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 201
16 - 22 October 2004


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Pastoral zones likely to suffer worse food shortages
ERITREA: Gov't says HIV prevalence stabilising
ETHIOPIA: Drought-hit Somali region facing dire situation
ETHIOPIA: Paris Club nations agree to cancel $758 m debt
ETHIOPIA: World Bank calls for change in attitude towards women
SOMALIA: Annan calls for progress in political process
SUDAN: African Union to send more peacekeepers to Darfur
SUDAN: UN expert speaks out on rape in Darfur
SUDAN: Rural communities in Darfur facing food crisis - ICRC
SUDAN: Attacks against IDPs continuing in Darfur - UN


ALSO SEE:

ERITREA: IRIN interview with Martti Ahtisaari, UN envoy
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43719&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa

ETHIOPIA: Threat of large emergencies still looming, UN
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43740&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa


DJIBOUTI: Pastoral zones likely to suffer worse food shortages

The pastoral zones of northwestern and southeastern Djibouti are likely to
experience worsening food shortages during the next six months as a result
of inadequate rainfall, a famine early warning agency reported on
Thursday.

In the southeast, people who moved to Geustir with their livestock in
August in search of pasture have still not returned to their home areas, a
factor that had delayed school opening, particularly in Beyadde, the
Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said in its October update
on Djibouti. In the northwest, livestock are currently concentrated on the
main winter grazing areas around the valley of Weima down to the
flood-prone plains (Dohda, Andaba and Agna). The current available pasture
will be exhausted soon due to high population pressure, according to FEWS
NET.

All along the northwest and southeast border, pastoral sub-zones and
pockets of the central lowland pastoral area received between 25 and 75
percent of average monthly rainfall. As a result, pasture availability was
unsatisfactory in most parts of the country and it is unlikely that the
existing pasture will be sufficient to sustain animals' needs until the
Diraac/Sougoum rains, which normally start in April.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43796&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=DJIBOUTI


ERITREA: Gov't says HIV prevalence stabilising

The HIV prevalence in Eritrea has shown a slight decline over the past few
years and appears to have stabilised, with survey results showing that the
unweighted national prevalence rate has fallen from 2.8 percent in 2001 to
2.4 last year, a government official told IRIN on Tuesday.

"We have adopted a multi-sectoral approach to prevention that involves
communities, the private sector, United Nations agencies and other
bilateral organizations," Andeberhan Tesfazion, the director of the
Eritrean National HIV/AIDS/STI and TB Control Divison (NATCoD) said.
"Every partner is guided by the national plan."

According to the findings of an HIV surveillance report conducted by the
Ministry of Health in all six zones of Eritrea between April and July
2003, prevalence rates were highest in the Southern Red Sea (7.2 percent)
and Maekel (3.6 percent) zones. It said women aged 20 to 24 and 25 to 29
years had higher-than-average rates of infection, and prevalence was
higher among pregnant women in urban areas than those in rural areas.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43781&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ERITREA


ETHIOPIA: Drought-hit Somali region facing dire situation

Panic is beginning to set in among drought-hit families in Somali region,
where poor rains have exacerbated water shortages, the government and aid
organisations said on Wednesday. Poor rains had led to "significant
livestock deaths", according to the government's regional emergency arm
and Save the Children UK. Fears were also mounting among communities that
a drought of the magnitude of 2000 - when an estimated 50,000 people died
- could be in the making, it added.

"It is now almost three weeks into the deyr season in the seven-deyr
receiving zones of Somali region, and there are signs that the deyr rains
are not performing well," said a report from the government's Disaster
Prevention and Preparedness Bureau and SCF UK. "Due to the poor
performance of the deyr rains, the local populations, who are largely
pastoral and agro-pastoral, are beginning to panic."

Most of Somali region receives two sets of rains during the year - the
deyr and gu rains. Both rains were poor during 2003 and 2004. More than
four million people live in the dry, remote region, which is made up of
nine zones and has a 1,600-km border with neighbouring Somalia. The
population are largely nomadic pastoralists whose lifestyle is dependent
on the animals they keep.

Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43778&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ETHIOPIA


ETHIOPIA: Paris Club nations agree to cancel $758 m debt

The Paris Club of mainly western creditor nations have agreed to cancel US
$758 million of Ethiopian debt to help cut poverty and stimulate growth.
The debt write-off is part of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries
initiative (HIPC), launched in 1996 to ease the burden on the world's
poorest countries.

Ethiopia's external public sector debt was estimated in 2003 by the
International Monetary Fund at $6.8 billion, of which the Paris Club
nations were owed $1.89 billion as of April 2004. The write-off came as
the Ethiopian government launched concerted efforts through its diplomats
overseas to gain greater debt relief.

According to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ethiopia
allocates up to $100 million a year in debt servicing. The Paris Club said
in a statement issued in the French capital on Friday that Ethiopia's
outstanding debt now totalled $153 million.

Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43744&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ETHIOPIA


ETHIOPIA: World Bank calls for change in attitude towards women

The president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, has urged Ethiopians to
change their attitudes towards women, saying the plight of women in the
Horn of Africa country needed to be addressed through empowerment.

