Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch dies [501817156] | African news, analysis and opinion – The Africa Report.com

Posted on Thursday, 16 August 2012 14:13

Ethiopian Orthodox Church Patriarch dies

  

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has announced the death of its patriarch, Abune Paulos.

 Paulos, whose full title was His Holiness Abune Paulos, Fifth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of St Tekle Haymanot, Archbishop of Axum, died early Thursday in Addis Ababa, aged 76.

The patriarch, who was one of the seven serving presidents of the World Council of Churches is said to have been taken ill a few weeks ago, but the cause of his death, is yet to be established.

Born in Adwa in Tigray Province of the northern part of the country, the patriarch did his education at the Theological College of the Holy Trinity in Addis Ababa under the patronage of Patriarch Abune Tewophilos.

He was sent to study at the St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States and later undertook doctoral degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.

The patriarch also lived in exile in the United States.

Paulos, a renowned scholar and peace advocate, worked on the reconciliation process between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

He was one of the rare exceptionally educated patriarchs in Ethiopian history after completing various degrees, including his doctoral degree, at prestigious institutions.

Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.

About half of the Ethiopian population is estimated to be Orthodox Christians, and the Patriarch is likely to receive a state funeral.

UN food aid agency drops life-saving supplies for refugees in South Sudan

WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. Photo: WFP/Rein Skullerud

15 August 2012 – 

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) carried out the first in a series of airdrops to replenish rapidly diminishing food stocks for more than 100,000 people in South Sudan who have fled fighting in Sudan.On Wednesday afternoon, 32 metric tons of wheat was flown to refugee settlements in Maban County in the year-old nation’s Upper Nile State, WFP’s Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, said in a statement. The UN official has been in the country for the past two days.
There are some 170,000 Sudanese refugees currently in South Sudan, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with more arriving from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states every day after fleeing conflict and food shortages. Most of the new arrivals are dehydrated and malnourished.
Ms. Cousin, who has been meeting with refugees assisted by the WFP, said that today’s wheat shipment was flown in from Ethiopia and was enough to feed 2,100 people for a month, but the ultimate aim was to build resiliency.
“WFP’s goal is not just to meet the immediate needs of those we serve, but to work to ensure that these mothers can, in time, feed their own children,” she said “Building the resilience of the people is foremost in our minds as we work in partnership with the South Sudanese Government.”
South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which lie on the border with South Sudan, have been beset by fighting between Sudanese forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) since last year. The SPLM-N was previously part of the rebel movement that fought for the independence of South Sudan.

Olympic hero Farah meets British PM for hunger talks - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

Britain's double Olympic gold hero Mo Farah on Sunday helped launch a "hunger summit" aimed at tackling malnutrition worldwide, held at Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street residence.

Fresh from winning the 5,000-metre final on Saturday, Farah joined Cameron, Brazilian football legend Pele, famed Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie and Vice President Michel Temer of Brazil, who co-hosted the event.

Taking advantage of the large number of foreign officials gathered in London for the Olympic Games, Cameron led the calls for the international community to help the 25 million children around the world suffering from stunted growth.

The prime minister called Farah and Gebrselassie "enormous role models" who could help raise the profile of the struggle against malnutrition.

"While people around the planet have been enjoying and competing in these Games, there's another world where children don't have enough to eat and never get the start in life they deserve," he said.

"We've a responsibility to tackle this. But the hard truth is that, while we've made huge strides in the last decade on things like education, malnutrition rates have stagnated."

Farah, 29, who was born in Somalia but moved to Britain at age eight, shook hands with the British premier outside Number 10 Downing Street before performing his distinctive "Mobot" celebration.

The athlete and his wife Tania set up the Mo Farah Foundation, which aims to build 50 wells, give a month's supply of food to at least 20,000 people and provide medical care to 40,000 by the end of the year.

He has also set aside the 250,000 pounds ($389,000) he won in a TV show earlier this year for the project -- and there is more to come.

