Cholera surges in Cameroon

IRIN: Rains and insecurity caused by Nigerian Islamist militants are aggravating a cholera outbreak in northern Cameroon which has killed at least 75 people and infected some 1,400 others since April. Water scarcity, poor public health care and risky hygienic practices have rekindled the disease which badly hit the country between 2009 and 2011, experts say.

Population movement during the current school holidays could help spread infections to other regions of Cameroon or even to neighbouring countries, said Félicité Tchibindat, a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Cameroon.

The first cholera case was in a Nigerian family who were among a group of refugees fleeing to Cameroon from bombings and attacks by Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremist militia in April. Scarcity of safe drinking water, open defecation and other poor hygienic habits have exacerbated the cholera cases in northern Cameroon, Tchibindat said.

More than 26,000 cholera cases have been reported in Nigeria since the start of the year, according to health authorities. “For the moment we are supporting health workers, conducting community sensitization, supplied water and cholera treatment kits. But given the insecurity, whether the community mobilizers can visit all the villages is a question we are still asking ourselves,” Tchibindat told IRIN....

Donor support to Sahel "anaemic"

IRIN: More donor support is needed to help close the US$1.5 billion funding gap in the Sahel this year and protect the livelihoods of the estimated 20.2 million people who are at risk of food insecurity. Only 30 percent of the $2.2 billion appeal to fight hunger and malnutrition, and build resilience in the region has been met by donors as of July, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The funding for the whole effort is what I would characterize as pretty anaemic," said Robert Piper, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel. "We are well short of what we require, and to make the task even more difficult, the budget has increased since the beginning of the year."

Due to the influx of refugees from the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic into neighbouring Sahel countries, an additional $200 million was added to the initial appeal to provide life-saving assistance to the more than 2.4 million refugees, internally displaced people and returnees now living in the region, as well as the host communities taking them in.

"Outside the usual recurring situations in the Sahel, the conflict in CAR and northern Nigeria is quite worrisome this year, as are the collateral effects in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon," said Stephane Doyon, a regional emergency response representative for Médecins Sans Frontières. "The refugees have lots of needs, which are additional needs to be met. "...

A 2005 shot of a refugee camp in Chad, shot by Mark Knobil, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr,  under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Floods cut off Douala in Cameroon

Christopher Jator in AllAfrica.com via the Cameroon Tribune: Most houses, wooden residential structures and marketplaces ceased to function until late afternoon yesterday, July 8, 2014, following floods that covered most parts of Douala. Public and private activities did not resume as squatters in Mambanda, "Bois des Singes" and "Petit Paris" in Bonapriso, "Village" as well as city dwellers in Akwa Nord and New Bell continued to flush water from homes and around business centres.

The economic capital has been experiencing episodes of heavy rains that last about two to four hours daily since last week and intensifying yesterday as from 5 am. The floods destroyed household properties like parlour chairs, mattresses, and electrical gadgets in Mambanda and some areas of New Bell. No death was registered.

Water flowing into homes carried away cutleries, provoked electrical sparks from wall sockets and distributors and keeping neighbourhoods in complete blackout and causing untold harm on cold stores in markets in the affected areas as well as fragilised the foundations of most homes, thereby rendering habitation risky.

In many in the administrative headquarters of Bonanjo, the floods grounded government business to some extent and the inhabitants of the low-lying neighbourhoods of Ngangue and Makepe, where flooding is perennial, suffered the brunt of it all. Holiday makers hawking roasted plums and plantains, groundnuts, phones, scissors and blades, World Cup gadgets, and other self-reliant activities could only give a sigh to the interruptions....

International Women's Day in Douala, Cameroon, shot by Guillaume WA, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 3.0 license 

Food prices soar in Cameroon's cities as water runs short

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame in Thomson Reuters Foundation: ... many residents of Yaounde and Douala [in Cameroon] are struggling to cope with a sudden rise in food prices over the past three months, believed to have been triggered by recent climate instability.

The situation is evoking memories of 2008, when a sharp increase in food prices caused riots in the cities of Yaounde and Douala, leaving more than 100 dead according to the government.

