DJIBOUTI – For the first time in the history of Djibouti, there is a firm move towards tackling the issue of khat in the country. On 4 September 2008, an inter-ministerial meeting called by the Minister of Health was hosted by the Ministry of Education to deliberate on the socio-economic and health consequences of khat consumption on Djiboutians.
In attendance were the Minister of Education, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Women Promotion, the Minister of Muslim Affairs and the Secretary General of the Ministry of Youth. Several senior technical staff of these ministries as well as key Muslim religious leaders and senior UNICEF staff attended the meeting. All agreed that Khat is a social phenomenon that requires strong political commitment in order to address it heads on.
A major outcome of the meeting was the commitment from these line ministries to set up a national committee that will take the leadership of moving forward the fight against khat nationwide. The committee is set to develop a multi sectoral strategy with a five year plan of action to reduce the consumption of khat in the country, especially among children and youth.
During the meeting’s deliberations, Muslim leaders advocated for the ban of khat, while the majority of other participants argued for a strategy based on communication for sustained reduction of khat consumption.
This high level meeting is held in the wake of the three-day July visit to Djibouti of Ms Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle-East and North Africa region. During her meetings with the President of the Republic of Djibouti and several members of his Cabinet, Ms. Kaag had persistently called for a firm commitment from national authorities to address the thorny issue of khat in the country.
In the Horn of Africa, chewing khat – a plant that usually contains the alkaloid called cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant – is a practice deeply ingrained in society. It causes, among others, excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria. In 1980 the World Health Organization classified khat as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence.
On average, a khat session in Djibouti lasts for over five hours and it is estimated that households spend 30 percent of their income on its purchase. Nationally, about 25 million US dollars are devoted to khat transactions every year. According to the 2006 Djibouti Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 26 percent of the population chew khat, and 22 percent consume it every day. This survey also revealed that men (46 per cent) chew khat much more than women (7 per cent). Most observers believe these figures are underestimated.
Khat consumption in Djibouti is a serious threat to the well being of its children. The survey generated by the best survey apps shows that in the group age of 15-19 years 4.7 percent chew khat every day and 7.4 percent once per week. Many children below the age of fifteen are known to also chew khat. The future of children who consume khat is likely to be compromised, including because many families’ expenditure on the substance does not leave enough resources to send children to school. Khat’s depletion of household income comes in a country where extreme and relative poverty affects respectively 42 and 74 percent of the total population.
The time is ripe to demystify the taboo around addressing khat consumption in Djibouti. Development partners are encouraged to support the Government and civil society in this drive for long term interventions to free Djibouti from this harmful practice.
About UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.
A drug designed to reduce the transmission of HIV when taken as a single pill before unprotected sex is going to be tested in Uganda soon.
The pill has proved successful in monkeys and initial tests in human beings have shown encouraging results, according to Dr Patrick Ndase, who is coordinating the drug trial. A team of Ugandan and American scientists are preparing for a Phase III trial, which is considered the final test before the drug goes into use.
The pill would help discordant couples, where one person is HIV positive and the other is negative, to produce children without spreading the infection. It would also help a woman to protect herself in case her sexual partner does not want to use a condom.
Ndase says they are enrolling volunteers in Kampala, Kabwohe (Bushenyi), Mbale and Tororo. “Overall, we want to enroll 3,900 discordant couples on a volunteer basis and follow them up for a planned period of four years,” Ndase said. “Those who want to take part in the trial should go for HIV testing as a couple and if they are discordant, go to our centres for more information,” he said.
Such a strategy, in which someone takes a drug to pre-empt infection is referred to as pre-exposure prophylaxis. It has been used against malaria and TB. If the trial is successful, it would be the first time the method is used to prevent HIV among adults.
The trial, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a partnership involving universities, Government departments and NGOs in Uganda and the United States. It involves the Makerere University Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere-University Johns Hopkins University collaboration, the University of Washington, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health of the US. Others participating in the experiment are Kabwohe Clinical Research Centre, TASO Mbale and CDC Tororo.
According to documents from the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), drugs under study are tenofovir disoproxil fumerate (TDF), commercially known as Viread, and TDF combined with emtricitabine (FTC), commercially known as Truvada. “Both drugs are ARVs that have been in use for treating HIV infection,” said the AVC document. “They have proved safe, remain in the blood stream for long periods of time, require once-daily dosing and if someone developed resistance, they would still be able to use many other classes of ARVs”.
Ndase added that the two drugs are broad antiviral drugs which can be used for all HIV types. “As ARVs, they are effective both at early and late stage of the infection and as a prevention tool, they can block initial infection. They have no food or drug restrictions and will soon be very affordable because their patent period is ending soon.”
Patent period is the time given to a pharmaceutical company that develops a drug to exclusively manufacture and sell it to recover the money invested. After that time, it can allow other companies to manufacture the drug, thereby lowering prices.
