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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 216
23 - 29 October 2004


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Ruling party wants more women in parliament
ETHIOPIA: Full-blown emergency threatens Somali region, UN warns
ETHIOPIA: 750,000 children vaccinated against polio
ETHIOPIA: Prime Minister orders investigation into Dire Dawa killings
ERITREA: UN agency delivers much-needed food aid
SOMALIA: Boosting of UN role to be gradual and based on consensus
SOMALIA: No government-in-exile, new president says
SOMALIA: New president asks AU for 20,000 peacekeepers
SUDAN: Malnutrition widespread in Darfur - WFP
SUDAN: SPLM/A leader expects final peace deal by year-end
SUDAN: 70,000 Darfur IDPs reportedly taken back to their homes
SUDAN: EU to meet half the cost of AU mission in Darfur


ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: FOCUS: 'Face of famine' has evolved to hope 20 years on
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43872

SUDAN: Fears over increase in HIV/AIDS as calm returns to the south
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43895


ETHIOPIA: Ruling party wants more women in parliament

Ethiopia's ruling party is imposing female quotas on candidates in a bid
to have more women in parliament, officials said on Friday. Women are
guaranteed up to 30 percent of seats in the national elections for the
incumbent Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).
Opposition groups have also taken up the "historic" move as political
parities battle it out in the run up to the May 2005 federal and regional
elections. Ethiopia's parliament has just 42 female members, contrasting
with 505 men. Education Minister Genet Zewdie is the only female member of
the 16-strong cabinet.

"For the country to be a true democracy women must be properly
represented, Ethiopia Beyene, the vice chairman of the parliament women's
affairs standing committee, said. "The current number of women in
parliament is just not good enough. Women have a major contribution to
make so this is a very important step." In the regional elections half of
all candidates must be women, added Ethiopia, who has represented the
EPRDF in parliament for the last nine years.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43907]


ETHIOPIA: Full-blown emergency threatens Somali region, UN warns

A full-blown emergency is threatening Ethiopia's Somali region, the UN
warned on Thursday. Wells are drying up and malnutrition is beginning to
set in, according to a joint UN rapid-assessment team sent to monitor the
crisis. The team included the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, World Food Programme, UN Children's Fund and the UN Development
Programme. It said the first "unconfirmed reports" of deaths from water
shortages were beginning to emerge from the region, one of the most remote
in the country.

"The Somali region is declining into a crisis situation with some
districts already in a state of emergency," said the joint UN agencies
report. "There is widespread suffering in the Somali region due to the
cumulative effects of years of poor rains. Should the present Deyr (short)
rains fail or perform poorly, then many zones in the Somali region are
facing a full-blown humanitarian emergency."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43888]


ETHIOPIA: 750,000 children vaccinated against polio

Ethiopia has completed the vaccination of 750,000 children against polio
as it seeks to eradicate the last traces of the paralysing disease in the
country. The campaign comes amid fears that polio could re-emerge in
Ethiopia after new cases were discovered close to the border of
neighbouring Sudan. Although no case of wild polio virus has been detected
since 2001, Ethiopia is still not certified free of the virus. Under World
Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, a country can only be declared free
if no cases of the disease are detected for three years.

"Ethiopia is no longer on the list of priority countries," Bjorn
Ljungqvist, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told
IRIN. "However, there is the threat of importing wild polio virus from
countries still harbouring the virus due to intense transmission in
Nigeria and the recent transmission of polio virus to Sudan, which borders
Ethiopia." The four-day polio campaign was launched on Friday in key areas
of the Oromia region, around the capital, Addis Ababa. Some 1,250
vaccinators and 3,750 volunteers took part.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43871 ]


ETHIOPIA: Prime Minister orders investigation into Dire Dawa killings

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has ordered an investigation into
the killing of six people, reportedly by police, in the eastern town of
Dire Dawa, and has spoken with elders to help resolve the issue,
government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle said over the weekend. The six were
shot dead after police clashed with shopkeepers in the town, some 500 km
east of the capital, in a dispute over smuggled goods, the Ethiopian Human
Rights Council (EHRCO) said on Friday.

Another 19 people were injured as police "indiscriminately" opened fire on
demonstrators who claimed their goods had been illegally seized, EHRCO
added. The police had raided the shops to confiscate smuggled items. The
Ethiopian government has pledged to crack down on smuggling across the
highly porous 1,600-km border with Somalia, which, it says, undermines
legitimate trading.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43846 ]


ERITREA: UN agency delivers much-needed food aid

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that a ship carrying
61,200 mt of wheat from the United States had arrived at Eritrea's Red Sea
port of Massawa to help alleviate the suffering of some 600,000 people
affected by drought in the Horn of Africa country.

"This shipment, the largest single consignment of food aid to Eritrea
since its independence in 1991, comes as the country, in its fourth
consecutive year of drought, faces nearly complete crop failure in some
key food-producing regions," Jean-Pierre Cebron, the WFP country director,
said.

