YouTube – L’Esperance Orphanage.

NAIROBI, Jan 5 (Reuters) – The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended its work in much of southern Somalia due to threats against its staff and unacceptable demands by al Shabaab rebels controlling the area, a WFP spokesman said on Tuesday.

“Unacceptable conditions and demands from armed groups have disrupted WFP’s ability to reach many of the most vulnerable people in southern Somalia,” Peter Smerdon told Reuters.

via Reuters AlertNet – WFP suspends operations in much of southern Somalia.

Les Roberts, Clinical Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has worked extensively in countries ranging from Zimbabwe to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For the last month he’s been coordinating a blog series for ONE on the Central African Republic. You can read the full series here.

His most recent post, on the impact of conflict on the Central African Republic, is below.

The impact of conflict on Central Africans is obscured if one only counts up the number of violent deaths or war-related causalities, each a tragedy in its own right. There is no doubt that the six organized rebel groups and the ever present threat of poachers and road bandits contribute to an insecurity that rarely escapes the minds of most of the rural population. But any active fighting is contained in small pockets of the country and the majority of the population lives in areas with little to no rebel or bandit activity.

It is conflict’s ability to prevent a population from accessing life’s basic services that cultivates disaster. CAR’s health system is in ruins, with even the most basic of services out of reach for many. People are dying because pharmacies aren’t stocked and the nation’s few trained doctors tend to remain in the capital, Bangui, due to the rest of the country’s insecurity, poor transportation links, and the inability to access any salary the government manages to pay them from rural areas.

In Mobaye we met a young man in agony three days after he had been in a devastating motorcycle accident. He wasn’t from the town and had no family nearby; he was traveling through there as an apprentice to a team running a trucking business. Their truck had broken down. He walked with a limp, leaning on a large stick, his shoulder and shattered right arm were supported with a sling made from a small strip of cloth and he wore a t-shirt draped over his head to hide the extensive damage to his face.

Read the full report via The Impact of Conflict in the Central African Republic | ONE.

KINSHASA, Jan 3 (Reuters) – More than 150 people were killed last week in fighting between government troops and armed groups in the Equateur province of Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.N. mission in the central African country said on Sunday. U.N.-backed Radio Okapi said 157 insurgents and one soldier from the Congolese army, known as the FARDC, were killed in and around the town of Inyele between Dec. 31 and Jan 1.

Inyele is 65 km (40 miles) from Dongo, in the northwest of the country, where ethnic violence erupted in late October.

That conflict began as a dispute over fishing rights between the Enyele and Monzaya communities. Since then, a number of groups have posted statements on the Internet saying they were launching a rebellion from Equateur against President Joseph Kabila’s government in Kinshasa.

“Information received from peacekeepers indicate fierce fighting between FARDC and armed elements,” Lt Col Jean-Paul Dietrich, military spokesman for U.N. force MONUC told Reuters.

“It was reported that 157 armed elements were killed. FARDC reportedly suffered several casualties,” he said, adding the Congolese army had taken control of Inyele.

Last week, the United Nations said it had extended the mandate of its peacekeeping forces in the country for only five months instead of a full year.

The shortened extension will allow the United Nations to work with Kinshasa on a revised mandate for the forces that will focus on training the Congolese army ahead of withdrawal.

read the full report via More than 150 killed in Congo attacks this week-UN | News by Country | Reuters.

Following the eruption of a volcano in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country is using its aviation force to help to keep a close eye on lava flow.

Mount Nyamulagira, which sits some 40 kilometres northwest of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, erupted on Saturday, and while it has not affected any people, the lava has spewed into a non-populated area of the Virunga National Park.

The UN mission known as MONUC has put its Indian aviation force and helicopters at the disposal of local authorities, scientists with the Volcanic Observatory of Goma and the National Institute for the Conservation of Nature ICCN to help monitor volcanic activity.MONUC said that for now, the population of Goma and its surrounding areas seem to be safe from any lava flow, but that the mission stands ready to provide additional support to officials, who have assured people that the nearby volcano of Nyiragongo will be unaffected by the eruption of Nyamulagira.

The ICCN has expressed concern over the threat posed by the volcanic eruption on Virunga National Park’s ecosystems and wildlife, including the possible migration or death of animals in the site

via allAfrica.com: Congo-Kinshasa: UN Helping to Monitor Volcanic Eruption in East.

Who was Bok Abudema?

Abudema hails from Alero-Lamogi in Amuru district. He worked as a sugarcane cutter in Jinja during the Obote II regime.

