CEWARN to boost capability at averting conflicts among pastoralists
By Alemayehu Seife Selassie
 ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The Inter Governmental Authority on Development’s (IGAD) Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) in its member state meeting this week in Addis Ababa told donors and member states that it is ready to take response actions to curb conflicts among pastoralists and has asked for scaling up funds from the little over 150,000 USD current budget and to one million USD for this year.
The warning and response mechanism that covers cross-border pastoral conflicts in the IGAD region which CERWAN sees as priority, have been working on monitoring and reporting on the conflicts for the past five years. The mechanism this week stated that it is time for it to scale up its effort towards taking a response action.
 As opposed to the early warning mechanism that the body was involved in, the early response mechanism will take action before the conflicts arise.
 Taking the two agendas -repaid response fund, and response mechanism implementation on this week forum, CEWARN has unveiled a five year plan at the Panorama Hotel Addis Ababa Ethiopia. The director of the CEWARN Ambassador Abdelrahim A. Khalil told journalists that the body does not have the resources to cover all the expenses at once and the cross-border pastoral conflicts have been given priority in this regard.
The strategy states that the mechanism should build the capacity by the end of the fifth year in 2011 and it would be able to deal with other types of conflicts.
“In these meetings, we also hope to make the fund operational as well. So far, the money that is in the bank are the pledges from Denmark that amounts 100,000 Dollars and UK 50,000 Pounds”.
“We envisage that by the end of this year, we will have nearly over one million Euros committed”, the director explained. “That will allow us to operationalize our work and start”.
     Also explaining why the concern on pastoral border conflict have been chosen to take the lead the director said, “These are very marginalized areas where there is very little government presence. the security situation there is not fully covered by government organizations and they are very much neglected areas”.
 According to the CEWARN director there are many traditional [traditional weapons using] and modern [modern lethal weapons using] conflicts in the pastoral border regions.
“There are some interest groups that want to have the cattle brought to a certain place using arms and sell them for a cheap price”.
 The mechanism has been monitoring such acts for the past five years through its field monitors.
The director that told the gathering how CEWARN has worked effectively over its small tenure and is now ready to make an effort to consolidate on the response activity as well.
“The main objective is to develop the response side, the rapid response fund is to enable the mechanism to intervene a resource based conflict. If you have two communities fighting over water resource, if you provide an alternative means to provide water you can mitigate the conflict. If you have conflict between two communities you need to organize peace meetings”.
According to the director a practical example where CEWARN has taken action to intervene is the conflict between the Turkana region of Kenya and the Niangatom of Ethiopia.
“We have been engaged in organizing peace meetings on the ground and by bringing representatives to Nazareth from both sides. These things require money the governments they have their priorities and their plans. In order to enable the mechanism to have the resources to move on timely basis and intervene we need to have this rapid response fund”.
 Currently the CEWARN has encouraging commitments from donor countries. The entities that have pledged to contribute to the Rapid Response Fund are namely Denmark, Germany (GTZ), America (USAID), European Union and Sweden.
Cross-border pastoral conflicts are one of the key challenges facing the IGAD sub-region. Violent conflict and poverty remain the two biggest obstacles to the development of pastoral areas in the Horn of Africa. A report presented in the gathering informs. IGAD’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) was given the mandate to implement a pilot early warning and conflict prevention mechanism targeting this category of conflicts in the sub region. Cross-border pastoral areas are not only marginal and peripheral but are also characterized by endemic food insecurity, violent armed conflict, and diverse ecological variability making it a highly volatile and unpredictable region.
In 2000, at the 8th Summit, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) established the conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) in response to the 1996 mandate to cover Peace and Security as well as broader development issues. This was in addition to the realization that “timely intervention to prevent the escalation or to mitigate the worst effects of violent conflicts is more effective and would also prove much cheaper both in terms of human and material resources than dealing with full-blown crises”.
Zimbabwe faces strikes over ailing economy
By Wilson Watson

HARARE, Zimbabwe- Zimbabwe’s civil service could be thrown into turmoil after most civil servants start downing tools in protest over low salaries that have continued to be eroded by rising inflation in the country.
Doctors at the country’s state hospitals have gone on strike while teachers and nurses have threatened to follow suit.
Although naturally army and the police forces are not allowed to go on strike, sources said the situation was tense due to the low salaries.
Doctors last month earned 6,00 Zimbabwean Dollars (less than 10 USD) while teachers were earning 200 Zimbabwean Dollars (less than 5 USD).
Zimbabwe Medical Doctors Association chairman Amon Siveregi said the doctors will only return to work after their grievances were met.
“We are demanding acceptable salaries but I can’t disclose to you what we have tabled before the government due to a confidentiality clause in our dealings,” he said.
Teachers’ union representatives have also indicated that they will not return to work at the opening of the new term if their salaries are not reviewed. Schools open early next month.
The teachers were awarded a 448 percent salary adjustment this month but said it was still not enough.
“The 448 percent on basic salary and 900 percent transport allowance and 290 percent housing allowance given this month in essence is a high sounding nothing. The increases amount to a net salary of only 1,100 Zimbabwean Dollars (re-valued) or 11 trillion Zimbabwean Dollars (old value) on average. It falls far short of PTUZ demands of 800 USD equivalent,” said Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe secretary general Takavafira Zhou.
The salary adjustments that are being effected are quickly eroded by inflation. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation now a massive 11 million percent.
Despite the country having some of the best-educated professionals in the continent, they are however among the worst paid.
The Government has promised to look at the civil servants’ problems
Health and Child welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said his ministry would look at the problems faced by doctors and try to rectify them.

