This month’s Conflict Trends report is the latest in series of ACLED reports which provide an overview and analysis of real-time conflict in Africa.

February witnessed the run-up to the muchanticipated elections in Kenya, for which ACLED produced detailed, real-time and daily coverage and analysis at kenya.acleddata.com. This month’s report provides an overview of this content. At the time of writing, election results had not yet been announced, and the outcome - for Kenya and its political future - was far from certain.

The most recent (2010–2011) drought in the arid and semiarid lowlands (ASAL) of the Horn of Africa has rendered over 13 million people in need of food, and caused a devastating famine in southern Somalia. The drought has also raised concerns that pastoralist livelihoods in this region are no longer viable or sustainable, thereby justifying strategies that aim to sedentarize and diversify these livelihoods. Countering this view are advocates of wholesale protection of pastoralist livelihoods.

Atlas of health and climate launches new collaboration between public health and meteorological communities

Atlas provides maps, tables and graphs showing links between health and climate

Geneva, 29 October 2012 (WHO/WMO) – As the world’s climate continues to change, hazards to human health are increasing. The Atlas of Health and Climate, published today jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), illustrates some of the most pressing current and emerging challenges.

Djibouti: Fifth Review Under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement, Request for Augmentation of Access and Rephasing, Request for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria, and Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion Resulting in Noncomplying Disbursement - Staff Report; Press Release on the Executive Board Discussion; and Statement by the Executive Director for Djibouti.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Food security must be at centre of Africa’s development

Addressing hunger precondition for sustained human development in sub-Saharan Africa, UNDP Report says.

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Nairobi, Kenya — Sub-Saharan Africa cannot sustain its present economic resurgence unless it eliminates the hunger that affects nearly a quarter of its people, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) argues in the newly released Africa Human Development Report 2012: Towards a Food Secure Future.

UNICEF report: despite recent improvements, outlook for the Horn of Africa increasingly worrisome

More than 8 million people need emergency assistance

NAIROBI, 11 April 2012 – The massive humanitarian response in the Horn of Africa in 2011 reversed the spread of famine and saved tens of thousands of children’s lives, but the outlook is increasingly worrisome, threatening the tentative gains achieved to date, according to a new UNICEF report.

Highlights

Funding Situation

The CERF raised a record amount of US$465 million through the contributions of Member States, Observers, regional governments and the private sector. 2011 marks only the second time in the history of the Fund that it exceeded the $450 million target established for it by the General Assembly.

Additionally, $46.4 million was transferred from the CERF loan window to the grant window with the reduction of the loan element by the General Assembly.

Le coût d'une réponse tardive à des alertes précoces lors de la sécheresse de 2011 dans la Corne de l'Afrique.

Plus de 13 millions de personnes sont encore aujourd’hui touchées par la crise dans la Corne de l’Afrique. Malgré plusieurs signes avant-coureurs, apparus quelques mois plus tôt, aucune réponse suffisante n'a été apportée avant qu'il ne soit trop tard.

INTRODUCTION

• An estimated 12 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in East Africa .

• Aid agencies in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya have reported high rates of acute malnutrition as well as large numbers of livestock deaths and other indicators of livelihood distress.

• Numerous factors, including drought, the protracted conflict in Somalia, rising food prices, seasonal floods and localised resource conflicts are contributing to a deepening crisis.