When President Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986, he joined the UPDA, a rebel group composed of soldiers of the former Okello regime which fought to overthrow the new Government.

He joined the LRA in 1988 after Kony was attacked by Museveni’s NRA at Bwobo railways station in Alero Sub-county, Gulu District. He was one of the few remaining LRA fighters who had joined the rebel group voluntarily.

Abudema was involved in many massacres in northern Uganda. In 1998, he took part in the killing of 11 LRA fighters who were accused of practicing witchcraft in Jebelein, the LRA camp in Southern Sudan.

In December 1999, after the passing of the Amnesty Act by the Ugandan Parliament, he executed the then number two, Otti Lagony, in their camp in Sudan on Kony’s orders.

In 2002, Abudema commanded a raid in Agoro Sub-county in Kitgum district in which several civilians and UPDF soldiers died and at least 100 people were abducted. The trading centre was looted and the military barracks burnt down.

In April 2002, he took part in a massacre of about 800 civilians at Katire village in Southern Sudan.

In 2003, he was among the senior LRA commanders who crossed into the Teso region in eastern Uganda and carried out horrific massacres and massive abductions.

On October 2, 2007, he took part in the execution of Kony’s deputy, Vincent Otti, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Abudema shouted the order ‘fire’ to the firing squad. Earlier, he had participated in arresting, torturing and humiliating Otti.

He was reportedly wounded during the December 14, 2008 air strikes on the LRA camps in eastern Congo under the joint offensive.

via Welcome To The Sunday Vision online: Uganda’s leading weekly.

Army in CAR to fight Kony
Sunday, 3rd January, 2010	E-mail article Print article
By Chris Ocowun THE UPDF 4th Division commander, Brig. Charles Otema Awany, has camped at Obbo village in the Central African Republic to coordinate operations against the LRA remnants headed by Joseph Kony. The regional army spokesman, Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, said Otema took over the command against the LRA rebels from Brig. Patrick Kankiriho. “The hardcore LRA criminals are in the Central African Republic. The issue now is when to put the final nails on them since they are already defeated,” Kakurungu told journalists at his office on Monday. He said the situation in the north was calm with more troops deployed in the DR Congo, the Central African Republic and at all the borders to pursue the LRA rebels and ensure that they do not return to Uganda. “We have not lost focus in these operations and our mission is to ensure that the problem of LRA rebels does not spill over to the north again,” Kakurungu noted. Kakurungu said the army had killed 305 rebels since it launched a joint military offensive, Operation Lightning Thunder, on December 14, 2008, under the command of Kankiriho. He said the UPDF jointly attacked the LRA hideouts with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and the Congolese army in an operation backed by the air force, paratroopers and infantry. The forces withdrew from Congo early last year when the time granted by the Congolese government for the operations elapsed. However, the army maintained intelligence units to help the SPLA and Congolese army clear LRA remnants, Kakurungu added. He also explained that the army with the Police have been conducting a national de-mining programme in the north. “There was a big concern by the IDPs about the mines in return areas. Most of these areas were battlefields and, not yet safe for settlement,” Kakurungu stated that the UPDF and the Police recovered ammunition in the return areas in Gulu, Amuru, Pader and Kitgum. Some of the weapons recovered included 23 land mines, 277 grenades and 154 rocket- propelled grenades. // <![CDATA[ if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write (""); // ]]>

New Vision Online : Army in CAR to fight Kony.

As reported: United Nations rights chief: “Arrest Joseph Kony” | Resolve Uganda.

After reading Peter Eichstaedt: Another year for Kony and the LRA. its just confirmed what i thought to be true about Kony and the Khartoum helping him. I said to a few people that if Kony made it to Darfur and was able to regroup the atrocities committed would be explosive.

In recent days reports have been coming through of captures and killings of LRA Rebel forces, but yet Kony still remains at large.  This one man seems to be capable of eluding forces time and time again.

Through Invisible children over 200 US Congress have co-sponsored the LRA Disarmament and Northern Ugandan Recovery Act 2009, this is campaigning its way to the white house as we speak and they require the help of all the push this bill through. Visit Invisible children and check out how you can help end the longest running war in africa.

With the vast improvements in technology these days it is our duty to help those who are less fortunate. Current numbers say only around 5% of northern Uganda has electricity. To live in this century and not have access to electricity, fresh water, medical health and most of all food is atrocious. While westerners throw out tonnes of food each year to waste, over 1 billion* people are going hungry (*via WFP).

I find it hard these days to waste and i refuse to live as though we “have it all” when others have nothing.

*FreeUganda – Rebecca Fowler

IDMC | Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Uganda.