"I think the violence against women is a national disgrace and I think
opportunities for women need to be enriched considerably," Wolfensohn told
a news conference on Sunday in the capital, Addis Ababa, at the end of a
four-day visit.

According to UNICEF, Ethiopian women often bear the brunt of poverty, poor
health care and lack of education. Only six out of 10 females are
literate, while less than six percent can expect to receive skilled help
during childbirth. Currently, one-fifth more boys than girls attend
school, while seven out of 10 women have also been victims of female
genital mutilation.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43717&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ETHIOPIA


SOMALIA: Annan calls for progress in political process

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that peace-building
activities in Somalia should be based on discussions with the new
government and political progress within Somalia.

International support can only do so much, Annan said in his latest report
to the Security Council on Somalia, which was issued on Tuesday. "Somalis
themselves must show seriousness if they are to re-establish peace and
stability in their country," it said. Any enhanced role for the UN, he
added, would be incremental and based on the outcome of the discussions
with the new government.

At this critical stage in the peace process, I can only re-iterate the
crucial importance of progress in the political arena being accompanied by
serious efforts on the part of the Somali leaders to bring about tangible
improvement in the security situation, Annan said. He appealed to the
international community to provide generous support to Somalia.

Col Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was inaugurated in Kenya on 14 October as the
new Somali transitional president, after being elected by the newly
constituted 275-member Somali transitional parliament.

Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43775&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=SOMALIA


SUDAN: African Union to send more peacekeepers to Darfur

The African Union (AU) agreed on Wednesday to boost the number of
peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and to send in a civilian
police force, Said Djinnit, head of the AU's Peace and Security Council,
told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The deployment of the armed force, which would number 3,320, was expected
in a matter of weeks, he said. The one-year mission, he added, would be
made up of 2,241 troops, of whom 450 would be military observers and 815
civilian police. There would also be 164 support staff.

"Both the size and mandate of the mission have been strengthened to be
able to better assist the parties honour their commitment and work
together with renewed commitment and determination to achieve lasting
peace in Darfur," Djinnit said. "We are talking about weeks to have the
enhancement of people on the ground."

The announcement by the AU came on the eve of the planned resumption of
peace talks on Darfur in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Djinnit added that
the Peace and Security Council had urged the warring factions at the peace
talks to show "commitment and spirit of compromise" to end suffering.

The conflict in Darfur between the Sudanese military supported by Janjawid
militias, and rebels fighting to end alleged marginalisation and
discrimination of the region, has displaced about 1.45 million people and
sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad. The UN has
called the situation one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43776&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN


SUDAN: UN expert speaks out on rape in Darfur

Sexual violence and rape of women and girls in the western Sudanese region
of Darfur should be considered a war crime, Pamela Shifman, a United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) adviser on violence and sexual
exploitation, was reported as saying on Tuesday.

"The perpetrators must be held accountable. There are Sudanese laws
against rape and there are Sudanese courts, and they have to be used,"
Shifman, who visited the region last week, said. "Rape is used as a weapon
to terrorize individual women and girls, and also to terrorize their
families and to terrorize entire communities. No woman or girl is safe. It
is a very effective tool of war. It is a war crime," UN News quoted her as
saying.

Shifman said every woman or girl she spoke to had either endured sexual
assault herself, or knew of someone who had been attacked, particularly
when they left the relative safety of their IDP camp or settlement to find
firewood. "They know this is a treacherous trip and they fear the trip.
But they have absolutely no choice; they must go out," she said.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43759&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN


SUDAN: Rural communities in Darfur facing food crisis - ICRC

Rural communities across western Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region are
facing a food crisis that could be worse than the famines that hit the
region in the 1980s and 90s, an assessment team of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The team evaluated food security in 20 rural villages across Darfur in
September and concluded that agriculture had collapsed, and a combination
of insecurity and drought had destroyed traditional coping mechanisms of
communities in Darfur. In many cases, farmers' seeds and tools had been
looted and their cattle stolen.

Many families were now relying on wild food, the ICRC report added. The
ICRC assessment team reported that in some cases, wild food constituted as
much as 85 percent of people's food intake. Villagers also risked being
attacked by armed groups when they went to gather wild foods in the
bushes.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43747&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN


SUDAN: Attacks against IDPs continuing in Darfur - UN

The United Nations said on Monday it had continued to receive reports of
attacks against internally displaced persons (IDPs) and harassment of
relief workers in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. "The situation
has remained extremely tense over the past days," Radia Achouri,
spokesperson for the UN Advance Mission in Sudan, told IRIN.

According to Achouri, relief workers had been harassed in separate
incidents in North Darfur State either by suspected government soldiers
and Janjawid militias, or by rebel fighters from the Sudanese Liberation
Army.

"In all cases, the humanitarian teams were stopped for about 20 minutes,
surrounded, and intimidated by gunshots in the air," Achouri said. In a
further incident on 14 October, Achouri added, SLA rebels hijacked two
vehicles of an international aid organization in South Darfur State. The
cars were recovered on Sunday.

Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43728&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN


IRIN-CEA
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