Some 38,500 mt of the food delivered by US-registered 'Liberty Sun' will
support WFP's emergency operations in the hard-hit areas of Gash Barka,
Debub and Anseba. The other 22,700 mt of wheat is a US contribution to the
Eritrean Grain Board.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=43914 ]


SOMALIA: Boosting of UN role to be gradual and based on consensus

Recent progress in efforts to restore peace and stability in Somalia is
likely to require the boosting of the UN's role in that country, the UN
Security Council said on Tuesday, adding that the strengthening of the
world body's involvement would be gradual and based on consultations with
the new government. "The Security Council shares the Secretary-General's
assessment that, 'at this stage of progress in the Somali peace process,
there will likely be a call for an expanded peace-building role and
presence for the United Nations, in order that it may assist the Somali
parties in implementing their agreement'," the Council said in a statement
read by its president for October, Emyr Jones Parry of Britain.

"At the same time, it is clear that any enhanced role for the Organization
in Somalia must be incremental, and should be based on the outcome of
discussions with the new government," the Council added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43875]


SOMALIA: No government-in-exile, new president says

Somalia's newly elected president said on Monday his administration would
not remain in exile, but would return to the war-ravaged country before
security was completely restored. President Abdullahi Yusuf said once his
cabinet was selected they would return - although they would initially
establish themselves outside the capital, Mogadishu. He rejected calls for
the new government to return only when security is restored. "The first
thing this new government should tackle is security," he told journalists
at a joint press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
"Somalia has been destroyed."

Yusuf has asked the African Union (AU) for between 15 and 20,000
peacekeepers to help restore order in Somalia, which has been devastated
by 14 years of civil war. "For the past 14 years that destruction has been
going on and all the infrastructure including the military and security
forces has been destroyed," he said. "We need forces from Africa to help
us in peacemaking. At the same time, it is essential we start building new
Somali forces comprise military police and military."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43843 ]


SOMALIA: New president asks AU for 20,000 peacekeepers

Somalia's newly elected president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has asked the
African Union (AU) for 20,000 peacekeepers to help secure the country,
officials said on Saturday. The peacekeepers would also help disarm
various militias, AU spokesman Adam Thiam said after a meeting between the
president and AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.

The comments came as European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Javier
Solana, held talks in Addis Ababa about helping rebuild the war-ravaged
nation. Solana said the EU could help with physical reconstruction and
also help to "put the administration into shape", although he declined to
say how much it would contribute. Solana, who also met Sudanese-rebel
leader John Garang and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi during his
two-day trip to Addis Ababa, said the challenges were enormous.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43825 ]


SUDAN: Malnutrition widespread in Darfur - WFP

Almost 22 percent of children under the age of five in Darfur, western
Sudan, are malnourished and close to half of all families do not have
enough food, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN on
Tuesday. The situation was particularly serious among internally displaced
persons (IDPs), according to a comprehensive nutrition and food security
assessment conducted in August and September among IDPs and other Darfur
residents.

Results of the survey, conducted by WFP in collaboration with other
agencies, were released on Tuesday. At the time of the survey, food aid
already played a critical role by reaching 70 percent of households among
Darfur's 1.45 million IDPs and 20 percent of resident households in
conflict-affected areas, WFP said. A total of 24 percent of IDPs were
found to be critically short of food.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43868 ]


SUDAN: SPLM/A leader expects final peace deal by year-end

Sudanese-rebel leader John Garang said on Friday he hoped a final peace
deal between his insurgents and the government of Khartoum would be
concluded before the end of the year. Speaking at the African Union (AU)
headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he said peace talks in Naivasha,
Kenya, paved the way for a final peace deal. He also said the talks could
help bring calm to the Darfur region in western Sudan, where the UN
estimates 70,000 people have lost their lives as a result of a conflict
that began early last year.

Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the
government are currently working out the final details of a peace deal to
end a 21-year fight for control of southern Sudan. "It is a political
framework for the whole country," said the SPLM/A leader, who is in
Ethiopia for a five-day visit.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43828 ]


SUDAN: 70,000 Darfur IDPs reportedly taken back to their homes

Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy to Sudan, met with Sudan's Foreign
Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating
security situation in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, Radhia
Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan
(UNAMIS), told IRIN on Friday. "Ismail provided Pronk with an update on
the measures the government of Sudan had taken to end impunity in Darfur,"
Achouri said. "A number of people, including Janjawid militia, have been
arrested, while 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur were
claimed to have been repatriated."

She said that Pronk took note of the number of people who had been
returned to their homes, but he needed more information to establish
whether this had occurred on a voluntary basis. "He was particularly
concerned that neither the UN High Commissioner for Refugees nor the
International Organisation for Migration had been consulted prior to the
repatriation, as had been agreed upon earlier," Achouri added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43826 ]


SUDAN: EU to meet half the cost of AU mission in Darfur

The European Union (EU) is to pay more than half the cost of the African
Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, EU's
foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said on Saturday. Solana said the
25-member body would approve the funding on Monday to support an enhanced
AU-peacekeeping mission in Darfur. "Given the situation in Darfur, this
mission has to be a success," Solana told journalists after a meeting in
Addis Ababa with Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU Commission.

"The African Union is going to be a success with the cooperation of the
international community," said Solana, who was on a two-day visit to Addis
Ababa, where the AU has its headquarters. "I would prefer to see how we
solve it before we go into a definition of what it is," Solana said when
asked whether he would describe the violence in Darfur as genocide.

The AU's Peace and Security Council agreed on Wednesday to increase its
protection force in Darfur from 390 to over 3,000 troops and civilian
police in an effort to end attacks against civilians by armed groups.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43823 ]


IRIN-CEA
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Horn of Africa                   www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica