Day: May 26, 2021

In Numbers

594.5 mt of food assistance distributed

USD 588,027 cash-based transfers made

USD 4.8 m six months (April – September 2021) net funding requirements

89,000 people assisted in April 2021

Operational Updates

• In April, WFP provided assistance to 89,000 people including refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and vulnerable households in rural and urban areas through unconditional in-kind food distributions and cash-based transfers (CBT) to meet their immediate food needs.

General food assistance

• WFP, in coordination with UNHCR and the National Office for the Assistance to Refugees and Disaster Stricken People (ONARS), provided food assistance to 17,899 refugees in the Ali Addeh, Holl Holl and Markazi refugee settlements.

Refugees used SCOPE cards to retrieve their rations, which contributes to improve the transparency throughout the distribution process and enhances accountability of the operation.

• 2,595 households received in-kind food through WFP’s general food distributions in rural areas.

• WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Solidarities (MASS), supported 4,000 vulnerable households to access food through the SCOPE cards at 19 retailers in Djibouti City.

COVID-19 response

• WFP distributed in-kind food assistance to 12,975 beneficiaries in the five regions of the Country. In Djibouti City, WFP started to distribute vouchers in favor of 5,700 households affected by the crisis, to enable them to meet their immediate food needs.

• A total of 273 Households with at least one family member living with HIV received food assistance through a voucher of 10,000 DJF (56 USD). Implementing partners also provided support groups. These beneficiaries were also encouraged to register to the social protection system at the Government’s help desk.

Food Assistance for Assets

• In April, WFP provided conditional food assistance to 6,120 beneficiaries in rural areas for their participation in the construction of 1,130 agricultural perimeters and soil regeneration activities. In Godoria, in the North of the Country, participants support the regeneration of the mangrove.

School Feeding

• WFP shared the first draft of its ‘’school feeding implementation plan’’, supporting the Ministry of Education and Vocational Trainings. This plan includes the goals and priorities for the implementation of school feeding activities for the next decade.

Capacity building

• During the “Café de la Logistique”, the Operations Director of the new Port of Damerjog Djibouti met with the 40 students enrolled in the storekeeper training course. This port is designed to accommodate the steel industry, and companies specializing in the transformation of hydrocarbons. The “Café de la Logistique” aims to offer the possibility for students to learn about the different opportunities in the logistic sector and learn from the private sector participants.

Forecast-based Financing (FbF)

• As part of its emergency preparedness activities, WFP analyses different seasonal climate forecasts data in order to put in place anticipatory actions to mitigate natural disasters at community and government levels. WFP analyzed data on droughts over a 40-year period as well as the different food security surveys and the Integrated Context Analysis (ICA), over a period of 10 years, covering the whole country. This analysis will support the Government of Djibouti in the choice of targeted areas for the FBF test phase. The next step of this programme will strengthen the capacity of the National Meteorological Agency in reliable drought forecasting

Source: World Food Programme

Former South African President Jacob Zuma pleaded not guilty to corruption charges Wednesday in a trial that began more than a quarter century ago after some of the alleged crimes were committed.

Zuma, 79, is being tried on multiple counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering charges linked to a 1999 $2 billion arms deal when he was deputy president.

Zuma, who faces a 25-year prison term if convicted, was president from 2009 until he was forced out of office in 2018 during multiple political corruption scandals.

He has maintained he is the target of a politically motivated witch hunt by a rival faction of the ruling African National Congress.

One of the charges accuses Zuma of accepting bribes from Thales, a French multinational company, to guarantee South Africa signed the arms deal with the company in 1999.

Prosecutors have also launched a separate probe into allegations that Zuma accepted $34,000 annually from Thales to protect the company from an investigation into the agreement.

Thales, known as Thomson-CSF when the deal was reached, said it was unaware of any offenses committed by any of its employees. A company representative pleaded not guilty to the racketeering, corruption and money laundering charges the company faces.

Prosecutors filed charges against Zuma more than a decade ago but decided just before his successful 2009 presidential campaign not to pursue them. Prosecutors reinstated the charges a month after Zuma stepped down in early 2018.

On Wednesday, Zuma’s lawyer filed papers in Pietermaritzburg High Court calling for the removal of chief prosecutor Billy Downer. They claimed Downer is biased and that Zuma’s right to a fair trial was at risk. The judge said he would consider the request.

Source: Voice of America