CONTENTS:

1 - ETHIOPIA: Malnutrition critical in Somali region
2 - KENYA: Malnutrition crisis in northwest
3 - SOMALIA: Clashes displace hundreds of families in Somaliland
4 - WEST AFRICA: Region responds to flood damage


1 - ETHIOPIA: Malnutrition critical in Somali region

ADDIS ABABA, 16 July (IRIN) - Malnutrition rates in the Somali region of
Ethiopia have reached critical levels, according to a recent assessment by the
regional health bureau.

Conducted in seven woredas (districts) between April and May, the assessment
found global acute malnutrition rates of 14.5 to 21.9 percent. A rate exceeding
15 percent reflects an emergency situation, it noted.

The highest rate of 21.9 percent was recorded in Degehabour woreda of
Degehabour zone. Five other woredas in the zone also exceeded the emergency
threshold.

The assessment noted that acute water shortages, poor access to safe water, low
immunisation coverage, high childhood morbidity and dependence on relief food
had aggravated the situation. Household coping mechanisms had also weakened
after years of drought.

The findings indicated that under-five mortality rates are high in Degehabur
and Bokh woredas.

"The situation is critical in Bokh and Degehabur woredas and serious in Kelafo,
Hamero, Bare and Ayisha woredas, while Filtu was deemed 'poor', on the
borderline of 'serious'," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs said in its weekly humanitarian bulletin.

The health bureau forecast that the poor performance of the Gu rains in 2009
would lead to a further deterioration in food security as well as nutritional
and health conditions in the region. The Gu rains fall in the long wet season
that normally extends from March to May.

"In pastoral areas, the bad performance of the Gu season means that the
July-September dry season is likely to be exceptionally harsh," the Famine Early
Warning System Network said on 24 June.

The bureau recommended the immediate resumption of full relief food rations for
targeted populations in the region. It also proposed strengthening supplementary
feeding programmes.

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2 - KENYA: Malnutrition crisis in northwest

NAIROBI, 16 July (IRIN) - Poor rains have heightened food insecurity in Kenya's
northwestern region of Turkana, where malnutrition rates in children under five
have risen above the emergency threshold, according to humanitarian officials.

"Poor rains in April, May and June worsened food insecurity in the region,
where 74 percent of the population [estimated at 550,000] already depends on
food aid," Vincent Kahi, the health coordinator for the International Rescue
Committee (IRC), said on 15 July at a press briefing in Nairobi.

He said at least 50 percent of child deaths in the region were due to
malnutrition or had malnutrition as an underlying cause of death.

Turkana is a mostly arid region, with little agriculture. Most of the
population depends on livestock, but the viability of pastoralism is being
undermined by recurrent and increasingly unpredictable droughts and armed
conflict with groups from neighbouring regions or countries.

Across the country, "food security prospects for the coming months are dismal",
according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"In [the north-central] Samburu district, the percentage of children under-five
considered at risk of malnutrition increased to 29.4 from 21.8 last month. In
Moyale [in the northeast], the nutrition status of children below five years
declined, with the percentage of children rated at risk of malnutrition rising
to 35 percent from 30.6 in April," OCHA warned in a weekly bulletin.

"The decline was attributed to higher food prices and reduced availability of
food," it added.

"Given the very poor outcomes of the long rains, the situation is expected to
seriously deteriorate, especially in districts receiving no or limited support,
if nutrition interventions do not maintain higher levels of coverage in some
districts e.g. Kajiado, Kinango, Marsabit, Wajir, Turkana, West Pokot, and do
not scale-up in others i.e. Isiolo, Samburu, Baringo," the report warned.

Kahi said preliminary findings of an inter-agency nutrition survey conducted in
May 2009 in the larger Turkana area showed most of the districts with over 20
percent global acute malnutrition (GAM). The World Health Organization (WHO)
emergency threshold is 15 percent. Acute malnutrition exposes a child to high
levels of mortality and disease.

He said the northwest region of Turkana had the highest GAM, at 28.2 percent.

"What this means is that there is an emergency in Turkana; food insecurity is
the main issue," Kahi said. "Sustainable livelihood programming is needed."

Besides malnutrition, Kahi said, pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea were the
three main diseases responsible for deaths among under-fives in Turkana.

He said IRC, through its partners, was providing community-based treatment for
these diseases across the larger Turkana area.

IRC also has nutrition and supplementary feeding programmes targeting severely
malnourished children in parts of the Turkana region.

Peter Smerdon, a senior public affairs officer for the UN World Food Programme,
told IRIN an ongoing inter-agency assessment of the just-ended long rains would
determine the numbers in need of food aid in arid and semi-arid areas such as
Turkana, Samburu and Laikipia.

"Based on a recent visit to some of these areas, the situation appears rather
alarming; at least 2.5 million people [countrywide] were found to be in need of
food aid following the short rains assessment. We expect the number to go up
after the long rains assessment because the rains were much below normal in many
areas," Smerdon said.

