Commander's assessment

1. Assessment.
The Nuba is quiet.

2. Concerns.

1. A short budgetary reprieve; thanks to the Norwegian's latest contribution and the confirmed Swedish pledge, JMC can continue to function into December, though funds are still inadequate to commit money to arrest the decline in operational vehicles and communications equipment..
2. GOS's continued denial of JMC access to the southern part of Lagawa Province.

3. Intentions.
To maintain increased vigilance along the AOR's western boundary, to build on this week's air recces.

4. Mines and Mine Clearing.

1. Land Mine Action (LMA). Operations continued on Katcha AP minefield; cleared 843 sqm (no mines found). Second team continued work on Krongo AP minefield; cleared 521 sqm (1 x POMZ destroyed). Krongo task suspended 26 Oct due to limited casevac services. LMA continued with training center construction in Kauda and recruitment of deminers for additional 2 teams in SLPA area.
2. Danish Church Aid (DCA). JASMAR 1 and JASMAR 2 returned from leave on 23 Oct and resumed operations 25 Oct after equipment check and refresher training. Operations suspended 26 Oct due to limited casevac services. OSIL 1 and OSIL 2 on leave until 31 Oct. DANMINAR dogs finishing Umm Serdiba road task, with remaining dog to be scheduled for re-accreditation 30-31 Oct.
3. RONCO Consulting Corporation (JMM team). RONCO commenced large loop detection demining on Heiban Road 23 Oct clearing over 500m, to be followed by mine detection dogs when accredited. Dog training continued in preparation for accreditation 27-28 Oct.
4. Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD). Continued with Basic Deminers Course in Umm Serdiba and marking of minefields in Western Jebels (less 26 Oct due to limited casevac services).
5. Additional Mine Activities. SLIRI resumed Impact Survey in Eastern Jebels.
6. MRE Activities.
   1. DCA: Limited MRE due to teams on leave.
   2. SC (US): SC(US) continued MRE in Katcha, under integrated approach and discussed lessons learned to apply in Krongo integrated approach.
   

5. CIMIC

1. 2004/2005 Annual Needs Assessment. With the ANA just finished and its results being recorded some conclusions can already be drawn, particularly in the case of Talodi (Sector III). JMC provided logistical support and also made available HAO's assistant. The assessment team (comprising staff of FAO, Save the Children - US, WFP, Ministry of Agriculture, HAC, Ru'ya and JMC) visited the GoS administered area from 17 Oct to 18 Oct. Talodi locality has ten Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps: Dar es Salaam, El Faid, El Kook, Kowaga, Mandy, Ramla, Salamat, Talodi, Tambaira and Um Adara. Liri has one IDP camp. IDPs have been in these camps for 1 to 3 years, except for 450 Shilluk IDPs who moved into Liri in the middle of 2004. All camps are isolated but for Liri where IDPs have integrated into the local community. The team visited two camps near Talodi town: Dar es Salaam and Ramla. Regarding the nutritional status it was found that the condition of most of the children (though there were many healthy looking children) in the two camps was generally poor with evidence of severe and moderate malnutrition among many children. Also a case of kwashiorkor was diagnosed, a Ghanaian term meaning "the sickness the old baby gets when the new baby comes", a protein deficiency disease arising from a change to a vegetable diet after the more nutritious milk. Feeding with sufficient protein (Corn Soya Blend, CSB) both cures and prevents the disease that without treatment may lead the child to die before the age of five. Several elderly women appeared rather thin and the general appearance of the population reflects a non-productive agricultural area with no livestock. Clearly there appears to be a chronic malnutrition problem in the area. The causes (to name but a few) of this food insecurity vary from small size of plots, cultivation by IDPs on rocky hills, striga weed infestation (a persistent pest with pretty pink flowers that prevents crops from growing) to isolation of the area by poor roads. WFP will start food distribution (including CSB) as soon as the road condition has improved.
2. German Agro Action. Whereas GAA has been supporting several initiatives in Kadugli during 1999 and 2000 some years went by before GAA returned to the Nuba Mountains. GAA is establishing itself in GoS administered Lagawa (Sector II). Project manager is Heinz Fichtmueller, an agronomist with many years of experience in Africa. The initially three-year programme has a number of components as food security, health and peace building/conflict transformation. Though the first two may at first sight be more concrete (ranging from local test plots, crop diversification and arid soil renovation to training and seed provision to local farmers), they do not exclude the latter.
3. Norwegian Refugee Council. NRC with offices in Khartoum and Bentiu is exploring possibilities (in cooperation with among others the Ministry of Education) to start literacy and numeracy training for children in the Kadugli area next year. This plan obviously depends on funding.
4. Health. Sector III assisted MEDAIR with the delivery of mainly malaria drugs for Liri. At the same time JMC provided transport for three polio vaccination teams to Heiban. MEDAIR will organise a six-day cross-line EPI (Expanded Programme of Immunisation) course in Julud (Sector V) for health facilitators.
5. Security Meeting. The biweekly security meeting will take place Mon 1 Nov at 1000hrs in the CIMIC Centre.
6. HAC/NMPACT Meeting. The monthly Inter-Agency Coordination meeting will be held in Kadugli Wed 3 Nov at 1300hrs in the HAC Office.

W G PRIOR
Colonel
Chief of Staff
For Head of Mission