Aid agencies issue drought appeal

8 July 2011 Last updated at 13:09 GMT Brendan Gormley: "Thousands of people are on the move"

A group of UK aid agencies has launched a joint fund-raising appeal to help more than 10 million people affected by severe drought in the Horn of Africa.

Thousands of families in desperate need of food and water have trekked for days from Somalia to the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya.

The drought is the worst in East Africa for 60 years and the UN described it as a "humanitarian emergency".

A Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal will be broadcast by the BBC.

Continue reading the main story DEC is an umbrella organisation representing a number of aid agenciesParticipants in the appeal include ActionAid, Age UK, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World VisionTo make a donation call 0370 60 60 900, text 'CRISIS' to 70000 to donate ?5, post a donation to PO Box 999 London EC3A 3AAComedian Lenny Henry will front the BBC TV appeal while broadcaster Kate Adie will voice the radio version.

The British public donated more than ?1m to individual charities even before the DEC appeal was launched.

Save the Children had received ?560,000, Oxfam ?277,000 and the Red Cross ?150,000.

DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said thousands of destitute people were on the move into Kenya and Ethiopia.

More than 1,300 people a day were arriving in the Dadaab camp, already thought to be the world's largest with a population of 350,000.

A similar number are crossing into Ethiopia.

Many of those reaching the camps are severely malnourished children, some of whom have died soon after arriving.

'Preventing tragedy'

Mr Gormley said: "Slowly but surely, these people have seen their lives fall apart - crops, livestock and now their homes have been taken by the drought," .

"They've been left with no alternative but to seek shelter and life-saving help elsewhere.

"We have a duty to help quickly before the situation spirals out of control."

Continue reading the main story Extended drought is causing a severe food crisis in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Weather conditions over the Pacific means the rains have failed for two seasons and are unlikely to return until September. Food shortages are affecting up to 12 million people. The UN has not declared a famine but large areas of the region are now classified as in crisis or emergency, with malnutrition affecting up to 35-40% of children under five. The humanitarian problem is made worse by ongoing conflicts, which means that until July militant groups had only allowed aid organisations limited access to large parts of southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. Since the beginning of 2011, around 15,000 Somalis each month have fled into refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia looking for food and water. The refugee camp at Dadaab, in Kenya, has been overwhelmed by 370,000 people. Farmers unable to meet their basic food costs are abandoning their herds. High cereal and fuel prices had already forced them to sell many animals before the drought and their smaller herds are now unprofitable or dying. The refugee problem may have been preventable. However, violent conflict in the region has deterred international investment in long-term development programmes, which may have reduced the effects of the drought. Development aid would focus on reducing deforestation, topsoil erosion and overgrazing and improving water conservation. New roads and infrastructure for markets would help farmers increase their profits. The result of climate conditions, conflict and lack of investment is that 6.7 million people in Kenya and Ethiopia are currently existing on food rations, and relief agencies estimate 2.6 million in Somalia will need assistance a new emergency operation. BACK {current} of {total} NEXT The UK has pledged ?38m ($61m) in food aid to drought-hit Ethiopia - enough to feed 1.3 million people for three months.

The DEC appeal will help people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan, which will officially separate from the Republic of Sudan on 9 July.

Mr Gormley said: "Of course these people need a long-term solution with investment and political will - but right now it's about preventing a tragedy."

Aid agencies, including the Kenyan Red Cross, the Somali Red Crescent and Action Aid, are being helped by local groups to access remote areas with food, water and medical treatment.

UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell welcomed the appeal launch.

He said: "Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains.

"The British government is already providing vital food to help 1.3 million people - but more needs to be done and we are lobbying other governments to do their bit.

"We welcome the DEC appeal to help the 10 million men, women and children caught up in the crisis.

"British charities and organisations are on the ground and ready to help, but need this additional support to get emergency supplies to those in desperate need."

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Celebrity appeal

7 July 2011 Last updated at 23:35 GMT By Leslie Goffe BBC News, New York The Republic of South Sudan will soon be the world's newest nation.

Its independence on Saturday will be celebrated in the United States by Republicans and by Democrats alike, and by Christian conservatives alongside Hollywood liberals.

All have been vocal advocates in the US for an end to war in Sudan that has taken millions of lives and resulted in accusations of genocide.

These advocates include actors Don Cheadle and George Clooney, known to some in the US as "Mr Sudan".