USAID expedites emergency food aid to Horn of Africa
By SSI staff writer

WASHINGTON D.C., USA- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is expediting the shipment of nearly 24,000 metric tons (MT) of food aid to help the millions of people in need of assistance in the Horn of Africa.
The shipment includes 9,390 MT of split yellow peas, 6,150 MT of vegetable oil, 6,320 MT of corn soy blend, and 1,400 MT of wheat flour. This is only one of multiple strategies USAID is implementing to alleviate impacts of the world food crisis in that region and elsewhere around the world. USAID’s Office of Food for Peace plans to provide over 1 million MT of food, valued at more than 857 million USD, to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti in fiscal year 2008 in response to the drought emergency affecting the Horn of Africa.
“USAID is committed to helping the people in the Horn of Africa who have been so greatly affected by drought, civil insecurity, and rising local and global food prices,” said USAID Administrator Henrietta H. Fore. “Our team in the region is working tirelessly to get aid to those in need as soon as possible.”
This expedited shipment is expected to arrive in port in the Horn of Africa approximately 10 weeks after the food aid tender was issued. The food was loaded onto a vessel that is scheduled to depart the Port of Houston this week and is expected to arrive at port in the Horn of Africa in mid-September. Delivery of U.S.-purchased food aid commodities to the Horn of Africa generally takes four to six months because of the time required to transport the food to a U.S. port, load it onto a cargo ship and transport the commodities to an African port.
In another move to speed food to Ethiopia and Somalia, where needs are greatest, USAID reached an agreement this month with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to purchase emergency food aid in Africa for those countries. While the vast bulk of USAID’s emergency food aid contributions continue to originate in the United States, procuring food aid commodities in a country or region where the food aid is used can improve humanitarian response time and reduce costs.
USAID will also begin more than 20 new multi-year assistance programs in 10 developing countries, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali and Niger. Designed to reduce food insecurity over a three- to five-year period, these programs target the most vulnerable population groups in these countries and include activities to improve agriculture and natural resource management, health and household nutrition, education and microenterprise.
The United States is the largest donor of food aid in the world and has provided more than 2.2 billion USD in food aid worldwide, to date, in fiscal year 2008. In 2007, USAID provided 88 percent of U.S. international food aid and 39 percent of all global food aid.

Sudan condemns 12 Darfur rebels to death
By agencies

KHARTOUM, Sudan-  A Sudanese court sentenced to death 12 alleged Darfur rebels on Wednesday, bringing to 50 the number condemned to hang over an attack on Khartoum and defying criticism from Amnesty International. 
A special court in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman found 12 presumed members of the Justice and Equality Movement -- the Darfur rebel group that launched the assault in May -- guilty under criminal and counter-terror law. 
Judge Hafez Ahmed Abdallah ordered the release of four other suspects who had been on trial and transferred the cases of four others to juvenile courts, declaring that they were under the age of 18.
Defence lawyer Adam Bakr slammed the sentences, denounced the special courts as anti-constitutional and vowed to appeal within the seven-day limit.
“I’m not happy with this decision,” he told AFP.
On Monday, Amnesty International denounced a slew of trials held in special Sudanese courts and accused the government of holding hundreds without charge in connection with the May 10 attack on Khartoum carried out by JEM.
The British-based rights group denounced the special courts as a “travesty of justice”, saying some of those sentenced met their lawyers for the first time at trial, and that several said they were tortured and forced to confess.
Sudanese defence lawyers argue that the special courts violate their clients’ legal rights. The United Nations has also voiced concern, calling for comprehensive appeal procedures and on Khartoum to abolish capital punishment.
Among those sentenced is Abdul Aziz Ashur, half brother of JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim.
Under Sudanese law, any death sentence must be ratified by an appeals’ court and the high court. All death warrants must then be signed and approved by President Omar al-Beshir.
The world court prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for Beshir for allegedly ordering his forces to annihilate three Darfur ethnic groups, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide.
More than 222 people were killed when rebels thrust upwards of 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) across the sandy expanse from western Sudan’s region of Darfur to Omdurman, just across the River Nile from the presidential palace.
The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict in Darfur erupted in February, 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

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