The shortage of food has been compounded by prolonged water scarcity that has put many local farmers in peril. Experts say severe drought triggered by a long absence of rain has cut projected yields of crops like cassava, plantain, cocoyam, maize and rice.

“The climate around Yaounde and Douala, the two most populated cities in Cameroon, has been very unstable in the last three years, making it very difficult for farmers to plan for their planting,” said Michael Andong, an agriculture technician with the Ministry of Agriculture in Yaounde.

“Many farmers erroneously plant after signs of unusual early rains in February that disappear sooner … leaving the crops to dry up. This climate abnormality has really affected food crop production, causing scarcity and an increase in prices,” Andong said...

A market in Yaounde, Cameroon

Looking beyond food for causes of Cameroon’s malnutrition

IRIN: ...Many Cameroonians know little about malnutrition, and the condition is not properly addressed as a public health problem, health experts say. Many see malnutrition only as a problem of insufficient food, and are perplexed that the ailment abounds in a country with strong agricultural production - a view that overlooks unequal food distribution and access in the country as well as other factors that contribute to the illness.

Severe acute malnutrition is highest in the arid Far North and North regions, but it is also high in Adamaoua and the East regions. And chronic malnutrition afflicts children in seven of Cameroon’s 10 regions. “This is the hidden face of Cameroon,” said Ines Lezama, a nutrition specialist with UNICEF, referring to chronic malnutrition, which has affected 1.4 million Cameroonian children in 2013.

...“It is a problem of education, culture. It’s like an insult when you tell somebody that their child is malnourished. Yet this is a health problem like any other,” said Georges Okala, a nutrition specialist with Cameroon’s Ministry of Health. “It is important that parents understand that when their child is underweight and not growing normally, there is a problem, and they should know what is causing that problem.”

Malnutrition is responsible for 38 percent of deaths among children under age five in Cameroon, and one out of three children is stunted. Forty-four percent of chronically malnourished children in the 11-member Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) are in Cameroon, according to UNICEF....

Market in Abong-Mbang, East Province, Cameroon. Shot by Amcaja, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

West Africa hopes new hydropower dams will cut poverty, climate risk

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: West African states in the Niger River Basin are seeking to tackle climate risks and reduce poverty by constructing three hydropower dams in the next five years. In late November, the Council of Ministers of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), meeting in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, endorsed an environmental and climate action plan for sustainable management of the scenic basin and its rich natural resources, which have come under threat from climate change.

The projects include a 102 megawatt (MW) hydropower dam at Fomi in Guinea, a 25 MW hydropower plant in Toussa, Mali, and the 565 MW Kandadji dam in Niger. These aim to boost hydro-electricity and irrigation, reduce desertification and flooding, and improve economic activities across the region.

“The West African region is facing urgent problems of food security, rural poverty and climate change that demand answers in the form of investment and infrastructure. We need to give a push to these three multi-purpose hydropower dam projects as a sustainable solution that involves the region’s largest river,” NBA executive secretary Collins Ihekire said in a statement at the Yaounde gathering.

The NBA is the coordinating body for the 4,200 km-long (2,600-mile) Niger River, bringing together the governments of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.

The NBA also agreed to rehabilitate three hydropower plants at Kainji, Jebda and Lagdo, as well as multiple run-of-river hydropower stations, optimise water storage, set up irrigation schemes for an additional 1 million hectares (2.5 million hectares) of land, and increase hydropower production to 1,000 gigawatt hours per day.

“Integrating future climate change adaptation and mitigation into our development action plan will enable...sustainable management of our water resources, to better the livelihood of the over 106 million population in the area,” said Emmanuel Nganou Djoumesi, Cameroon’s minister of the economy, planning and regional development, at the closing of the Yaounde meeting....

The Niger River from space

Heavy rains force thousands to run for higher ground in Cameroon

Mirabelle Enaka Kima and Katherine Mueller in AllAfrica.com via the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:  When the month of September rolls around, residents of northern Cameroon know to expect rain. Last year, they experienced the worst rains in recent memory when heavy downpours caused waterways to burst their banks, leaving entire villages destroyed and as many as 40 people dead.

