IRI – Madagascar’s transitional government is allowing the export of illegally harvested precious hardwoods as a source of revenue to keep itself afloat. Conservationists say the cost is incalculable, and the huge Indian Ocean Island stands to lose its status as one of the world’s biological hotspots.

Groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Conservation International (CI) say illegal logging in Madagascar exploded in the aftermath of a political crisis that replaced President Marc Ravalomanana with Andre Rajoelina, current leader of the Transitional Authority, in March 2009. 

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87978

IRIN – Eastern Uganda’s mountainous district of Kapchorwa has huge agricultural potential, but farmers perennially suffer crop losses due to vermin, poor or non-existent storage and drying facilities, and lack of transport, say officials.

“This area can feed the entire northern Uganda and southern Sudan because with proper handling, a farmer can produce up to 4.2 metric tons of cereals from an acre [0.404 hectares] of land,” said Wilson Chemsto, chairman of the 3,000-member Kapchorwa Commercial Farmers’ Association.

Official district statistics indicated that about 51,000 tons of cereals were produced in 2008, but 40 percent was lost to vermin or became rotten because of poor storage facilities and humid conditions.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87974

IRIN – Galkayo Hospital in northern Somalia, once a large, fully equipped referral facility, has become a shadow of its former self since the collapse of the central government in 1991, according to medical staff.

“The hospital is for all practical purposes closed. We have nothing. It lacks basic equipment to treat even small injuries,” Abdullahi Hirsi Jestro, a doctor, told IRIN.

Jestro and other medical staff have started a campaign to re-open the hospital.

It is the only public health facility in north Galkayo, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, he said, adding that the most needy were now unable to access medical care.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87905

IRIN – Thousands of flood-affected households still require assistance as ongoing rains in parts of Kenya continue to cause population displacement and destroy property and crops, according to humanitarian sources.

“Countrywide, 8,270hh [households or 40,165 persons], have been displaced and 40 people killed by floods. Livelihoods have been greatly interrupted and thousands are in dire need of relief aid,” according to a recent update by the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS).

The National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC) estimates that up to 58,000 people had been affected by the flooding in the October-December 2009 short rains, stated a 22 December 2009 to 22 January Kenya Humanitarian Update by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87863

IRIN – As conflict continues in Somalia, the main hospital in Mogadishu, the capital, lacks orthopedic specialists to handle the increasing number of patients with broken limbs, a doctor has said.

“Currently, the patients with the most serious injuries are mostly young; 30 of them require specialized treatment that is not available in the country,” Mohamed Yusuf, the director-general of Madina Hospital, told IRIN. “Since 2009, we have seen hundreds of patients requiring orthopedic treatment but very few of them can afford specialized treatment; 98 percent of the patients are too poor.”

Mogadishu has borne the brunt of the fighting in Somalia, which pits an opposition Islamist group against government troops. The country has been conflict-ridden since 1991 when President Siad Barre was ousted. Although a transitional government is in place, fighting continues in Mogadishu as well as in southern and central parts of the country.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87827

IRIN – Fridah Awour Agolla has sold vegetables in Nairobi’s Mathare slum for 20 years. In better times, her stock sold out every day. But lately market forces have begun to bite even harder for the millions in Kenya who live in such squalid, neglected settlements.

“My customers are buying less and less; now I find that goods like vegetables do not sell out, they go into the next day. People’s ability to buy these goods has really dropped,” Agolla, a mother of five, told IRIN.

Agolla managed to put her children through primary school but never earned enough to pay for secondary education.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87780

Kenya has launched an ambitious strategy to fight HIV/AIDS that aims to reduce new infections by at least 50 percent over the next four years and focus more on most at-risk populations (MARPs).

 The third Kenya National AIDS Strategic Plan, which runs from 2009/2010 till 2012/2013 and was launched in the capital, Nairobi, on 12 January, also aims to reduce AIDS-related mortality by 25 percent.

 “We cannot achieve our target unless we close new taps of HIV infections – this involves putting most at-risk populations at the centre of our HIV programmes and prevention strategies,” said Alloys Orago, director of the National AIDS Control Council.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87721

IRIN – The lack of adequate sanitation facilities in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has led to increased use of polythene bags – known as “flying toilets” – for human waste disposal, local officials said.

The situation is worse in slums where infrastructure is basic. The few private and public facilities that exist charge up to USh200 [US10 cents] per use of a toilet.

“These areas are characterized by poor drainage systems and in the rainy season, the problem becomes worse,” said Bernard Luyiga, a councillor in Kampala district. “We have not invested enough in this.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?Reportid=87677

Ekklesia – The international aid agency Oxfam, has warned of dire consequences from the drought that has hit parts of East Africa for the sixth year in a row.

The NGO has said Somalia’s drought was the worst for 20 years, and November rainfall had been less than 5 per cent of normal in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

But an Ethiopian minister has subsequently denied reports that millions of people need urgent food aid after failed rains. He was speaking after the US-funded Famine Early Warning System warned of increased hunger in parts of the country in the coming months.

Read more – http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10941

IPS – In early November, a group of explorers set out to map a blank space in Africa’s map. Twelve youths armed with global positioning system (GPS) devices made the rounds of the Nairobi slum of Kibera.

The teens are working with an organisation called OpenStreetMap to create a public map of their neighbourhood, seven kilometrs southwest of the city centre. It is the second-largest informal settlement in Africa, after South Africa’s Soweto township.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49883