AfricaDigest 11/12/10

[AfricaDigest Manager]

Scared southern Sudanese flee the north to vote
By James Copnall
BBC News, Khartoum

Thousands of southern Sudanese are fleeing the north as tension grows
in the build-up to January's referendum on possible southern
independence.
Southern Sudan's government is trying to organise many of the returns.
Many southerners have been scared by suggestions from senior northern
officials that they would not be welcome if the south votes to secede.
The referendum is part of a 2005 deal to end the 21-year civil war in
Africa's largest nation.
The Muslim north and south where most people are Christian or follow
traditional religions are also divided along ethnic, economic and
political lines and have fought for most of Sudan's post-independence
history.

'Uncertain in south'
The government of the south is paying for transport for many of those
wanting to leave the capital, Khartoum - although some people have
been waiting for weeks for a bus.
"I am going to the south because the referendum is near," Michael told
the BBC.

A thin man carrying a luminous green plastic chair on his shoulder, he
says he is returning to Bentiu, the capital of Unity State.
"It's difficult to be a southerner in Khartoum because this place is
not my place."
The south's Unity State has set up a makeshift office in the Khartoum
suburb of Sahafa, and has already registered more than 5,000 people to
get buses heading south.

Men mill around outside the office, while women sit on mats on the
dusty street, clutching small children on their laps.
Mattresses and chairs and tightly stuffed plastic bags of household
belongings are piled up on a scrap of wasteland.
UN head of humanitarian affairs Baroness Valerie Amos, who has been
touring Sudan this week, is worried about too many people returning to
the south, to uncertain conditions.
"Where people want to return, it's important this return is done on a
phased basis," she says.

"There is no point people leaving jobs in the north to go to the south
to be unemployed."
David, a young man who fled Sudan's civil war and lived for several
years in a refugee camp in Kenya, moved to Khartoum to study.
Now he is preparing to leave - with the intention of voting a new
country into being.
"Many people are gathering to go back to their homelands to vote for
separation, not for unity," he explains.
"We are here for many years suffering from the Khartoum regime."
He says he is worried he would not get a fair vote if he stays in the
north.
"Whenever we vote here we cannot get good voting. They can put that we
are voting for unity but we are voting for separation."

Frustration
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which controls the south since
a 2005 peace deal, clearly agrees.
It is trying to move as many southerners as possible to vote in areas
away from northern control - preferring them to be in places it
influences.
At one point it announced it wanted more than a million southerners to
return, though this number has been revised down.
But outside the Unity State office in Sahafa, frustration is growing
as there is no money for the buses to transport people back home.
"I've been waiting here for almost three months," David says.
"We are waiting for southerners to bring money to transfer the people
to the south.
"There are many children; they sleep on the road without any shelter
and without any food.

"We are suffering too much."
Simon, a young man with a large watch almost slipping off his slim
wrist, says he too is desperate to leave Khartoum.
"We are disturbed; we don't know what is going on. We just want to get
to Southern Sudan."
-----------------
Kenya to launch Africa's first carbon exchange

Kenya is to launch a climate exchange platform to facilitate the
trading of carbon credits and help tackle climate change.
The market will be the first of its kind in Africa, enabling all
African countries to sell their carbon credits.
The exchange is expected to be open for business by the middle of next
year.

Carbon dioxide is one of the main gases causing climate change,
scientists say, and such exchanges are one way to offset carbon
emissions.
Polluting industries in rich countries pay for clean development
projects in poor countries.

Some forecasts warn that Africa will be badly affected by climate
change, even though most of the greenhouse gases which cause it are
produced in the West and Asia.

One carbon credit is equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide, or in some
markets, carbon dioxide-equivalent gases.
The BBC's Kevin Mwachiro in Nairobi says officials hope the trade in
carbon credits will open up investment in the generation of renewable
energy and forestry projects.
Kenya's government estimates that its largest forest, the Mau, has the
potential to earn the country close to $2bn (£1.2bn) a year over the
next 15 years.
But our reporter says that before the country runs to the bank, this
value would have to be certified by the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
----------------
Placing a value on Kenya's largest forest
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Mau Forest, Kenya

They fall as mere raindrops but quickly transform into cogs in a
billion-dollar machine crucial to the future of a nation's economy.
That's the startling conclusion of new research into the economic
value of the preserving Kenya's Mau Forest, the country's largest.
In the jargon of environmental science, the forest's ability to
generate rain and to store water is "an ecosystem service" worth huge
sums to activities downstream.

The forest stretches over hills between the Rift Valley and Lake
Victoria and is the source of no fewer than 12 rivers flowing through
the heart of Kenya.
Prized as a "natural water tower", the forest has also been the target
for aggressive clearance and timber logging in recent decades and its
size has been cut by at least 40%.