Torrential rains have again returned to northern Cameroon this year. In mid-September, rushing waters burst the dam along the Logone River in the town of Dougui, in the Far North Region.

Initial assessments indicate more than 800 people living near the dam had to be evacuated, including 144 young children. Of four villages in the community, three were seriously affected. Flooding has damaged or destroyed homes, farmland and killed livestock. There is an increased risk of waterborne diseases and acute respiratory syndrome.

"Just over a week later, further torrential rains in the same area burst a second dam, forcing an entire village of approximately 5,000 people to run for safety," says Djouberou, local committee President, Cameroon Red Cross Society. "Families are now living in the open air along the river banks. They are in desperate need of everything, including shelter, food and health care."

The government has identified 9,000 people in need of immediate assistance. The Cameroon Red Cross Society has deployed 30 volunteers who, together with other partners, have helped set up tents, and distributed much needed items, from blankets and mosquito nets to kitchen and hygiene kits...

Drought worsens child malnutrition in Cameroon

Elias Ntungwe Ngalame in AlertNet by the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Prolonged drought in northern Cameroon, an aspect of the changing climate that is affecting the whole Sahel region, has reduced food output, pushed up prices and increased the severity and prevalence of malnutrition among children, experts say.

During a visit to north Cameroon’s Garoua district by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this month, women and health officials at the Lamudam village health unit said local people had yet to recover from the drought-driven Sahel food crisis of 2012 and levels of malnutrition were alarming.

“We receive cases of child malnutrition in this health centre regularly,” said Issa Houre, who runs the unit. “In January this year, for example, we had 33 cases and in May (there were) 49, and this is quite high in a small community of about 1,500 inhabitants.”

...Njakoi Henry, former country director of Heifer Project International Cameroon, told Thomson Reuters Foundation in Yaounde that rains in the north “are now shorter and less frequent”, adding that “pasture land is turning into desert”. “This is changing the way of life for the people in this region and many cannot feed themselves and their children… They need support to adapt and increase their resilience," he said....

Children fending for themselves in Cameroon, shot by Sodeit, public domain

AfDB and Global Environment Facility to strengthen climate change adaptation with USD 33.58 million

African Development Bank: The Global Environment Facility Council has approved a grant of USD 11.3 million, to be channeled through the AfDB, for climate adaptation activities in Cameroon, Djibouti and Kenya. 

The Council’s Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) will finance the Rural Livelihoods’ Adaptation to Climate Change Program in Djibouti and Kenya. For the first phase of the program, Kenya and Djibouti will receive grants of USD 2.5 million and USD 5.07 million, respectively. The program will increase the resilience of pastoralists to the effects of climate change effects on the region.

The SCCF will also provide a grant of USD 4.03 million for a project to enhance the resilience of poor communities to urban flooding in Yaoundé, Cameroon. This project will strengthen institutional capacity to improve long-term resilience to flood risk, improve the readiness and adaptive capacity of local communities to the risk of flooding, and help pay for flood control technologies.

The GEF Council also approved financing, from the LDCF, for projects in Angola and Madagascar. In Angola, a USD 4.41 million grant will enable the Bank to implement a project to integrate climate change into management of the environment and adoption of sustainable land management practices. The project will disseminate sustainable land management and adaptation practices in agro-forestry and land ecology in 350 communities.

In Madagascar, a USD 6.27 million grant will support the development of climate resilience in the agriculture sector in the country’s southwest region. This project will strengthen the resilience of water supply infrastructure over 10,200 hectares of agricultural land in the Bas Mangoky region....

Africa’s logging permit crisis puts EU at risk of laundering illegal timber imports

Global Witness: Systematic abuse of small, poorly regulated logging permits in Africa by companies, forest officials and politicians is undermining efforts to fight deforestation and keep illegal timber out of the EU, says a new report by Global Witness.

