Djibouti News Gazette – Page 1826

July 2, 2021

Infrastructure Projects Set To Transform Lamu Into A Key Port Town

Massive infrastructure projects taking shape in the Lamu archipelago as an unparalleled speed are set to make the region a maritime transport hub.

The Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat Director-General (DG) Kenneth Mwige says the ongoing construction of specialized port infrastructure, roads and airport expansion projects are intended to improve connectivity, scale-up Lamu port’s competitiveness and attract investments.

Speaking during a media tour of Lamu Port and other LAPSSET projects organised by the office of the Government Spokesperson and Kenya Port Authority (KPA), Mwige said the area is opening up as ‘a hub for regional transshipment trade’ following the operationalization of berth No. 1 of Lamu port.

Present during the two-day tour were Government Spokesperson Col (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna, Lamu Port Project Manager Eng. Dan Amadi and top KPA and LAPSEET Corridor Development Authority officials.

President Uhuru Kenyatta in May 2021 launched berth No 1 and container terminal No 1 in Manda Bay at an elaborate ceremony.

The Lamu media tour comes on the backdrop of a high-level regional meeting that took place at the UN Conference Center in Addis Ababa Ethiopia that brought together Regional Ministers, Ambassadors, Development Banks, Senior Government Officials and AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development Raila Odinga.

The regional meeting is aimed at coming up with a framework for the implementation of the LAPSSET project and also marketing the new Lamu port.

Mwige said the multibillion Lamu port codenamed Lamu South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor stands to transform the historical port town’s position in the global maritime transport system.

The DG noted that the medieval historic town of Lamu is set to experience a huge expansion of massive infrastructural developments thanks to the recent unveiling of the multibillion shilling mega port project.

LAPSSET is a crucial Kenya Vision 2030 flagship project that seeks to transform regional economies through increased trade, integration and inter-connectivity spanning Kenya, South Sudan and landlocked Ethiopia and beyond.

Mwige says the government has elaborate plans to transform Lamu into a key transshipment hub for the region and is expected to compete for transshipment business with existing regional ports such as the Port of Durban in South Africa, the Port of Djibouti and the Port of Salalah in Oman.

He said the new grandiose port will boost economic activities in Lamu and beyond, create jobs for the youth and eliminate congestion at the port of Mombasa.

“We urge local and international investors to come and pitch tent in Lamu as the new modern port is expected to revolutionize the economy of the region,” said Mwige.

The Vision 2030 DG noted that the massive infrastructure projects underway calls for significant public and private sector investments in the new port and create new jobs and expand businesses through investment in public infrastructure.

“All these investments are vital to strengthen and modernize the country’s maritime infrastructure and ensure our ports remain competitive worldwide,” he said.

Among the major projects underway include the Lamu-Garissa Road which falls under the Lamu and Garissa Counties and is a section of the LAPSSET corridor, having a total length of about 453 kilometers worth Sh17.9 billion.

The road starts at Mokowe and traverses the Eastern side of Tana River and in some of its section it crosses trading centers in Hindi, Barigonu, Bodhei, Ijara, Roka, Bura, Nanighi and Korakora before terminating at junction 13 kilometers from Garissa town.

The road project is a gateway to the LAPSSET corridor and provides connectivity to other parts of Kenya through railway and highway.

Other projects underway include the expansion works of the archipelago’s Manda airport by upgrading and widening the existing one-kilometer runway and the addition of a new two-kilometer runway to support tourism and business activities.

The new runway, which has been designed to handle larger and heavier aircrafts, is hoped to increase the historic town’s appeal as a fly-in destination.

Oguna says the ongoing upgrades of roads along the LAPSSET corridor will enhance security and aid in the evacuation of cargo from the port of Lamu to the hinterland.

He said the tarmacking of the Sh10.8 billion 114km Garsen-Witu-Lamu road project is anticipated to open up the region and end the insecurity menace.

“Criminal groups have been planting improvised explosive devices as roadside bombs along the earthen roads which would now be a thing of the past,” Oguna said.

Oguna said the Garsen-Lamu road is an important trade corridor for traffic headed from Nairobi, South Sudan and Ethiopia, to the Lamu port and is a component of the Lamu-Moyale Highway, part of LAPSSET.

Eng. Geoffrey Namadoa, a senior KPA Marine Pilot says the port of Lamu will receive the third vessel on July 4 from CMA CGM as three shipping lines positions are expected to start handling freight by transporting cargo handling equipment to the facility.

