CONTENTS:

1 - DRC-ROC: More than 70,000 displaced by violence in Equateur
2 - GLOBAL: UN calls for continued humanitarian funding
3 - SWAZILAND: Floods wash away the drought


1 - DRC-ROC: More than 70,000 displaced by violence in Equateur

NAIROBI, 30 November (IRIN) - More than 70,000 people have been displaced by
inter-communal clashes in northwest Democratic Republic of Congo's Equateur
province, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

About half of the displaced have remained inside DRC, taking temporary shelter
in locations such as Kungu, Bokonzi, Bomboma and Bonzene, according to the
Belgian branch of MSF, which conducted an assessment mission to the province.

The team found "people who had walked for up to four days to save their lives.
At the end of their journey, these people are destitute, they have nothing. They
live in the open, or in makeshift shelters, or schools or churches, or with host
families. The injured cannot get treatment because it's too expensive and they
fled with nothing," MSF said in a statement.

The rest of the displaced crossed the Ubangi river into neighbouring Republic
of Congo (ROC) where many are spread along the shore of the river and can only
be reached by pirogue.

These refugees number more than 44,000 according to Samba Ndalla, the field
coordinator of Médecins d'Afrique, an NGO that is working with the UN Refugee
Agency (UNHCR) in ROC.

"This is the figure from Sunday [29 November]. But there is another wave of
refugees who have arrived in Impfondo zone and have yet to be registered," he
said.

"The situation is catastrophic... most people only have shelters to protect
themselves against the rain and sun," said Ndalla.

"The needs are enormous. While we have not yet seen an epidemic as such, there
has been an increase in cases of malaria, some cases of diarrhoea, respiratory
infections and dermatitis among children," he said.

Ndalla said the latest influx was the result of an attack on the DRC village of
Buburu on Saturday night.

am-lmm/mw

[ENDS]


2 - GLOBAL: UN calls for continued humanitarian funding

GENEVA, 30 November (IRIN) - The UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian
Affairs, John Holmes, urged donors not to squeeze funding to humanitarian
emergencies while launching the annual Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) in
Geneva on 30 November.

"It is vital that humanitarian assistance be insulated from budget pressures;
it is important to make sure that people are not put under pressure from a
financial crisis that was not of their making," he said, clearly concerned that
the global economic crisis would leave traditional grant-makers strapped for
cash.

Humanitarian funding remained strong throughout 2009, but most donor budgets
were approved before the crisis hit; in 2010 aid budgets will be competing with
domestic economic stimulus packages in many countries.

The UN CAP process provides a mechanism for combining humanitarian aid requests
for a specific country or region to make coordination more effective. "The idea
is to present a concerted and strategic action plan," Holmes said.

The 2010 appeal covers 48 million people in 25 countries; at least 380
international agencies and NGOs have submitted projects, with a combined price
tag of US$7.1 billion - roughly $2.6 billion less than in 2009.

On average, donors eventually provide just over half the funding requested. The
2009 CAP initially called for $6.3 billion, but a series of additional appeals
linked to crises - including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan - eventually
raised the amount to $9.7 billion. A total of $6.3 billion was eventually
raised, setting a new record.

By far the largest request is for Sudan and the ongoing Darfur crisis, where
humanitarian projects are costed at $1.878 billion, a similar amount to last
year's; Afghanistan is in second place with $871 million; next, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, which hosts the largest UN peacekeeping mission, at $828
million.

Needs

According to Robert Smith, head of the CAP section in the UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, "aid needs to be holistic and incomplete
aid doesn't get people out of crises."

People tend to have several kinds of needs at once, he added. "It's not enough
to give treatment to a malnourished child. The child's family will also need
food aid and help in restarting their livelihood. The child must be getting
clean water from a protected source or else she can get an intestinal infection
- that throws her back into malnutrition."

Despite the pressure on the world economy, there are no indications so far that
overall humanitarian aid is likely to be cut, according to analysts IRIN spoke
to. "At this point, it seems unlikely that the financial crisis will have a
negative impact on humanitarian funding levels," said Rachel Scott of the
UK-based Development Initiatives, which tracks aid funding.