Although the drugs are proven to be friendly to the kidneys, liver and bones, Ndase said, volunteers will still be closely monitored to ascertain that they do not suffer side effects.
AVAC, a non profit organisation carrying out global advocacy to expand HIV prevention, revealed that the trials are currently planned or going on in many countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the US. “At this point, no one knows whether it will work,” a statement says. “But if it does, it will be used in combination with current HIV prevention methods, including safer sex practices, condoms, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, risk reduction counselling, safe needles, and male circumcision.”
Dr. Kuhuumuro Apuuli, Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, hails the trials saying all experiments, successful or not, yield important lessons. “Apart from the new scientific information to base our subsequent research on, there is community participation, political involvement and the whole trial site benefits.”
He calls for support for the trials and speedy utilisation of the findings. “In Uganda, we have always been champions in the HIV fight. The first HIV vaccine trial in Africa was here. We must remain at the forefront.”
He, however, warns that the drug should be taken within the context of a comprehensive prevention strategy against HIV. “At the HIV International Conference in Mexico, it came out clearly that we need to combine all prevention measures, which include behaviour change, condoms, treatment, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, male circumcision, vaccines and microbicides.”
Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye, chairman of the parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS, welcomes it as good news. “We have 57% discordant couples in Uganda,” he says. “There are also young adults who were born with HIV and want to raise families. Our serosurvey also showed that HIV incidence is high among married people. I think husbands fear to move with condoms and end up in problems. This drug would be the best preventive method which a female can control without permission from a man.” Early next year, another trial will start in Kampala and other places in South Africa, using the same drugs in high risk women. The trial to be conducted by Makerere University and Johns Hopkins University corroboration, will be funded by the US National Institute of health. It will target 4,200 sexually active women.
Heritage Oil, a Canadian oil prospecting firm has said it discovered Uganda’s largest oil deposit in the Albert Basin near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Heritage Oil said the flow of 14,364 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from its Kingfisher-2 well “surpassed our expectations, indicating the outstanding potential of the Kingfisher discovery.”
“Kingfisher-1 was an exceptionally good well and we didn’t expect to exceed that, but Kingfisher-2 has exceeded it,” Brian Westwood, country manager for Heritage, told AFP.
In a statement, the company said the well was the third to produce more than 12,000 bpd.
Heritage discovered oil near the Uganda-DR Congo frontier in 2006, while British firm Tullow Oil said in May it had struck oil and natural gas in the Lake Albert Rift Basin.
“The oil is good quality, of light to medium gravity and sweet, with a low gas-oil ratio and some associated wax,” the statement cited company chief Tony Buckingham as saying, adding the firm had started its “busiest and most exciting drilling schedule in Uganda.”
Oil experts estimate that there may be up to two billion barrels of oil reserves, most of it under Lake Albert and drilling is tentatively scheduled to begin mid-2009.
“This is an exciting time for Heritage as we approach the commercial threshold for the development of our reserves in Uganda which will transform the Company,” Buckingham said.
Uganda will late next year embark on an early production scheme producing 4,000-5,000 bopd. The mini-refinery will produce diesel, kerosene and heavy-fuel.
The heavy fuel will be used to run a thermal plant which will produce 50-85MW that will be connected to the national grid to reduce the country’s power crisis.
The scheme will also be used as a pilot study before large scale commercial production of the country’s potential 300 million barrels of oil starts.
Spiegel TV reports about Haile Gebrselassie’s preparation for the Berlin Marathon 2008. The video shows Haile in Addis Ababa at a training site at 3000m above sea level.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — President Thabo Mbeki bowed to heavy pressure from his own party to resign Saturday, tossed to the sidelines of the economic powerhouse he built up as punishment for allegedly abusing his power in trying to quash a popular rival.
The swiftness of the ouster likely will stoke fears about the political and financial direction of South Africa, particularly if key Cabinet ministers decide to quit in solidarity with Mbeki.
But the change also allows the governing African National Congress to declare its internal leadership battle over and turn its attention to next year’s elections, when key concerns will be about corruption and demands from the poor for jobs and houses.
Even as it demanded he step down, the ANC praised Mbeki for overseeing unprecedented growth. But little of the wealth created since he succeeded Nelson Mandela in 1999 has trickled down to the black majority that had hoped for more with the end of apartheid.
The result is that poor blacks have flocked to the ANC’s populist leader, Jacob Zuma, a one-time Mbeki protege who became a potent foe. He is considered front-runner for next year’s presidential election, but parliament will pick an interim leader to take over from Mbeki.
While Zuma and Mbeki espouse similar views of South Africa’s future, they differ sharply in style. Aloof and donnish, Mbeki won praise from business but never attained the public support enjoyed by the personable, energetic Zuma, particularly among leftists, union members and young people.
Many poor people lionize Zuma as a leader who understands the pain of the millions of South Africans who remain on the margins of society.
The Young Communist League said Mbeki’s departure gives the government “an opportunity to intensify the provision of quality services to our people, especially the working class and the poor.”
