U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 144
07 - 13 June 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Government says it has capacity to clear mines 
ERITREA: Food situation critical, UN officials warn
ETHIOPIA: Donations avert thousands of food-related deaths - DERC 
ETHIOPIA: World's "oldest human remains" unearthed
SOMALIA: Renewed fighting in Mogadishu, at least seven killed
SOMALIA: Women call for peace
SOMALIA: Opposition accepts election result
 
ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with FAO Country Representative George Mburathi at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34695

ETHIOPIA: Interview with AIDS economist Alan Whiteside at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34647

ETHIOPIA: Relief to development - a blueprint for tackling rural poverty
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34644

ERITREA: Government has capacity to clear mines - information ministry

The Eritrean government has the capacity and experience to clear the
country's minefields on its own, the Acting Information Minister, Ali Abdu
Ahmed told IRIN on Thursday. Following years of demining activities
resulting from the Eritrean war of independence, "the experience and the
skills are still well in place," Abdu Ahmed said. "Having the necessary
capacity and skills to carry out duties of clearing mines, there is
therefore no reason whatsoever why we cannot take care of it on our own.
"The efficient manner in which the government of Eritrea has been working
following independence in clearing minefields can serve as a solid
testimony to that experience," he said.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34733]

ERITREA: Food situation critical, UN officials warn

Despite an improved response from donors in recent weeks, the food
situation in Eritrea remains critical, with average malnutrition rates of
between 15 and 20 percent among children under five, the UN said on
Tuesday. "Up to 70 percent are suffering either due to the fall-out from
war or drought, this can only constitute a major disaster," said Carolyn
McAskie, the UN's Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, at the mid-year
review of the Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal for Eritrea. Despite the
fact that malnutrition rates in Eritrea are between two and three times
higher than in many countries in Southern Africa, the response to its
government's appeal for food aid - originally made in November 2002 - has
been slow. The relatively few donor missions to Eritrea, the small number
of media representatives there, and competing food crises in other
countries - including neighbouring Ethiopia - have all been blamed for the
low level of donor response, which was "far from sufficient", McAskie
said.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34663]

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the
consolidated appeal aimed to raise US $163 million, but so far only $69.2
million had been pledged. According to the World Food Programme, 21.7
percent of Eritrea's children are suffering from malnutrition. A hunger
rate of 13-14 percent is normally considered alarming.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34606]

ETHIOPIA: Donations avert thousands of food-related deaths - DERC

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie said this week that
thousands of deaths had been averted in Ethiopia as a result of the
international community's response to severe food shortages in the
country, but that more needed to be done. The gap between emergency and
long-term development needed to be bridged to prevent future emergencies,
she said during a three-day visit to Ethiopia, which began on Wednesday.
McAskie's agenda included a visit to the Southern Nations, Nationalities
and Peoples Regional State - a traditional breadbasket - where some 1.4
million people face food shortages.
[Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34676].

Another region hard hit by food shortages is the Somali Regional State,
also in the south, where floods have claimed dozens of lives in addition
to hampering access to food. According to the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), women and children there have been forced to eat
grass to survive. ICRC officials said they took four to five days to reach
the districts of East and West Imi, where many villages were inundated
when the Wabe Shebele river burst its banks on 22 April. Beatriz Suso, an
ICRC agronomist, said when she arrived, families who had fled their homes
and lost all their possessions stood in the pouring rain because they had
no shelter.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34671].

Efforts to alleviate the food crisis in the country include a
cash-for-work scheme in South Welo, northern Ethiopia, under which 48,000
people are each receiving a monthly payment of $4 from the Ethiopian Red
Cross Society (ERCS) in return for helping with development work such as
soil and water conservation and road repairs, the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported on Tuesday. 
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34669] 

Meanwhile, some 2,500 malnourished children were admitted to emergency
feeding centres throughout the country in recent weeks, Save the
Children-USA said on Monday, adding that another 2,000 were on the brink
of starvation.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34619]

  
ETHIOPIA: World's "oldest human remains" unearthed
 
The world's oldest human remains, unearthed in Africa, may finally solve
the puzzle of the origins of man, scientists said on Wednesday. Three
160,000-year-old fossils, the oldest Homo sapiens ever and excavated in a
remote region of Ethiopia, appear to prove that the continent was the
cradle of humanity, the scientists said. Scientists say the three
near-complete skulls are between 30,000 and 60,000 years older than
previous finds. They are almost five times older than those found in
Europe, they said. Previously, the earliest fossils of Homo sapiens found
in Africa had been dated to about 100,000 years. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=34694]

SOMALIA: Renewed fighting in Mogadishu, at least seven killed

Fighting broke out again on Tuesday in the Medina district of Mogadishu,
according to local sources in the Somali capital. The fighting was between
militias loyal to faction leader Muse Sudi Yalahow, and those led by his
former right-hand man, Umar Mahmud Muhammad Finish. At least seven people
were killed and scores wounded in the latest violation of an October 2002
ceasefire agreement, Muhammad Yusuf, a reporter with Shabelle Radio, told
IRIN from Mogadishu. Among those killed was Muhammad Sudi Yalahow, Muse
Sudi's younger brother, he said. The journalist said the latest round of
fighting was a continuation of battles which erupted in late February and
continued into March. According to Muhammad, there had been no fighting on
Wednesday, but it was believed the two sides were "just buying time to
reorganise and reinforce their forces". He explained that there had been
no new attempts at mediation, because the elders had been "unable to bring
the two together for over a year". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34675]
 
SOMALIA: Women call for peace

Sixty women peace activists in Mogadishu have appealed for the restoration
of peace and stability in the city. Their call was made during a women's
forum held in Mogadishu, organised by the Centre for Research and Dialogue
(CRD), an affiliate of the War-Torn Societies Project International,
according to Maryam Mahmud Haji, a CRD gender officer. Maryam told IRIN on
Tuesday that women could make a difference, and that the leaders would
have to listen to them. Women's "support is very crucial to any leader who
has future political aspirations," she said. The women, from a
cross-section of the Banadir Region (Mogadishu and environs), were peace
activists who had been trying to persuade the various Mogadishu factions
to agree on a common administration for the region, Sharifo Adow, a member
of the group, told IRIN. She said the forum provided women with an
opportunity to share their ideas and "put together a plan of action".  
"We have decided that we will do anything to bring pressure to bear on the
leaders to accept a unified administration for Banadir Region and to
restore peace and stability," Sharifo said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34645]

SOMALIA: Opposition accepts election result

The main opposition party in the self-declared republic of Somaliland,
northwestern Somalia, says it now recognises the legitimacy of elections
held in April. The Kulmiye party's presidential candidate, Ahmad Muhammad
Silanyo, told IRIN on Wednesday that "after the intervention of elders and
others, we have decided as a party to accept the results". Silanyo had
rejected the result of the election in which incumbent President Dahir
Riyale Kahin of the Unity of Democrats Party (UDUB), was declared the
winner. Silanyo maintained that "there was a lot of injustice in the
election process, but we decided to accept the results in the interest of
the people". He said that Kulmiye was ready for talks with UDUB and the
government, but declined to say when such talks were likely to start.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34668]


IRIN-CEA
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Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

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