The new report, Logging in the shadows, identifies a largely hidden pattern of abuse across Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana and Liberia, in which permits designed to promote small businesses and meet local needs are being allocated in their hundreds to industrial logging companies. These “shadow permits” open the door to highly lucrative, large-scale logging operations which bypass oversight by the authorities.

"This is a very worrying trend – logging companies are systematically colluding with corrupt officials to get around laws designed to stop them decimating forests and abusing those that live in them. This is massively undermining international efforts to regulate the international timber trade, notably the EU’s Voluntary Partnership Agreements and Timber Regulation,” said Alexandra Pardal, Europe Campaigner at Global Witness.

12.4 billion Euros worth of timber considered to pose a high risk of illegality entered the EU in 2011... In March 2013 the EU Timber Regulation prohibited the import of illegal timber, but in the past two months Global Witness and Greenpeace have uncovered suspicious log shipments in EU ports from two of the countries featured in Logging in the shadows...

A logging truck in Cameroon, in a collision with a bush taxi, shot by Amcaja, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

Forest communities in Cameroon cannot adapt to climate change alone

CIFOR's "Forest News" blog: Rural communities in Cameroon rely heavily on forests for everything from their nutritional and medicinal needs to fuel for cooking and will be unable to adapt to climate change without significant outside help, a new study found.

....The Center for International Forestry Research’s (CIFOR) Congo Basin and Climate Change Adaptation (CoFCCA) project was developed in 2008 to increase public and policy awareness about the heavy reliance both rural and urban areas have on animal and plant products coming from the second largest continuous tropical rainforest in the world. It also looked at ways in which to protect communities – as well as the natural resources – as the world experiences dramatic shifts in precipitation and temperature.

A key lesson was that, no matter how pertinent, local knowledge was not enough, said Denis Sonwa, one of the authors of a paper resulting from the study, focusing specifically on Cameroon. 

Sonwa’s team looked at the most vulnerable sectors in Cameroon, including energy derived from fuel wood. They focused on charcoal production and consumption, interviewing everyone from the producers and transporters to sellers and consumers to find out how each stakeholder perceived climate change and how it affected their activities.

“They were all concerned about the unpredictable rainy and dry seasons which affect levels of production, consumption, and earnings,” said Patrice Metenou, a post-graduate researcher involved in the project, adding that all were vulnerable to climate change but at very different levels....

Ngoila, East Province, Cameroon, looking south toward the Republic of the Congo, shot by Amcaja, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Cameroon palm oil plantation deal 'must be stopped': report

AFP: A large palm oil plantation project in development in Cameroon since 2010 will put livelihoods and ecosystems in peril if allowed to continue, a US-based think-tank warned Wednesday. "With the loss of livelihoods by thousands of Cameroonians on the line and critical and unique ecosystems in peril, this project must be stopped," the Oakland Institute said in a report Wednesday.

Authoured in collaboration with Greenpeace International, the report said the project from SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC) was a case of massive deforestation disguised as a sustainable development project.

In 2009, Cameroon granted SGSOC, a subsidiary of US firm Herakles Farms, over 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) of land in the country's southwest to develop the plantation and refinery through a 99-year land lease.

But much of the project area is in a "biodiversity hotspot" that "serves as a vital corridor between five different protected areas," the institute said. It added that many locals fear the plantation would "restrict their access to lands held by their ancestors for generations" or that they would "lose land for farming as well as access to critical natural resources and forest products."…

Floods cause havoc in Nigeria, Cameroon

AllAfrica.com via the Daily Trust (Nigeria): Five persons have been confirmed dead and 19 others injured as floods ravaged more villages in Safana, Kurfi and Batsari local government areas of Katsina State while many more have been reported missing in Adamawa State, Daily Trust can report.

...Daily Trust gathered that 543houses were also destroyed in the three affected local government areas. The affected villages include Runka and Illela in Safana local government; Dadinkowa, Tsabawa and Shirgi in Batsari; Kurfi and Faduma villages in Kurfi local government.