Mr Clooney, convinced by activist friends to use his star power to draw attention to the crisis in Sudan, led a rally in Washington and delivered a speech on Sudan at the United Nations in 2006.

"Everyone feels like this is one issue they can all be on the same side on, and there aren't many of those," Mr Clooney said in an interview.

On the other side, are evangelical Christians determined to stop what they claimed was the persecution and killing of Christians by Muslims from northern Sudan.

Evangelical churches began building hospitals, schools and churches in the mostly animist and Christian south in the 1990s.

Under pressure

In 2004, evangelical groups pressed then-President George W Bush - himself a born-again Christian - to send troops to Sudan.

The president did not go that far but he did impose tough economic sanctions on Sudan and press the Khartoum government to negotiate a peace deal with rebels in the south that was signed in 2005.

George Clooney was in South Sudan for January's independence referendum

But did the lobbying and campaigning by evangelicals and Hollywood celebrities make a difference?

A member of the Bush administration, the former ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, thinks so.

"South Sudan captured the public's imagination more than has happened elsewhere in Africa because Christians in Sudan used their grapevine to let Christians in America know that Muslims were persecuting them."

It reminded people, says Mr Campbell, "of the persecution of the Jews in the Soviet Union and elsewhere." Mr Campbell says the role celebrities played was important, too.

"Celebrities made all of this known, in their way, to ordinary people and made it part of the conversation to people who would otherwise not pay much attention to what was happening overseas."

Enoch Awejok, an official at South Sudan's embassy in Washington, also believes the lobbying and campaigning made a difference.

"Without George Clooney and the churches, the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] would not have occurred," he says.

"And they still have an effective role to play in resolving the outstanding issues in Sudan."

Cool cause

Continue reading the main story

I just wish people would be more open to learn about things instead of looking at because a celebrity is involved and all of a sudden people want to be involved”

End Quote Mari Malek Southern Sudan Initiatives Sudanese expatriates in the United States have campaigned for their country, too.

But New York-based fashion model Mari Malek, born in southern Sudan, founder of the charity Southern Sudan Initiatives, worries that without the involvement of celebrities many Americans would not have been interested in Sudan, at all.

"I just wish people would be more open to learn about things instead of looking at because a celebrity is involved and all of a sudden people want to be involved," says Ms Malek.

"I think people should be more open-minded instead of looking at it as a cool thing."

Sudan became "cool" to Americans looking for a cause to support in 2003 when the film Lost Boys of Sudan was released.

This was a documentary about the remarkable story of the hundreds of Sudanese boys who fled the civil war, walked for weeks to Ethiopia, where their refugee camps were attacked, forcing them to flee to Kenya, before they were finally allowed into the US.

The film helped make the plight of the people of Sudan known and make it a cause many Americans wanted to be involved in.

Ger Duany is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. An actor who lives now in Harlem, in New York City, Duany was featured in the Hollywood film I Heart Huckabees.

Duany says he made sure to lobby and tell his co-stars on the film - Dustin Hoffman and Mark Wahlberg - what he faced in Sudan.

All you need to know about South Sudan's independence

"I spoke to a lot of guys and they were very supportive people, Mark Wahlberg mostly, but I think in a way more could have been done. We are not free," says Duany, who plans on being in South Sudan to celebrate its official independence on 9 July.

South Sudan has enjoyed a lot of support in the United States.

But now that it is about to achieve its independence some are concerned that Americans who campaigned and lobbied on its behalf, will find some other "cool" cause to occupy them.

If this does happen, says Ms Malek, then Sudanese expatriates in the US will do whatever they have to to ensure their new country is not forgotten.

"I think that the new generation of South Sudan people who migrated here to the USA are going to keep the momentum going," she says.

"So, with or without the celebrities, I think we are strong enough to keep pushing the momentum."

As for Mr Campbell, the former Bush administration ambassador to Nigeria, he says Americans will be content to turn their attention elsewhere if after 9 July, boundary lines between north and south are respected and there is agreement on how the oil revenue will be divided up.

If, however, says Mr Campbell, "we see the kind of bloodshed we have seen over the past several weeks then I don't think American attention or interest in Sudan and South Sudan will dissipate, at all."

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Germany in E.coli blood appeal

3 June 2011 Last updated at 16:12 GMT Spanish producers dumped vegetables at the German consulate

German clinics have appealed for blood donations as the number of people infected with a deadly strain of E. coli has risen above 1,730.