"On the first of September I'm having a big charity auction for the Mo Farah Foundation," he said on Saturday.

Olympians including Ethiopian 10,000 metres gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba and British long jump winner Greg Rutherford have signed an open letter urging Cameron to "fire the starting gun on the biggest ever push against hunger and malnutrition".

Cameron was set to pledge £120 million ($188 million, 153 million euros) for research into drought-resistant and vitamin-enhanced crops for Africa and South Asia.

The conference comes ahead of the closing ceremony of the London Olympics on Sunday, which will see the Olympic flame extinguished in the British capital and organisers hand over to the Rio 2016 team.

Olympic athletes back campaign against hunger - KansasCity.com

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LONDON -- A group of Olympic athletes from around the world on Sunday urged international leaders to tackle child malnutrition rates in poor countries.

Olympians including Ethiopian runner Tirunesh Dibaba and British long jumper Greg Rutherford, both gold medal winners at the London Games, were among athletes who wrote an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of a so-called "hunger summit" at the leader's residence in No.10 Downing Street.

The letter urged Cameron to prioritize a push against malnutrition when Britain takes the presidency of the G8 next year.

Cameron later told the summit that he is "determined" that Britain help change malnutrition rates.

"While people around the planet have been enjoying and competing in these Games, there's another world where children don't have enough to eat and never get the start in life they deserve," he said. "We've a responsibility to tackle this."

Sunday's summit brought together leaders from Brazil, Kenya, Bangladesh, India and Ireland. Also invited were Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, Brazilian football star Pele and newly-crowned double Olympic Champion Mo Farah.

Somalia-born Farah, who has set up his own charity to raise money to help the victims of the severe drought in the Horn of Africa, said that the issue of child hunger had "touched his heart" as he urged political leaders to tackle malnutrition in the poorest parts of the world.

"I'm lucky to have set up a new life here, and growing up here, after being in Somalia as a little boy," Farah said. "But there are kids out there facing hunger and starvation and we've got to do something about it.

Gebrselassie noted that Ethiopia had won three gold medals in London, saying "just imagine what my country could have achieved if half of our children weren't suffering from malnutrition."

Posted on Sun, Aug. 12, 2012 08:15 PM

Famine Danger Continues in Parts of Somalia | SomalilandPress.com - Somali News in English

NAIROBI — A year ago, United Nations officials declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia: Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Overwhelming support from the international community, together with favorable rains, helped improve food security in some parts of the country, saving millions of Somalis. But the crisis is far from over.

One of the reasons famine was declared in parts of Somalia last July was the malnutrition rate among children exceeded 30 percent. Tens of thousands of people died in south central Somalia alone.

The U.N.’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden says Somalia has moved from that situation and during the last six months the worst of the famine conditions have been dealt with.

However, Bowden says in parts of southern Somalia people still need emergency assistance and one in five children is still suffering from acute malnutrition.

“Some 2.5 million people are in need, critical in need of humanitarian emergency assistance and then we estimate another 1.3 million need continuous longer term support to help them maintain their livelihoods,” Bowden added.

At this time of the year last year, the situation was dire inside Somalia with no aid assistance reaching the needy people and the effects of four consecutive years of drought and two decades of war visible everywhere.

Thousands of Somalis trekked vast distances in search of water, food, and medical supplies.

Maulid Warfa, a Somali aid worker and also emergency coordinator for the U.N. Children’s agency UNICEF, said there is now a reduction of the number of people seeking assistance and there is a strong need to sustain the level of intervention currently in place.

“We do not have people dying in the number they were dying before,” said Warfa. “The malnutrition rate has been reduced at least by half, a lot of people were provided with food rations several, actually many of them have recovered. The situation has significantly improved not to level we want and the worrying we have now is if we do not sustain the current level of intervention the situation might deteriorate.”