Research by the Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI) and the UN
Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates the economic benefit of the
forest to be more than $1.3bn per year.

The aim of the work is to bring a financial focus to the cause of
conservation.
UNEP's executive secretary Achim Steiner told me: "Having the hard
numbers for the value of nature changes the way people think about it.
"If we destroy the forest, we compromise nature's ability to supply
water, and if we lose the water supply we'll have to spend lot of
money finding alternatives."

The study comes as officials and ministers gather at Nagoya in Japan
for a major conference on the UN Convention on Biodiversity.
With targets for conserving the natural world repeatedly missed, the
hope is that introducing an economic argument will help to halt the
losses.
Key industries that depend on water from the Mau Forest are already
aware of its critical importance.
Bordering the trees are some of Kenya's largest tea plantations - tea
is one of the country's key exports and the research calculates that
it benefits from the forest to the tune of $163m a year.

Standing in a field of tea bushes owned by the food giant Unilever,
Florence Mitei, a company official, describes the forest as essential.
"The forest gives us rain. Without the trees we don't get rainfall,
therefore we do not get our tea.
"During the dry spells, the plants dry up and we cannot support the
livelihoods of our employees."
Further downstream, Kenya's state power company Kengen operates a
Japanese-funded hydro-electric power station on the Sondu River - half
of the country's power is driven by water.

Some 90% of the Sondu's flow comes directly from the Mau Forest and
the station itself generates as much as 6% of Kenya's total supply.
A massive system of barriers channels part of the river's flow towards
a steep pipe that leads to a turbine hall - but output fell
drastically during a drought last year.
The study calculates that the Mau Forest's value to the electricity
sector is $131.6m.
Manager Alfried Abiero says that, "long-term you get worried about the
future of the forest because for the sustainability of this project,
the Mau has to be there."

I ask him what would happen if the forest were to be cleared.
"God forbid," he says. "We'd get reduced precipitation and reduced
flows and it would affect the viability of the whole system."
Further from the forest are six lakes that receive the Mau's water,
among them Lake Nakuru, renowned for its population of brilliant pink
flamingos.
This blaze of lurid colour helps to make tourism one of Kenya's
biggest earners, and the study reckons this industry receives $65
million in benefits from the forest.

Further services provided by the forest include an estimated
$89million in storing carbon, $98million in controlling soil erosion
and $21million in support for fisheries.
For Jacob Mwanduka, of the campaign group Friends of the Mau Forest
Watershed (FOMAWA), the forest is "the leading ecosystem in this
country, supporting a third of country's population.
"Without water, there is no life. And without forests, there is no
water.
"It's as simple as that. It's painful that we are losing our forest,
so we need to act now."

Aware of these pressures, the Kenyan Government is committed to saving
the Mau Forest and has plans to confront the main cause of its
destruction: the presence of 20,000 families inside it. Some have been
resettled already.
But this raises highly sensitive questions - how much should people be
compensated? What about illegal settlers? And where should they be
moved to?

Beside one track through the forest, Margaret Kwamboka and her husband
Kennedy are planting pea seeds on a patch of cleared land. The charred
stumps of felled trees still stand around them.
Margaret says she understands the value of the trees but cannot afford
to leave.
"There's nothing we can do. I am afraid because I don't have anything.
How will I feed my children?"

The fate of the forest raises a difficult dilemma: the balance between
the immediate needs of impoverished people in a developing country and
the long-term ability of the natural world to support for key elements
of the economy.
Usually, struggles of this kind end with nature losing.
That is why there's such a clamour for governments to commit
themselves to tougher targets for conservation at the talks in Nagoya.
The raindrops trickling from the leaves of the Mau Forest - and their
worth in hard currency - are a reminder of what is at stake.
--------------
Pirates seize ship 'nearer to India than Somalia'

Pirates have hijacked a chemical tanker almost 900 nautical miles
(1,600km) off the Horn of Africa, in waters closer to India than to
Somalia.
The European Union Naval Force (Navfor) says the Hannibal II was
boarded while carrying vegetable oil from Malaysia towards the Suez
Canal.
The Panamanian-flagged ship has 31 crew, Navfor said.
Last month a maritime watchdog said Somali pirates had intensified
attacks away from their own coast.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said a strong foreign naval
presence off the Somali coast had led to a drop in the number of
piracy incidents there. But it said pirates were moving into larger
adjacent seas.
"The master of the vessel [Hannibal II] reported that he had been
attacked and boarded by pirates in an area some 860 nautical miles
east of the Horn of Africa which is considerably closer to India than
it is to Somalia," a Navfor statement said.
It said the crew consisted of 23 Tunisians, four Filipinos, a Croat, a
Georgian, a Russian and a Moroccan.

