally, the population under Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and Crisis (IPC Phase 3) has increased by 20% compared to the results of the June 2016 IPC analysis.

Conflict and civil insecurity are the main drivers of food insecurity with devastating effects on livelihoods and the nutrition situation.

Displacement: As of January 2017, over 2 million individuals were displaced across 21 governorates mainly due to the conflict. 85% of the conflict related IDPs come from Taiz, Hajjah, Sanaa City, Saada and Sanaa Governorates. In February 2017, the Task Force on Population Movements reported an additional 44,226 IDPs, with the majority (31,860 individuals) from Taiz Governorate (Al Mokha and Dhubab districts), followed by Al Hodaidah Governorate with 9,162 people.

Livelihoods and market disruptions: The widespread civil insecurity has affected both urban and rural livelihoods resulting in protracted and continuous worsening of the food security situation. Restrictions and disruptions of commercial and humanitarian imports, mass displacements, loss of income, fuel scarcity and high prices, disrupted market systems, high food prices and the collapse of public services are aggravating the already fragile socio-economic context. Port infrastructure, essential for ensuring food imports and humanitarian assistance, are seriously threatened by the worsening conflict. Cultivated area and production in 2016 decreased by 38% compared to the pre-crisis period, affecting food availability and household stocks. Similarly, the majority of fishermen lost their fishing assets such as boats, nets and fishing gear and essential fishing infrastructure has been damaged.

Economic crisis: The economic status of 78% households in Yemen is currently worse than in the pre-crisis period. This is mainly due to public budget deficit, which has led to a reduction in government expenditures, delayed or total unavailability of salaries for government employees since September 2016, collapse of the social protection system, liquidity crunch of the local currency, depreciation of the Yemeni Riyal against the US Dollar and depletion of central bank reserves. The economic meltdown aggravated and affected all dimensions of food security, especially food availability and access.

Acute malnutrition is a major outcome of the severe food insecurity and is at alarming levels. Malnutrition has been a serious problem in Yemen for a long time, especially chronic malnutrition (stunting). However, the prevalence of acute malnutrition (wasting) has been rising in recent years, peaking in the last three years. Out of 22 governorates of Yemen, four governorates (Abyan, Taiz, Al Hodaidah, and Hadramout) have Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) prevalence above the WHO emergency threshold (15%). Seven and eight governorates have GAM prevalence at critical levels (10-14.9%) and serious levels (5-9.9%), respectively.

Humanitarian assistance to most affected governorates did not fully cover the targeted beneficiaries in 2016. Main challenges faced are; lack of funding, the ongoing conflict, restricted movements of humanitarian aid workers and procurement and transportation of lifesaving supplies. Going forward, unconditional humanitarian access must be facilitated by all parties for all humanitarian actors to reach the most affected populations and scaled up to reach the demands of the growing population in need.

Worst affected Governorates: Out of 22 governorates, Seven Governorates are in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) Lahej, Taiz, Abyan, Saada, Hajjah, Al Hodaidah, and Shabwah. Ten Governorates are in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) Aden, Amran, Dhamar, Sanaa Governorate, Sanaa City, Ibb, Marib, Raymah, Al Mahwit, and Hadramout, and three Governorates are in IPC Phase 3! - Al Jawf, Al-Dalee, and Al Bayda.

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Yemen: IPC Analysis - Summary of Findings, Acute Food Insecurity Current Situation Overview | March - July 2017 [EN ... - Reliefweb

An overweight totalitarian with a bad haircut who rules over masses of the disenfranchised through careful and systematic deprivation as well as rewarding loyalty with elite status is again in the news. No, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or as its commonly known as: North Korea.

Pyongyang City, the capital of North Korea. (Photo: Matei Hudovernik via Getty Images)

The half-brother of Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Airport in what seems to have been an elaborate fake game show. Malaysia took a hard stance and ensured that the autopsy was conducted by them, revealing that the eldest son of the former leader Kim Jong-il was killed using the extremely toxic nerve agent VX. They have since also expelled the North Korean ambassador.

Naturally, the first thought is that the assassination must have been ordered by Kim Jong-un. Jong-nam was hardly a major public figure, nor was he particularly outspoken against North Korea. By and large he was a mostly private figure who offered little threat to his younger half-brother. So, why kill him? Because even the slightest and smallest threat must be eliminated, that is how the North Korean regime continues to hold power.

This assassination does achieve something though, it draws attention to North Korea and how brutal its regime is. If this is the regard with which the leader's own family is treated, how must its regular citizens be treated?

The answer is heartbreaking albeit unsurprising. In February 2014 the UN Human Rights Council presented the report on its investigation on human rights in North Korea. The findings are not for the fainthearted or weak stomached. Conclusions include that the North Korean regime has systematically violated human rights including freedom of thought, expression and religion; freedom from discrimination; freedom of movement and residence; and the right to food. The State was also found to have committed crimes against humanity including "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation."