Many countries base their contributions on a percentage of their GDP, and if
their economies contract, the danger is that their contributions will also
shrink.

Jonathan Mitchell, Emergency Response Director of CARE International, a global
aid agency, pointed out that humanitarian funding was particularly difficult to
forecast, given the unpredictability of disasters.

The best guarantee for continued humanitarian funding might be that it in the
long run it made economic sense. "It's a drop in the ocean compared to the
budgets of most rich countries," said Mitchell.

"It is not as though anyone is going to help their budget by making cuts. If
they cut humanitarian funding, they would only be cutting a minimal part of
their total government expenditure, and it wouldn't help much. Most governments
realize that spending money on overseas development and emergency assistance is
critical for stability."

wtd/ct/oa/he[ENDS]


3 - SWAZILAND: Floods wash away the drought

MBABANE, 30 November (IRIN) - After two decades of drought the urgent prayers in
Swaziland's annual incwala ceremony, a month-long ritual in which ancestral
spirits are petitioned for good rains, have been answered with weeks of
torrential downpours. Floods now threaten food security.

On 17 November the sacred water party left for the Indian Ocean to collect
items required to celebrate the 'Festival of the First Fruits', and now
Swaziland's 13 rivers are all overflowing. The last time such rainfall was
recorded was 25 years ago in 1984, when a cyclone struck. Too little rain in
recent years has left most of the country's roughly one million people dependant
on foreign food aid.

Andrew Nsibandze, an agriculture ministry extension officer who travels the
country assessing crop performance, said floods were threatening newly planted
crops. Small-scale farmers in rural areas were particularly at risk.

"There are farmers unable to enter swamped fields," Nsibandze told IRIN. Pumps
to remove water from agricultural land and irrigation equipment had been washed
away; roads were out and bridges had collapsed.

Sipho Simelane, Senior Agricultural Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture,
told IRIN: "Most definitely the rains are going to have an effect on
agricultural production. We are getting reports ... about flooded fields - newly
planted fields that have been washed away."

Smallholder farmers struggled to pay for inputs for the first planting, so
buying new seeds and fertilizer for replanting would be beyond the means of
most, and the cash-strapped government was in no position to help. "The farmers
are on their own," Simelane said. The agriculture minister has not indicated
that he would seek emergency assistance for affected farmers.

Transportation and Public Works Minister Nthuthuko Dlamini said the November
downpours had caused US$6.7 million in damage to roads and highways - 19 bridges
had been destroyed - and the network of rural roads farmers used to bring their
crops to market had been severely compromised. Dlamini said only $270,000 was
available for infrastructure repair, and he would ask parliament for emergency
funding.

"This is unprecedented," said Trevor Shongwe, Chief Water Engineer for the
Ministry of Natural Resources. "Those who use river water to water crops should
ensure that the water pumps are situated far from the river bank because they
may be swept away."

He also cautioned residents whose homes were near rivers to monitor rising
water levels - hundreds of traditional mud-and-stick homes had already literally
dissolved in the past few weeks of continuous heavy rainfall. According to the
UN development Programme, 70 percent of Swazis live on less than a dollar a day.

Fears of anticipated water shortages this summer have been allayed. The
abundant rainfall will also raise underground water levels and some boreholes
that were dry for years might be revived.

While the sudden excess of water may mean good news for food production and
security in months to come, it will bring bad news in the short term if
waterlogged crops do not recover.

Excess water has been cascading down the spillways of Maguga Dam in northern
Hhohho Province, the nation's largest; the Hawane Dam, which provides water for
the capital, Mbabane, was also at 100 percent capacity. Dams in the previously
drought-prone eastern lowveld region were between 70 percent and 80 percent
full.

However, Jabulani Hlatshwako, Deputy Director of Swaziland's Meteorological
Services, noted that "Of concern are new storm fronts that can bring more water
after a break."

jh/tdm/he[ENDS]


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