Nearly 200 new cases have been reported in two days. The bug has killed 17 people in Germany and one died Sweden.

German scientists say they have decoded the new E. coli strain's genes, with help from a Chinese lab. It is a new hybrid form toxic to humans.

Germans are still being advised not to eat raw vegetables.

'Poison'

Most cases are in northern Germany, including Hamburg. In severe cases doctors have to perform blood transfusions.

Continue reading the main story Wash fruit and vegetables before eating themPeel or cook fruit and vegetablesWash hands regularly to prevent person-to-person spread of E. coli strain

Source: UK Health Protection Agency

Lutz Schmidt, medical chief of the Hamburg blood donation service, said: "We need blood, plasma too. The stocks need to be replenished."

He told the newspaper Die Welt that in Hamburg many donors had responded to the Eppendorf University Clinic's appeal for blood.

E. coli is a bacterium that usually inhabits the guts of cattle and sheep and is mostly harmless.

Some strains, such as Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), can cause diarrhoea, severe stomach cramps and fever, though most sufferers recover within days.

However, a small number of patients develop the potentially deadly haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), which attacks the kidneys and nervous system.

The bacterium sticks to the intestine walls, pumping out toxins.

In all, 1,213 EHEC cases and 520 HUS cases have now been reported in Germany, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Russia - the EU's largest export market for vegetables - has rejected pleas from Brussels to drop its ban on the import of fresh vegetables.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday the ban may go against "the spirit of the WTO... but cucumbers that people die after eating really stink".

"We cannot poison our people for the sake of some spirit," he added.

Anger in Spain

The new E. coli strain is believed to have spread via contaminated raw cucumbers or tomatoes.

Continue reading the main story

Source: World Health Organization

* Robert Koch Institute

European health authorities are urgently trying to pinpoint the source of this epidemic.

Cases of HUS have also been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain. Seven people in the UK have the infection, though all are thought to have contracted it in Germany.

Two people in the US, who have travelled recently to Germany, are being tested for the strain, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Spain says it will seek damages from Germany over initial claims that its produce was the source of the outbreak.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would demand reparations for the economic losses suffered.

Germany had blamed Spanish cucumbers but has since accepted it was not the case.

Spanish fruit and vegetable exporters estimate they are losing 200m euros ($290m; ?177m) a week in sales.

Sales of Spanish produce to supermarkets across Europe - not just of cucumbers, but of everything - have ground to a halt, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Almeria, Spain's so-called fruitbasket.

Tens of thousands of kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Spain are being destroyed, she adds.

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Baby P boss wins sacking appeal

27 May 2011 Last updated at 16:52 GMT Sharon Shoesmith, "It can never be a moment of celebration."

Ex-children's services director Sharon Shoesmith says she is "thrilled" to have won a Court of Appeal battle over her sacking after Baby Peter's death.

Judges said then children's secretary Ed Balls and her employers, Haringey Council, had been "procedurally unfair" when they sacked her three years ago.

The education department and Haringey plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Baby Peter Connelly, who had been seen 60 times by social services, was found dead in 2007 with over 50 injuries.

Ms Shoesmith's appeal was challenging a High Court ruling that cleared Ed Balls, the north London borough of Haringey and watchdog Ofsted, of acting unlawfully.

The Court of Appeal judges dismissed her appeal against Ofsted.

Mr Balls said he "strongly disagreed" with the judgement and added that his decision had been based on a report from independent inspectors.

Ofsted said its report on Ms Shoesmith's department, which identified "insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight", had been vindicated.

A Haringey Council spokesman said it was "deeply disappointed" by the judgement and stood by everything it had done.

Sacked on TV

In December 2008, Ms Shoesmith - originally from Newtownabbey, County Antrim - was sacked, bringing her 35-year career to an abrupt end.

Continue reading the main story Alison Holt Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News

Sharon Shoesmith was a Director of Haringey Children's Services, a statutory role set up after the murder of Victoria Climbie more than a decade ago.

It aimed to place a line of responsibility drawn directly from the social worker visiting the child to the senior manager making decisions about the service.

There were undoubtedly serious mistakes made in the handling of Peter Connelly's case, but those mistakes were made by many of the agencies involved.

In the white heat that the case created, Sharon Shoesmith has always said she became a convenient scapegoat.

When her head rolled, it is argued, it turned scrutiny away from others, including the then Secretary of State, Ed Balls.