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3 - SOMALIA: Clashes displace hundreds of families in Somaliland

HARGEISA, 16 July (IRIN) - At least 700 families in Somalia's self-declared
republic of Somaliland have been displaced following clashes between two clans
over ownership of Elberdale farmland in Gabiley region, local officials said.

Seven people were reportedly killed in the 10-12 July clashes between
militiamen of Hared and Mohamoud Nour clans.

Elabe Mohamoud Hufane, the deputy mayor of Dilla in Awdal region, told IRIN
between 400 and 500 families were displaced in his region alone.

"These families are now without shelter and they lost a significant number of
their livestock during the clashes," Hufane said. "We know two persons were
killed in the conflict and five others were injured; four are missing."

The latest clashes marked the fourth time armed conflict has broken out in the
Elberdale farmland in the past six months between the Hared and Mohamoud Nour
clans. The two are claiming ownership of the land and efforts to resolve the
dispute have so far failed.

Khadra H. Gaydh, the deputy mayor of Gabiley, said more than 400 families in
the area had been displaced and that government officials had confirmed five
deaths although witnesses on the ground put the figure at 11.

A villager who requested anonymity said: "Four people were killed after they
were kidnapped on 12 July and seven others were killed in the conflict."

Following the clashes, Halo Trust - an NGO undertaking demining in the area -
suspended its operations in Ruqi, near the Elberdale farmland.

"We cannot risk [the lives] of our staff in the area because of the
instability," a field official said, requesting anonymity.

The farmers among those displaced expressed concern for their livelihoods,
saying they had fled during the planting season.

"We lost the first planting season in the early Gu [long rains] and now we are
forced to flee during the current planting season," Omar Aden told IRIN.

The latest fighting followed a meeting between Somaliland President Dahir
Rayale Kahin and the Gabiley elders over the dispute.

Calling for peace, the presidency appealed to clan elders from both sides to
broker a ceasefire.

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4 - WEST AFRICA: Region responds to flood damage

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Heavy rains have caused flooding in Benin, Liberia,
Ghana and Gambia since the start of the rainy season in late June according to
governments and non-profits.

Higher-than-average rainfall is expected this season in the southern Gulf of
Guinea zone, including parts of Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Côte
d'Ivoire, Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and coastal Nigeria said the International
Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Governments and non-profits are responding to floods in the following countries:

BENIN

Heavy rains hit in late June causing heavy flooding in the south of the country,
especially in coastal regions. Some 2,000 houses and several schools were
submerged, and 13,464 people affected, according to the Benin Red Cross. The
government of Benin declared its first state of emergency in recent years.

A crisis coordination cell, led by the government with UN agency and NGO
participants, has been meeting daily to monitor the situation. An initial
assessment from the Geneva-based UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC)
team estimated 43 of the country's 77 communes have been affected.

"We are looking for more information to indicate where we need to go. We are
focusing on areas that have not yet been assessed," the head of the UNDAC
coordination team, Ingrid Nordström-Ho, told IRIN on 14 July.

UNDAC, the IFRC, government representatives and NGOs will carry out further
rapid assessments on 15 and 16 July.

The IFRC launched a disaster appeal on 10 July to help provide shelter, food,
medicines, teaching materials, and construction materials to affected people in
Benin. Its partner, the Benin Red Cross, started distributing non-food-items to
Cotonou residents on 13 July, aiming to reach 5,200 people.

The regional humanitarian adviser from European Union's humanitarian office,
ECHO, travelled to Benin on 13 July to review ongoing relief coordination
efforts.

BURKINA FASO

The government has estimated 500 flood victims nationwide, mostly in rural
areas, since rains started in June.

GAMBIA

A 2 July storm hit Banjul, the capital of Gambia, destroying hundreds of houses
according to the IFRC. The non-profit is providing roofing materials to 150
families for home repairs.

GHANA

June storms killed at 13 and displaced hundreds in the capital, Accra, and the
Central and Volta regions, destroying homes and businesses and prompting the
government national disaster management committee, NADMO, to respond.

But gaps in response have led the IFRC to distribute shelter kits and cooking
equipment to 1,000 families in flood-affected areas.

NADMO, NGOs and the IFRC are currently assessing the situation to see if further
help is needed.

"The government's emergency coordination mechanism in Ghana is well-established,
so this is our response for now, but we may step up depending on whether the
needs change," said IFRC'S West Africa disaster management coordinator, Youcef
Ait-Chellouche.

NGOs will also be monitoring potential crop damage due to floods in the eastern
Volta region said the IFRC.

LIBERIA

Heavy rains in early July displaced hundreds of residents from their homes on
the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia, according to the government. President
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf set up an emergency task force headed by the Ministry of
the Interior to lobby for relief assistance. Thus far the government has
provided food to those displaced in Monrovia's suburbs.

Two other counties affected by floods are Grand Cape Mount in the northwest on
the Sierra Leone border, where 1,500 residents have been displaced in the town
Sowee, and Grand Gedeh in the southeast, according to local authorities.

TOGO

Heavy rains in early July caused several small floods in the southern maritime
region. The government and Red Cross are assessing damages.

aj/pt

[ENDS]


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