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

The European Union is intercepting big shipments of medicines on their way to poorer countries, according to a new report published Tuesday.

The generic medicines, coming mostly from India and headed for Latin American countries, have been intercepted and blocked on the grounds of alleged infringement of intellectual property rights.

A report produced jointly by Oxfam and the independent Health Action International says the generic shipments are legitimate under WTO rules.

India and Brazil are due to file a complaint against the Netherlands before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after it seized a shipment of anti-HIV drugs headed from India via Europe to Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria.

“Although in transit, the patent law of the EU member state was called on by the right holder, and this was also the basis of the detainment by Dutch customs,” Sophie Bloemen from Health Action International told IPS by phone from Brussels.

Since late last year Germany and the Netherlands have made customs seizures of 19 shipments of generic medicines bound for developing countries, the report says. Of the last 17 shipments, 16 were from India and one from China.

Of these 17 shipments, five were headed for Peru, four for Colombia, two each for Ecuador and Mexico, and one each for Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Nigeria.

Many of these medicines are urgently needed to treat life-threatening conditions such as AIDS.

The medicines included 30,000 pills that are AIDS inhibitors,100,000 pills of cardiologic medicines, 500,000 pills to treat schizophrenia, and 94,000 pills to help treat dementia, according to customs information made available to IPS by Health Action International.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48935

An international aid group says East Africa is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in 10 years. The Britain-based agency, Oxfam, says climate change is leading to extreme drought, killing cattle and threatening lives throughout the region. The agency is appealing for millions of dollars for emergency relief.

Speaking to VOA from Nairobi, Oxfam’s East Africa Director Paul Smith Lomas says in some regions adequate rainfall has not come for three years. The worst affected countries, he says, are Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Uganda.

Read more – http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-29-voa53.cfm

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