“The vessel from the former Soviet Union is expected to collect about 50 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from Zanzibar to the Far West,” said Captain Namodoa.

This will be the third vessel to dock at the new port after MV CAP Carmel and MV Seago Bremerhaven made their maiden call in early May this year.

“The new facility is envisaged to have a total of 23 modern deep-sea berths with a quay length of 400 metres each,” added the KPA official.

Eng. Namadoa said phase one of the project comprises three berths with the first already operational and the remaining two expected to be ready by end of October 2021.

He said the mega port will position Lamu as an important regional transshipment hub, poised to handle crude and refined oil and oil products from South Sudan and has the potential to impact on the livelihoods of the people of Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

“KPA will continue to develop the capacity of Lamu port which currently has the capacity to handle jumbo-sized ships with carrying capacity of between 12,000 to 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) ships,” Captain Namadoa said.

The senior KPA official disclosed that the authority has already sent to Lamu crucial marine equipment for handling cargo transfers to ships, barges, and trucks as the new port is set to experience a peak in activities and handle international shipments.

Eng. Namadoa said the grandiose Lamu port has the capabilities to handle post-panamax ships from the international shipping lines that ply the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

On his part, Eng Amadi said in the long run massive development of tourist hotels, international airport, oil refinery depots and a standard gauge railway line are all set to sprout in Lamu transforming its fortunes.

Source: Kenya News Agency

July 2, 2021

More Than 2 Million in Niger Face Humanitarian Crisis, UN Agency Says

GENEVA – The U.N. Children’s Fund is urging the international community to pay more attention to Niger, where more than 2 million people are malnourished and living in dire conditions.

More than 3.8 million people in Niger, more than half children, are facing a humanitarian crisis because of a combination of natural and human-caused disasters.

Niger, a landlocked country, is facing attacks by Islamist militants and other armed groups along its borders with Nigeria in the south, Burkina Faso in the southeast, Mali in the west and in the Lake Chad region in the east. This has led to significant displacements in the country and is creating havoc for hundreds of thousands of children.

Besides conflict, the U.N. Children’s Fund reports Niger is dealing with food shortages, malnutrition, recurrent epidemics, climate-related disasters such as floods and drought, and the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UNICEF representative in the Niger country office, Aboubacry Tall, said malnutrition remained a major threat to children’s health and development. Speaking on a video link from the capital, Niamey, he said the rate of acute severe malnutrition remained extremely high. He said 2.2 million people needed nutrition assistance, of whom 1.6 million were children under age 5.

Also, he said, there are “about half a million — 450,000 exactly — who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and therefore become almost condemned to a life of underachievement if they survive.”

Hundreds of schools close

UNICEF reports more than 370 schools have been forced to close over recent months because of insecurity in conflict-affected areas. It says attacks on schools and threats to education are destroying the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of children.

Tall said UNICEF was working across the country to help those affected by emergencies and conflicts. He noted that displaced people mostly live in host communities and share everything with them — shelter, land, food.

He said displaced people were not relying totally on humanitarian assistance to survive.

“People grow food. People do small businesses on the side, buying and selling goods, for example,” he said. “There is a lot of economic activity, which some of the humanitarian programs do also support through cash transfers to support to food production.”

Tall said UNICEF was working with the government and humanitarian partners to respond to acute emergencies, such as population movements, and to mitigate risks. He said the agency needed more than $100 million to deliver vital humanitarian aid to children throughout the country this year.

Source: Voice of America

July 2, 2021

Ambassador John Mwangemi Appointed The New Acting MD Of KPA

Ambassador John Mwangemi was on Thursday appointed the new Acting Managing Director (MD) of Kenya Ports Authority.

In a press release, the KPA Board of Directors announced the appointment of Amb. Mwangemi to replace, Eng. Rashid Salim, who is proceeding on retirement until a substantive MD is recruited.

The new Acting Managing Director is the immediate former Ambassador of Kenya to Djibouti and Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

Amb. Mwangemi previously served as Kenya‘s High Commissioner to Rwanda and also held executive leadership positions in the corporate world locally and internationally.

His appointment comes shortly after the launching of berth No 1 and container terminal No 1 of Lamu Port in Manda Bay.

Prior to his appointment as Acting Managing Director in March last year, Eng. Rashid who worked at KPA for more than 30 years was the General Manager Engineering Services.