Ship hijackings hit a five-year high in the first nine months of 2010,
with Somali pirates responsible for the majority, the IMB said.
Pirates are making millions of dollars in ransoms. Earlier this month
Somali pirates were reported to have received a total of $12.3m
(£7.6m) for the release of two ships.
Somalia has not had an effective central government for more than 19
years and is plagued by insecurity.
------------
Chinese workers attacked in Angola's Cabinda province

An Angolan minister tells the BBC that a convoy carrying Chinese mine
workers was attacked in the region of Cabinda this week.
He said that two soldiers guarding the workers, contracted by Angola's
state oil company Sonangol, were killed.
A faction of the Cabinda separatist movement Flec has said it carried
out Monday's attack.
Secretary of State for Human Rights Bento Bembe condemned the attack
as the work of "terrorists".

In January, Cabinda independence fighters attacked a bus carrying the
Togo national football team to an African Cup of Nations match in the
province, killing two people and leaving nine others wounded.
Flec (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) has been
fighting for three decades for independence in Cabinda, an area
separated from Angola by a strip of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite being rich in oil, the region is one of the poorest in the
country.
------------
Central Africa to immunise millions over polio outbreak

Aid agencies are planning to immunise three million people in central
Africa after a polio outbreak, which has killed more than 100 people.
Hundreds more have been paralysed by the disease, authorities have
said.
The disease broke out in Congo-Brazzaville, but has also affected
parts of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
The government said the vast majority of deaths had occurred in the
city of Pointe-Noire in Congo-Brazzaville.
Congo-Brazzaville had previously recorded its last case of indigenous
polio in 2000.
The vaccination plan is being conducted by several aid agencies,
including Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO).

'Not immunised'
"The first round of a mass vaccination campaign targeting three
million people will begin Friday, in response to a polio epidemic
which has unusually claimed a majority of adult victims," said a joint
statement.
The majority of reported cases and deaths had occurred in males aged
over 15.
Polio, which damages the nervous system, causing paralysis and death
if untreated, normally strikes young children.
The immunisation plan will start in Pointe-Noire, the epicentre of the
outbreak, and extend to surrounding areas.

"Every man, every woman, every child will be immunised irrespective of
their past immunisation status," said Dr Luis G Sambo, WHO's regional
director for Africa.
"This way we can be assured that everybody is reached, including young
adults, whose immunity may be low."
Congo's director general of health, Alexis Elira Dokekias, said the
victims had either not been sufficiently immunised or not immunised at
all.
Reports say women and girls may have developed some immunity to the
disease through contact with babies that had been immunised.
In 2000 and 2001, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
and Gabon carried out synchronised campaigns against the polio virus.
------------
New York museum to return King Tut artefacts to Egypt

A New York museum is to repatriate to Egypt 19 items found in King
Tutankhamun's tomb, officials said.
The 19 artefacts, including a tiny bronze dog and a sphinx bracelet
jewel, were discovered in the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art.
Under the terms of the British-led excavation, the tomb's contents
were not to leave Egypt's possession, the museum said on Wednesday.
The boy-pharaoh's tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter.

'Illegal export'
"These objects were never meant to have left Egypt, and therefore
should rightfully belong to the government of Egypt," Thomas Campbell,
director of the museum, said in a statementreleased on Wednesday.
Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, described the move as a
"wonderful gesture" and said the objects had been "illegally
exported".
The artefacts are to be displayed in Times Square in New York City,
then will be shown again at the Metropolitan Museum, then will be
returned to Egypt in June.
Researchers at the museum concluded the objects, which came into the
museum's collection between the 1920s and 1940s, had originated in
King Tutankhamun's tomb by examining tomb records and probate
accounts.

Tutankhamun reigned from about 1336 to 1327BC, when scientists believe
he died of malaria. The tomb was discovered by British archaeologist
Howard Carter in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings and excavated over
the next decade.
At the time, Egyptian authorities decided none of the artefacts from
the tomb should leave Egyptian control.
The pieces came into the museum's collection from Mr Carter's niece
and from his house in Luxor, Egypt, which he bequeathed to the museum,
the museum said.
The museum described 15 of the returning artefacts as "bits or
samples".
----------------
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love.
It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed
person. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)
------------------
This posting is provided without permission of the copyright owner for
purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship, and research under the
"Fair Use" provisions of U.S.Government copyright laws and it may not
be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. The
sender does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the message,
which is the sole responsibility of the copyright