There is no system of law or legal recourse, individuals have no right to the basic freedoms which we take for granted, there are no protections for women, children, or minorities. The DPRK uses the control of food and the threat of violence, indefinite imprisonment (including three generations of families for "crimes" committed by one individual), and death (often in the form of public executions) as a means of control. Children are brainwashed from an early age to never question the regime. Defectors from North Korea tell of how they would try to suppress questions or thoughts about their conditions as they believed that the Supreme Leader would be able to tell what was in their minds.

The UN report also describes the hell that is their political prisons. Sketches submitted by former political prisoner Kim Kwang-il to the inquiry show what life, or rather the semblance of life, was like in these prisons. Even with the layers of abstraction that a sketched picture provides they are still horrifying to view. Another former prisoner Kim Hye-Sook, who spent 28 years in Camp 18 and also has drawn a series of sketches, narrates how due to the severe malnutrition in the camps the young children would be horribly stunted or malformed with extremely thin limbs and small bodies with heads appearing almost too big for their body to support. In her own words "They didn't look like human beings."

Now it is not so easy of a fix that the damage can be reversed overnight. Any collapse of the DPRK or the overthrow of its regime is not likely to be bloodless. Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea or South Korea as it is commonly known, is located about 35 miles to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which despite the name is a highly militarized strip of land that is the border between the two Korean states. Seoul also contains approximately half of the entire population of South Korea. Any military action places these people in danger. As the reunification of Germany showed, there are a lot of socio-economic barriers that need to be overcome in order reintegrate a large population into life in a reunified state, and even then the reunification of East and West Germany was after a comparatively much shorter period with a much smaller gap in technological and socioeconomic conditions.

But these must not be obstacles to freeing the Korean people from one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Through inaction we are implicated. Through apathy we are condemned. History will not judge the DPRK regime kindly, but what of us who allowed it to stay in power for so long? When Nazi Germany fell in 1945 at the end of the Second World War the world was shocked by the magnitude of the inhumanity committed by that regime.

What Pandora's Box awaits us with the fall of North Korea?

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North Korea: A Humanitarian Crisis Decades In The Making - Huffington Post Canada

Kaj Leers is the election campaign analyst for Dutch daily de Volkskrant. Follow him on Twitter @kajleers. The views expressed here are the author's own.

After the election of Donald Trump in the United States and the Brexit referendum in Great Britain, eyes now turn to a slew of elections taking place in Europe. The Dutch voted on March 15. This is the fifth and final installment in a series on the Dutch election.

The Dutch election of 2017 was one of fragmentation. For the first time in history, a Green party may enter government. Yet the left is altogether decimated, while the populist anti-European Union, anti-internationalist vote remained a small minority.

A swing to the right, Labor crushed, Wilders underperforms

Leftist parties in the Netherlands were dealt a significant blow on Wednesday night as voters gave center-right parties the nod. Of the leftist parties, Groenlinks, the Green-Left, was the only one to make significant gains. The ruling Labor Party, or PvdA, which had been the junior member of the previous ruling coalition, was crushed as voters opted instead for Groenlinks and the social-liberals of D66.

The ruling free market-conservative VVD also lost seats but remained the biggest party.

Meanwhile, while the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders added five seats, it underperformed its polling. VVD leader Mark Rutte called the elections "a victory over the wrong kind of populism, referring to Wilders. A few days before the election, Rutte revealed that he saw the Dutch elections as one in a series of battles against populists such as Geert Wilders, Marie Le Pen in France, and the Alternative for Germany. He used a soccer metaphor to compare the Dutch elections to "the quarter-finals, with the half-finals being the upcoming French presidential election and the final the German general election later this year."

Green-Left blowout, traditional left decimated

Challenger Groenlinks (Green-Left) was the only leftist party to make strong gains, rocketing to 14 seats from the four it won in 2012 in the 150-seat Tweede Kamer.

With the implosion of Labor, and with little apparent enthusiasm for the hard-left Socialist Party, leftist voters clearly opted to give the party of 30-year-old Jesse Klaver their vote. In polls leading up to Election Day voter volatility was highest in the leftist camp, with voters undecided between Socialists, Labor, and Groenlinks, and with some moving over to the centrist D66.

The hard-left Socialist Party disappointed with its 14-seat showing, a seat down from 2012. It was the second time the party underperformed in a general election and the future of its leader, Emile Roemer, is in doubt.

The PvdA was crushed. The traditional stronghold of the Dutch center-left netted a paltry nine seats, losing 29 from the number of seats it won in 2012. Leftist voters clearly decided to punish the party for its unpopular policies in the government coalition with the right-wing VVD.

In 2012 many a leftist voter voted PvdA to ensure a left-wing majority coalition that would keep the VVD out of power. Instead, the PvdA and VVD formed a government, infuriating thevoters of both parties.