He took over from the former Manager Director, Daniel Manduku, who resigned after being implicated in corruption cases.

Source: Kenya News Agency

July 1, 2021

Tanzanian Opposition, Activists Demands Constitutional Changes

Tanzanian opposition leaders and rights activists held a forum Thursday urging the government to revise the constitution to allow more political space. The forum, called “Katiba Day,” which means constitution day, comes after President Samia Hassan asked Tanzanians to give her time to first fix the economy.

The movement was fueled by President Samia Hassan’s remarks Monday, when she held her first press conference.

Hassan urged Tanzanians to give her more time before she can allow the banned political rallies to resume and revive the stalled process of drafting a new constitution.

“Give me some more time so that I can stabilize Tanzania economically, inviting investors to invest and creating jobs and then the rest will follow,” the president said. “When the time arrives, we will deal with the issue of the new constitution and lifting the ban on political rallies. Right now we do allow political parties to organize meetings with their people, and I think you see that.”

The late President John Magufuli halted the process of drafting a new constitution soon after taking office in 2015 and banned political rallies the following year.

Opposition politicians say there’s no reason to give President Hassan time, saying that democracy cannot limit economic growth.

Benson Singo is the deputy secretary of the Party for Democracy and Progress, better known as Chadema.

“The constitution needs to be written not for the president’s wishes but for the wishes of Tanzanians,” he says, adding that his party will not agree to give the president additional time, because even Magufuli requested more time to build the country. “When we gave it to him, he dropped the economy,” he said.

Rights groups say the president should focus on the constitution since it facilitates stability.

Onesmo Olengurumwa is the director of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders coalition.

“The things the president wants to do will go smoothly if she has a constitution that allows her to do them with the assurance of stability,” he said, adding that “she has to do things in the national interest, not in her own interests.”

Tanzania is currently governed by the 1977 constitution that was formed under a single-party system. Opposition and critics are challenging it since it favors the ruling CCM party.

Source: Voice of America

July 1, 2021

UN Agencies Warn of Worsening Humanitarian Catastrophe in Tigray

U.N. aid agencies warn of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia’s battle-scarred Tigray region if they are prevented from delivering life-saving assistance to this stricken area.

The Ethiopian government’s tenuous unilateral ceasefire in Tigray after eight months of conflict has not got off to a good start. The U.N. refugee agency reports the electrical power and phone networks in its offices in the capital Mekelle are not functioning, hampering its ability to deliver humanitarian aid.

The U.N. children’s fund has condemned the pillaging of its video equipment Monday by members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, warning 140,000 acutely malnourished children were at risk of dying without urgent nutritional treatment.

The World Food Program is demanding full access to Tigray to deliver life-saving food assistance to millions of hungry people. Among them, it says, are half a million children, women and men who face starvation over the coming months.

The World Health Organization reports the region’s health system has collapsed. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, says WHO can do little to help the beleaguered population because access to the area is extremely limited.

“We are obviously concerned about potential for cholera, measles, and malaria outbreaks in the region. In addition, Tigray region is also located on the meningitis belt and is at risk of yellow fever outbreaks… People are also at risk of death from lack of access to health services to treat any other diseases that may happen,” he said.

Despite the cease-fire, fighting continues in Tigray. Jasarevic says WHO is taking measures to strengthen the security and wellbeing of its staff. He says efforts to provide essential health care is ongoing where it is possible to do so. However, he adds, what WHO staff can do does not approach the enormity of the needs.

“Now, with hospitals that are barely functioning, people being displaced, and the looming famine, the risk of communicable and vaccine-preventable diseases spreading due to the lack of food, clean water, safe shelter and access to health care is very real. All these factors combined are literally a recipe for larger epidemics,” he said.

WHO reports an estimated 3.5 million people are at risk of cholera. It says six million people are vulnerable to malaria, especially malnourished children. It says they are at particular risk of dying from this deadly vector-borne disease.

An oral cholera vaccine campaign targeting two million people, which began on June 12 was only able to reach 50% of the targeted population. WHO reports this was due to the conflict and difficulty in reaching the region’s widely spread population by road.

The agency reports attacks on health care, the looting and destruction of cold chain — the system used for storing vaccines correctly — and the general dangers posed by the warring parties has had a harmful impact on this life-saving operation.

Source: Voice of America