Warfa also says accessibility has improved in some parts of the country and also level of services provided to the people has increased.

The U.N.’s Mark Bowden said the cycle of humanitarian crisis facing Somalia must be broken.

“We also need to start this year jointly with donors and government donors to ensure that recovery is taking place so that we ensure people don’t lurch from crisis to crisis depending on the weather conditions and we really take this opportunity to build back and their livelihoods,” he said.

According to Bowden, no matter how much food aid is brought into Somalia, the major part of breaking the cycle of very long term humanitarian crisis is to bring a lasting and durable peace to the war-torn country.
Source: VOA

Horn of Africa crisis one year on – Famine reversed, countless lives saved, but situation of millions of women and children still grave, news, StarAfrica.com

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 20, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A year ago today, the crisis...

NAIROBI, Kenya, July 20, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A year ago today, the crisis in theHorn of Africa reached boiling point when the United Nations declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia. The extraordinary international support, coupled with favourable rains, helped save countless lives and reverse the famine. However, the crisis is far from over. Eight million people across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are still in need of humanitarian assistance. Children, in particular, are threatened by a combination of poverty, insecurity, malnutrition, and disease.

“While our life-saving interventions and supplies reachedmillions of children and their families, many could not be reachedand remainextremely vulnerable,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Elhadj As Sy. “This was, and continues to be a children's emergency. We must continue to provide emergency assistance where needed, butmust also work moreclosely with communities to boost their capacities against future shocks.”

With generous support from donors, who provided US$396 million in 2011,UNICEF was ableto expandboth its emergency and development work in drought-stricken parts of Somalia, Kenya,Ethiopia and Djibouti, where more than 13 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance. Between July and December 2011, about 63,000 metric tonnes of humanitarian supplies were delivered - half of these were supplementary and therapeutic food. To date, nearly one million children have been treated for malnutrition across the region.

To further build resilience, disaster risk reduction is now being integrated into UNICEF's emergency and development programmes. Basic services for health, nutrition, sanitation and education at community level are being strengthened. UNICEF is also working with partners to strengthen safety netsfor vulnerable families using cash transfers.

With a third of the population, or 2.5 million, still in need of emergency assistance, Somalia remains the worst affected countryIn some regions of the South, one in five children is suffering from life-threatening acute malnutrition.In Kenya, 2.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, so are 3.2 million people in Ethiopia. Malnutrition continues to be a serious concern. Currently 900,000 children are estimated to be suffering from malnutrition in the three countries.

The crisis forced thousands of people out of their homes. There are now more than 626,000 Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia. Inside Somalia, more than one million people are internally displaced,nearly 60 per cent of themchildren.Conflict, instability, poor rains and continued restricted access for aid agencies pose a major threat to children and their families.There are already indications that the situation could deteriorate in southern Somalia, where acute malnutrition among children under five in some places is nearly twice the emergency threshold.

Short-term emergency assistance, although crucial to address health, nutrition, and water and sanitationneeds, will not prevent future crises. Drawing inspirations from communities' own responses and coping strategies to crises, UNICEF has been increasingly working over theyears on long-term interventions tobuild resilienceand address the needs of the most vulnerable.

“Traditional coping mechanismsarebeing stretched to the limit for many communities,”saidMr. Sy. “The cycle of crisesmust be broken through new means of supporting communities to withstand and recover better from disaster.

“We need to preserve our hard-won gains, and invest in children today to prevent similar crises from happening again in the future.”

UNICEF has fully programmed and committed the generous funding received for the Horn of Africacrisis in 2011. To continue its ongoing relief efforts, as well as invest in resilience-buildinginSomalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, UNICEF needs a total of US$273 million for 2012. As of 12 July 2012, only 33 per cent of the funds had been received.

Hunger Brings More Somali Refugees To Ethiopia - YouTube

Hunger Brings More Somali Refugees To Ethiopia - YouTube: ""

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