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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 274
9 - 15 April 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Half a million children to be vaccinated against polio
ETHIOPIA: Meningitis kills 40, infects over 400
ETHIOPIA: Funding crisis could leave millions hungry - WFP
SOMALIA: Northeast drought depletes food and livestock
SOMALIA: 13 reported killed in inter-clan fighting in Mudug
SUDAN: Annan urges donors to convert pledges into cash
SUDAN: Attack on Darfur village condemned, donors meet in Oslo


SEE ALSO:

SUDAN: Interview with Caesar Mazzolari, bishop of Rumbek at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46605

SUDAN: Concerns over slow implementation of southern peace accord
http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=46654

ERITREA: Half a million children to be vaccinated against polio

Eritrea launched a national campaign on Monday to vaccinate 500,000
children across the country against polio, a UN official said. Eritrea
has had no confirmed cases of polio since 1997, but cases have been
recorded recently in neighbouring Ethiopia and Sudan. "We are trying to
make sure that Eritrea maintains the present polio-free status,"
Christian Balslev-Olesen, a UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative
in Eritrea, told IRIN on Monday. "This is a preventive action."

The first round of vaccinations was from Monday to Wednesday, while the
second round is scheduled for 13-15 May. The campaign is supported by
the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF. In December last
year, Eritrea's health ministry organised a polio-immunisation campaign,
after the virus was discovered in regions bordering Sudan, immunising
more than 85 percent of the targeted 50,000 children. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46584]

ETHIOPIA: Meningitis kills 40, infects over 400

A meningitis outbreak in Ethiopia has claimed the lives of 40 people and
infected more than 433, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told
IRIN on Wednesday. Vivian Vansteirteghem, head of health and nutrition
at UNICEF-Ethiopia said the country needed US $2.4 million to bridge a
funding gap for vaccines and treatment. "For the moment they have
vaccines and the treatment, but they just want to be prepared in case
there is an increase in the population infected," she said.

Meningitis is one of the top ten child killers in Ethiopia, according to
the health ministry. UNICEF said the outbreak had occurred in four of
Ethiopia's nine regions: Tigray, Afar, Benshangul-Gumuz and Oromiya. The
highest number of cases was in Benshangul, where about 167 cases have
been reported in the past few weeks. Officials at the health ministry
said they were vaccinating people between the ages of two and 30 in
affected areas. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46617]

ETHIOPIA: Funding crisis could leave millions hungry - WFP

A drastic funding crisis could affect three million Ethiopians who need
food aid, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a press release
issued on Tuesday. WFP said it urgently needed US $33 million to cover
half the country's emergency food needs for the next two and a half
months - this would feed 1.5 million Ethiopians. The government and NGOs
have previously contributed towards feeding the other 1.5 million, but
they too are facing funding shortages.

"The lack of funds is making it impossible for WFP and its partners to
adequately meet the needs of hungry Ethiopians," Georgia Shaver, WFP's
country director in Ethiopia, was quoted as saying. "The situation is
particularly worrisome in the northeast and east of the country, as well
as in the south, where we are seeing higher levels of malnutrition, and
where water and food remain scarce," Shaver added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46604]

SOMALIA: Northeast drought depletes food and livestock

Thousands of Somalis are in dire need of aid, following a severe drought
in several areas of the self-declared republic of Somaliland and the
semi-autonomous state of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, relief
workers told IRIN on Sunday. The worst affected areas were Togdheer and
Sool regions, Nudal valley and Mudug. Some affected people in these
areas had started moving to less affected regions and urban centres such
as Las Anod, Bossaso, Garowe and Galkayo, the sources said.

Abdihakim Ahmed, a programme coordinator for Save the Children-US, told
IRIN in the Somaliland capital, Hargeysa, that pastoral communities in
the most severely affected areas had lost over half of their sheep and
goats, 70 percent of their cattle and 35 percent of their camels. Food
stocks, he added, were virtually non-existent in some areas of Sool and
Togdheer, and most traditional water points had dried up. Abdi Ahmed
Iidle, Mayor of Burao, Somaliland's second city, told reporters during a
news conference on Sunday that the lack so far of the usual long (Gu)
rains meant no recovery was expected soon. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46620]

SOMALIA: 13 reported killed in inter-clan fighting in Mudug

At least 13 people were reported killed in renewed inter-clan fighting
in Hobyo district, Mudug region of central Somalia, sources told IRIN.
At least 30 others were reported wounded, the sources added. The
fighting pitted militiamen from two sub-clans, the Saad and Seleeban of
the main Hawiye clan and was reportedly sparked by misunderstanding over
the right to use grasing lands and water points in Hobyo area.

A local journalist in Galkayo, the capital of Mudug told IRIN that the
latest fighting broke out on Monday afternoon. It escalated in the
evening, leading to the destruction of property and torching of houses
in south Galkayo. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46618]

SUDAN: Annan urges donors to convert pledges into cash

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan applauded donor countries for their
generous pledges of US $4.5 billion in aid for Sudan, but warned that
promises needed to be converted into cash immediately. "Time is running
out for the people of Sudan," Annan wrote in an article published by the
New York Times on Wednesday. "We need pledges immediately converted into
cash, and more protection forces in Darfur to prevent yet more death and
suffering." "The billions pledged this week can help," he added. "But
hungry people cannot eat pledges. Through long and bitter experience
we've learned that donor pledges often remain unfulfilled."

Representatives of more than 60 countries and international
organisations met in Oslo, Norway, on Monday to finance implementation
of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) - signed on 9 January by the
Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A). [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46646]

See related story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46599

SUDAN: Attack on Darfur village condemned

The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and the African Union (AU) have strongly
condemned the recent destruction of a village in the western Sudanese
state of South Darfur by armed militias. In a joint statement released
on Friday, Baba Gana Kingibe, the AU's ambassador to Sudan, and Jan
Pronk, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Sudan said:
"We learnt with utter shock and disbelief of the relentless day-long
attack on [the village of] Khor Abeche by armed militia of the Miseriyya
tribe of Niteaga."

According to the statement, over 200 militiamen on horses and camels
attacked the town on Thursday, under the command of Nasir Al Tijani Adel
Kaadir. A further 150 reinforcements, also from Niteaga, a town
north-west of Nyala, South Darfur's capital, later joined them. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46579] [ENDS]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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