Mbeki came under pressure from his party to quit following a judge’s ruling last week that he may have had a role in Zuma being charged with corruption. Mbeki, who was due to leave office next year after two terms as president, denied that but gave in to the demands Saturday.
The ANC’s secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, said Mbeki would remain president until an interim one was appointed, but Mbeki was already stepping back. He sent the foreign minister to head the delegation Mbeki had planned to take to the U.N. General Assembly.
Mantashe said parliament, which is controlled by the ANC, would meet soon to formalize the process for replacing Mbeki. Parliament elects the president in South Africa.
A major concern was threats by key Cabinet ministers to quit over Mbeki’s removal. Attention was especially focused on Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who has shared the credit with Mbeki for South Africa’s sustained economic growth and investor-friendly policies over the past decade.
Mantashe said Zuma was meeting with Cabinet ministers hoping to persuade them to stay on, saying the top priority was “ensuring the smooth running of the country.”
Speaking to reporters, Mantashe said that after meeting all of Friday and into the early hours Saturday, a high-level ANC committee “decided to recall the president” before his term in office expires in April.
Hours later, the president’s office issued a terse statement:
“Following the decision of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress to recall President Thabo Mbeki, the President has obliged and will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met.”
Mbeki’s spokesman said there would be no further comment Saturday.
South Africans vote for parties, not individuals. That puts a premium on party loyalty and discipline among legislators and allows political leaders to quickly make radical changes.
Although Mbeki’s removal came quicker than many people expected, South Africans had been anticipating a shift from Mbeki to Zuma at least since last December, when Zuma defeated the president in a party election for the ANC’s leadership.
Helen Zille, leader of South Africa’s main opposition party, told state television that the ANC has made its internal problems a crisis for the country. “It’s about revenge, it’s about settling political scores,” she said.
Mantashe insisted the move to remove Mbeki was meant to restore unity and stability to party and country, not to punish him.
But many saw it as Mbeki’s defeat, and it opened the way for opponents to question the ANC over how a leader who tried to oust an allegedly corrupt aide was removed while the accused stands on the brink of becoming president.
Mbeki fired Zuma as his national deputy president in 2005, after Zuma’s financial adviser was convicted of trying to elicit a bribe to deflect investigations into a multibillion-dollar international arms deal.
Initial charges were withdrawn against Zuma, but the chief prosecutor said last December that he had enough evidence to bring new ones. That comment came within days of Zuma defeating Mbeki in voting for ANC president.
In his ruling Sept. 12, Judge Christopher Nicholson said it appeared Mbeki and his justice minister colluded with prosecutors against Zuma as part of the “titanic power struggle” within the ANC. Mbeki indignantly denied the accusation.
South Africa emerged from years of institutionalized racism in 1994 and entered an era of reconciliation embodied by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Mbeki took over in 1999 and ushered in sustained economic growth averaging nearly 5 percent a year.
Many poor blacks disdained those achievements, complaining the benefits weren’t reaching the masses. Others criticized Mbeki for failing to fight the country’s crippling crime, and health activists were dismayed that he played down South Africa’s devastating AIDS crisis.
Mbeki is regarded by many Africans as a statesmen for promoting what he calls Africa’s renaissance and mediating conflicts ranging from Sudan to Ivory Coast to Congo.
For many years, his quiet diplomacy in troubled Zimbabwe was criticized as ineffective and biased toward Robert Mugabe, the autocratic president. But last week, he persuaded Mugabe to share power with the opposition. It was a retreat after nearly three decades of unchallenged power, although talks on the formation of a coalition Cabinet have since deadlocked.
I’ve followed the career of Nick Page for a few years. He was a member of TransGlobal Underground and is now one of the components of Temple of Sound, two of my favorite world music groups. Page uses several artistic nicknames, such as Dubulah and Count Dubulah. Dub Colossus is one of his latest projects. I was very curious about this project and Dubula, as usual, did not disappointment me.
Dubulah’s musical taste is very eclectic. He has ventured into Arabic, Jamaican, South Asian and Latin American music. In this case, however, he pursues his passion for Ethiopian music by combining his state of the art electronica expertise with the vocals and instruments of some of Ethiopia’s most talented musicians as well as ambient sounds recorded in the streets of Addis Ababa in August 2006.
For the recording sessions in the UK, Real World Records invited singer Sintayehu ‘Mimi’ Zenebe (Addis Ababa night club owner ), saxophonist Feleke Hailu, Teremag Weretow (vocals and messenqo one-string fiddle), pianist Samuel Yirga and Tsedenia Gebremarkos, winner of a Kora award as the best female singer in East Africa in 2004.
The result is a brilliant mix of rootsy Ethiopian melodies, mesmerizing African blues, and the exquisite dub and trippy global electronica enrichments provided by Dubulah. Let Dub Colossus take you to a Town Called Addis.