Chairman, caretaker committee of Mai'Adua local government, Engineer Abba Yusuf, said two people died in Dankunde and Mai'Adua, while two women injured in Mai'Adua local government area.

Yusuf said Mai'Adua disaster was caused by over flooding of Tafkin-Bauna, saying "if this dam can be controlled, people of Gwajo-Gwajo village will be protected from experiencing future flood. We have concluded arrangement to tackle the problem once and for ever."

And in Adamawa, more communities are still being affected by floods following continued release of water from the Lagdo Dam in northern Cameroun. Already, no fewer than 126 settlements have been submerged in the riverine areas, displacing several families with many missing....

Sahel faces new food crisis

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: Only five years after a severe food shortage north-central Africa is again fearing the worst before the September harvest, with 10 million people threatened in this arid region known as the Sahel. In Niger alone, the country hardest hit, more than seven million residents -- nearly half the population -- are in need of food, and both Niger and neighboring Chad have declared states of emergency.

Niger's south-central Maradi region is a testament to things again gone wrong: villages and schools lie deserted after hundreds of people fled drought and hunger, some moving to the cities while others headed south to Nigeria. Animals are dying from lack of fodder and water. "This is the worst crisis in 30 years", worse than 1984 or 2005, Alio Mahamane, a member of Niger's farmers organisation, told AFP.

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Mali are similarly affected, after last year's insufficient or irregular rains left poor crops and a desperate shortage of cattle feed in a region already suffering endemic malnutrition. The situation has triggered appeals for international aid for this belt spanning the southern flank of the Sahara Desert….

Aerial view of Gobero archaeological site in Niger from Holocene, from Sereno P.C., Garcea E.A.A., Jousse H., Stojanowski C.M., Saliège J-F., et al. 2008. Lakeside Cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 Years of Holocene Population and Environmental Change. PLoS ONE 3(8): e2995. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002995 Figure 2, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license

Rainboots in the dry season for Cameroon's capital, as climate change takes hold

Ntungwe Elias Ngalame in AlertNet: When visitors arrived in Yaounde [in Cameroon] recently for the 8th annual meeting of the African Road Maintenance Funds Association, they got an odd greeting from a Cameroon host delegate.

"Yaounde, a city flanked by seven hills, is an environmentally friendly place with a traditional charming cold climate in the early mornings and late evenings. We are, however experiencing strange persistent rains over the past months that require our visitors to arm themselves with the necessary equipment - raincoats, warm clothes, umbrellas - to cope with the changes," warned Tsimi Evouna, a government delegate to the meeting.

Residents of Cameroon's capital are suffering through a climate nightmare this year as heavy rains that have fallen since January flood streets and homes in what is normally a dry period of the year. "Formerly there were at least four months of dry season with rains in April to November and the dry season characterized by persistent sunshine from December to March. Strangely, however, we have had rains throughout this year," said Elvis Mbong, a worker with the Ministry of Agriculture in Yaounde.

While most city inhabitants have not heard of or do not clearly understand the concept of climate change, Mbong said, "they are all witnessing the effects as they try to cope with the changes."…

Heavist ever rainy season predicted in Chad

AllAfrica.com, via the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks: Up to 70,000 people have been affected by flooding in northwestern Cameroon and southern Chad; based on meteorological data, disaster workers with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) predict a longer and wetter rain season than normal. Thousands of people have remained homeless in Chad and Cameroon since the rains began early in August, according to Allale.

August flooding affected more than 8,000 families in Logone Occidentale, Mayo Kebbi and Moyen Chari in southern Chad, and 5,000 families in and around Cameroon's northwestern town of Garoua, 60 km west of the Chad border, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). The IFRC has launched an emergency appeal to help 14,000 victims across the two countries….

…Flooding has exposed residents to respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, according to the Washington DC-based food security monitoring organisation, FEWSNET. With blocked roads and destroyed bridges in and around Garoua in northwest Cameroon, the biggest fear for flood victims there is the lack of drinking water, according to the IFRC's Diallo…..

Map of Chad and neighboring countries, from the CIA. Wikimedia Commons