Many senior managers who run children's services will be very relieved by this ruling.

They claim the way in which Sharon Shoesmith was sacked did nothing to ensure people learnt from this tragedy.

She said she first heard of her dismissal when Mr Balls announced she would be removed from her post with immediate effect in a live press conference on television.

After the hearing, she said: "I'm over the moon. Absolutely thrilled.

"I am very relieved to have won my appeal and for recognition I was treated unfairly and unlawfully."

She said the sorrow of Peter's death would "stay with me for the rest of my life".

"But as the judges have said, making a 'public sacrifice' of an individual will not prevent further tragedies," she added.

At a hearing in March, Ms Shoesmith had asked Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, to rule that her sacking without compensation was so legally flawed as to be null and void.

Her lawyers had argued that she was the victim of "a flagrant breach of natural justice" after she lost her ?133,000-a-year post amid a media storm.

Ms Shoesmith also argued she was entitled to her full salary and pension from Haringey up to the present day.

'Tainted by unfairness'

In court, James Eadie QC, appearing for the government, defended Mr Balls, saying urgent action had to be taken following the "ghastly findings" of the Ofsted report.

But the judges allowed Ms Shoesmith's appeal against the former children's secretary because "the secretary of state did not afford Ms Shoesmith the opportunity to put her case".

Continue reading the main story 3 August 2007: One-year-old Peter Connelly (Baby P) found dead in his cot11 November 2008: Peter's mother, Tracey Connelly, boyfriend Steven Barker and brother Jason Owen convicted of causing his death 13 November 2008: Ed Balls orders inquiry into role of the local authority, the health authority and the police8 December 2008: Ms Shoesmith is sacked with immediate effect22 May 2009: Connelly, Owen and Barker all get lengthy jail sentences15 September 2010: Ms Shoesmith asks a House of Commons committee why the police and health services had not also been made to take responsibility27 May 2011: The Court of Appeal rules in favour of Ms Shoesmith"In short, she was denied the elementary fairness which the law requires," they said.

They also rejected a submission that the situation had been too urgent to allow for a fairer procedure to be adopted.

In the case of Haringey, the judges said: "We were unanimously of the view that Haringey's procedures were tainted by unfairness."

Lawyers for Ms Shoesmith said the ruling meant she could now launch appeals against Mr Balls and Haringey Council.

The BBC's education correspondent Reeta Chakrabarti said the Court of Appeal had indicated there was no question of Ms Shoesmith returning to her position at Haringey Council.

The matter of compensation or lost earnings would need to be considered by another court, she added.

Earlier, the court heard Ms Shoesmith had not been able to find work since she was sacked, had experienced suicidal thoughts and continued to be vilified by the press.

Outside court, she said: "I would love to go back to work (in Haringey) but that's not possible. I hope to carry on with my career with children in some capacity."

In a later interview with BBC London, Ms Shoesmith said she had received death threats in the wake of the Baby Peter case that had "terrified" her.

"The police were advising me that I was probably at risk," she said. "And when people begin to take photographs of you on the trains and on the buses and point you out and start to shout, 'That's that woman,' you're fearful of where that can go."

'Robust inspection'

Mr Balls said he did not "rush to judgement" because the independent inspectors' report "catalogued catastrophic management failures on such a devastating scale" that the council leader and member for children services had resigned.

"I judged, on the basis of that independent report - and on the advice of departmental officials and lawyers - that the right and responsible course of action was for me to use my statutory powers to remove the director of children's services from her position with immediate effect," he said in a statement.

The judgement said "the secretary of state did not afford Ms Shoesmith the opportunity to put her case".

He said he had been doing "what was necessary to protect the interests of children in Haringey and protect wider public confidence in child protection".

In the case of Ofsted, the judges concluded its damning report "complied with the requirements of statute and common law".

Head of Ofsted, Christine Gilbert, said she was pleased with the appeal court ruling, and added: "Ofsted carried out a robust inspection and came to a sound conclusion based on evidence.

"On any view, our inspection report was extremely critical and there has been no challenge to the finding that services for children in Haringey were inadequate."

Seventeen-month-old Baby P, subsequently named as Peter Connelly, was found to have suffered fractured ribs and a broken back after months of abuse at home. His mother, her partner and a lodger were all jailed for causing or allowing his death in August 2007.

Peter had been seen by health and social services professionals from Haringey council 60 times in the eight months before he died.

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