Geert Wilders disappoints -- again

As polls in the weeks leading up to the election indicated would happen, the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders failed to capitalize on high expectations. It came in at 20 seats, from 15 in 2012. Just a year ago Wilders seemed destined to double his party's size in Parliament.

This result came in a year when the election themes -- national and cultural identity, worries about Islam, and health care -- played directly to Wilders strengths. The only conclusion can be that Dutch voters have once again simply rejected his policies on the issues.

Christian-democrats, liberals win

The VVD shed seats, dropping from from 41 to 33, and its two most natural adversaries on the right, the Christian democrats of the CDA (from 13 to 19) and the liberals of D66 (from 12 to 19) made the biggest gains. Up to Election Day, both parties were vying to top the VVD as the biggest party in Parliament.

The better-than-expected results for Groenlinks, D66, and VVD come on the back of a high turnout.Turnout stood at82 percent, amplifying existing trends in the polls ahead of election day and benefiting the frontrunners.

Immigrant party to enter Parliament for the first time

Meanwhile, the election brought a new first in Dutch politics: DENK, a party led by politicians of Turkish and Moroccan descent, will enter Parliament with three seats, giving a voice to ethnic minorities.

DENK was set up by two members of Parliament who were pushed out of the PvdA after an internal fight over the course of the party in regard to integration and immigration. The party's election manifesto closely resembled that of the PvdA on socio-economic issues; it is very likely that some of the seats the PvdA lost went to DENK. In cities like Rotterdam and the Hague, DENK drew more votes than the PvdA.

The next challenge: Forming a new government coalition

With all left-wing parties but Groenlinks imploding, a center-left governing coalition seems all but impossible. Leading Groenlinks members present at the party's election-night gathering in Amsterdam were ambivalent about their win. Although they celebrated their party's victory, the overall loss of the left and the prospect of having to negotiate a deal with center-right parties to enter government threw a shadow over the festivities.

The reshuffled Tweede Kamer will appoint a pathfinder, or informateur, by a majority vote. This pathfinder is usually a formerly active politician for the party that gained the most seats. He or she will then start talks with other parties to inventorize which would be willing to start official negotiations to form a new coalition.

Lengthy and difficult negotiations

It is very likely this pathfinder will come from the VVD, and that the Christian-democrats of the CDA and the liberals of D66 will quickly iron out any differences they may have.

Then it is up to the pathfinder to investigate whether those parties would be willing to cooperate with a fourth party so as to ensure a majority in Parliament and the Senate, where the VVD, CDA, and D66 are currently one seat shy of a majority.

Groenlinks seems the most obvious candidate to add to the coalition, if only to ensure a broad electoral mandate for the new government. Groenlinks knows this, which is why it will surely ask a high price for its support. The problem for Groenlinks is that it's not the only party Rutte can turn to for a majority government. The Christian-orthodox ChristenUnie party won five seats, which would bring the coalition right to the mark.

This could result in a lengthy and difficult negotiations process and possibly even collapse of such talks, forcing the VVD, CDA, and D66 back to the drawing board.

However, VVD leader Mark Rutte, the incumbent prime minister, knows that Groenlinks has been trying to enter government ever since it was formed in 1990. Other parties will also be vying for power, allowing Rutte to play Groenlinks and those other parties against each other.

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Fragmentation in the Netherlands | RealClearWorld - RealClearWorld

Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday charged President Muhammadu Buhari to expose treasury looters and prosecute the culprits. He also counselled the citizens to mount pressure on the leaders to provide good governance.

The octogenarian, who spoke yesterday at the third Biennial International Conference of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan on Polity debacle and the burden of being in Africa, enjoined other African leaders to do the same for the continent to overcome the socio-economic and political challenges retarding its progress.

Obasanjo, who spoke through the Deputy Coordinator, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Mr. Ayodele Aderinwale said: There should be no respite, there should be no hiding place for treasury looters. And good people with ideas must come forward to be counted, get elected or supported by good people to grow the economy and provide solid infrastructure.

The keynote speaker, Akanmu Adebayo, a Professor of History and Conflict Management, Kennesaw State University, United States of America, noted that the cost of governance in Nigeria and other African countries was too high and unsustainable.

He said Nigeria and other African countries must fight corruption and review the strategies for anti graft campaign.Prof Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School and Prof Emeritus Ayo Bamgbose of the University of Ibadan and representative of Senator Binta Garba, also highlighted reasons for the underdevelopment of Nigeria and Africa and proffered solutions.

Utomi attributed the bane of Africa to collapse of culture, weak institutions, wrong policy choices that deplete progress and unfavourable disposition of leadership to human capital development.

He explained the collapse of culture has changed the orientation of people from delayed gratification to immediate gains and greed. Effective leadership, according to him, is all about shaping culture and the way things are done, adding that culture is about values, which must be upheld for the betterment of the society.

6 hours ago Nigeria

6 hours ago Nigeria

7 hours ago Nigeria

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Obasanjo urges Buhari to expose treasury looters News The ... - Guardian