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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 276
23 - 29 April 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: UN appeals for $7.5 million to combat food crisis
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Four injured by landmines along border
ETHIOPIA: Thousands homeless as aid reaches flood-affected areas
ETHIOPIA: Opposition complains of abuses ahead of elections
SOMALIA: Interim gov't to move from Nairobi in May, says official
SOMALIA: Returnees lose homes to floods in Somaliland
SOMALIA: Torrential rains kill five, cause massive destruction in Somaliland
SUDAN: Darfur peace talks to resume in May - AU spokesman


DJIBOUTI: UN appeals for $7.5 million to combat food crisis

The UN has issued a flash appeal for US $7.5 million to urgently provide
food and water to thousands of drought-stricken people in the Horn of
Africa nation. The appeal, made on Wednesday, follows an announcement
last week by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) that an estimated 28,650 people in Djibouti were experiencing
severe food and water shortages due to an extended drought. "The income
of households [in Djibouti] is dependent almost entirely on the health
and productivity of their livestock," OCHA said in a report.

"Since livestock productivity has been undermined by the consecutive
deteriorating seasons, household income and food access has been
severely constrained." Djibouti's government appealed for international
help on 9 April and has already initiated an emergency water-provision
programme in the southeastern Roadside Pastoral Sub-Zone, according to
the OCHA report.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46848]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Four injured by landmines along border

Four Ethiopians were injured along the disputed border with Eritrea
after a spate of blasts from freshly planted landmines, a senior UN
official said on Thursday. Phil Lewis, head of the UN's Mine Action
Coordination Centre (MACC), said three anti-tank mines had exploded and
damaged vehicles in the last month.

Another landmine was discovered before it exploded. They were the first
of newly planted landmines along the 1,000 km contested frontier that
has separated Ethiopia and Eritrea since early 2004. "These are all
newly laid landmines," Lewis told reporters in the Ethiopian capital,
Addis Ababa. "They are of a concern because there have been four of them
in the last month. These weapons are indiscriminate so anyone in the
wrong place at the wrong time could be killed."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46849]


ETHIOPIA: Thousands homeless as aid reaches flood-affected areas

Relief aid begun to reach survivors of devastating floods that hit
eastern Ethiopia, but the death toll could rise further without more
help, officials said on Wednesday. Some plastic sheeting and high-energy
biscuits had arrived in the region, but rescuers had been unable to get
to all the survivors, Ahmed Abdi, from the UN's World Food Programme,
told IRIN from Gode, one of the worst-affected areas. Many parts of the
region still remained cut off, he said.

"This is a catastrophe," Muktar Mohammed Seyyid, government relief
coordinator, told IRIN. "If we don't take action I am afraid the death
toll will increase." The toll had risen to 82 dead with 30 people still
missing, although Muktar said those figures could change. The floods, he
added, had affected about 30,000 people, and at least 5,000 families had
been left homeless.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46833]


ETHIOPIA: Opposition complains of abuses ahead of elections

Ethiopia's third-ever democratic elections have been marred by random
killings, mass arrests, torture and intimidation, five main opposition
groups alleged on Wednesday. The groups said two opposition members had
been shot dead, hundreds rounded up and imprisoned, while dozens had
disappeared less than three weeks ahead of the 15 May legislative
elections. Bereket Simon, Ethiopian information minister and spokesman
for the ruling party, dismissed the allegations as "baseless".

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, he said, had
provided a code of conduct to its 600,000 members to prevent abuses.
"This is an absolute lie and pure fabrication," Bereket told reporters
on Thursday. "Our members would be prosecuted if found to have taken
part in abuses. Any diversion from this code of conduct would make our
members accountable."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46845]


SOMALIA: Interim gov't to move from Nairobi in May, says official

The interim Somali government, which has operated from the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi, since its formation six months ago is planning to
finally relocate to Somalia at the end of May, according to one of its
senior officials. "The entire government will relocate to Somalia no
later than the end of May," Abdirahman Dinari, government spokesman told
IRIN on Thursday. "We are all preparing for the move." The government,
which includes several faction leaders, has been unable to relocate
because of security considerations.

It has, however, come under increasing pressure from the Kenyan
government and western diplomats to return to Mogadishu. Dinari said an
earlier decision to relocate temporarily to the towns of Jowhar and
Baidoa in south-central Somalia "still stands." Interim Somali
President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and Prime Minister, Ali Muhammad Gedi,
have said the government cannot function in Mogadishu until the city is
pacified and secured.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46850]


SOMALIA: Returnees lose homes to floods in Somaliland

Hundreds of Somali returnees living in the self-declared Republic of
Somaliland lost their makeshift homes during flooding that occurred when
torrential rains hit the region on Monday and Tuesday, local leaders
told IRIN. The floods damaged infrastructure and killed thousands of
livestock in several towns including Berbera, Burao and Hargeysa - the
Somaliland capital. In Burao, 340 km east of Hargeysa, a school, a
hospital and an airstrip were damaged, Somaliland transport minister
Osman Kassim told IRIN. The airstrip, he added, had been temporarily
closed because the runway had been washed away by the water. Other
sources said the floods also destroyed a tannery and more than 200 homes
in the town. "At least 300 huts belonging to Somali returnees were swept
away by the floodwaters, rendering them homeless," Kinsi Ahmed, a social
worker in Burao told IRIN.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46846]


SOMALIA: Torrential rains kill five, cause massive destruction in
Somaliland

Five people died and more than 1,000 others were displaced on Sunday
when torrential rains battered Hargeysa, the capital of the
self-declared Republic of Somaliland, the town's governor, Abdillahi
Irro, told IRIN on Monday. "The number of deaths might be higher since
some villages outside Hargeysa were also affected by the torrential
rains, and reports on the damages, deaths and casualties have not all
come in yet," he said. He said more than 500 families, among them
elderly women and children, were displaced.

He added that 270 families had been relocated to a camp belonging to the
Somaliland police force, where they were receiving food aid and non-food
items from relief agencies and the government. Others had sought refuge
with relatives and friends, he said. For decades, torrential rain and
floods have devastated Somaliland, located to the northwest of Somalia,
and weakened the region, already suffering from the ravages of a civil
war and recurring drought.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46808]


SUDAN: Darfur peace talks to resume in May - AU spokesman

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the western
region of Darfur are expected to resume in May, a spokesman for the
African Union (AU) in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, told IRIN on
Wednesday. An AU mediation team, he added, had been holding
consultations with Sudanese government officials in a renewed effort to
jumpstart the negotiations. "The team briefed the Sudanese officials on
the preparations made by the AU to create an environment conducive to
the resumption of the Darfur peace talks in Abuja [Nigeria]," the
spokesman, Nourreddine Mezni, said.

"The peace talks are expected to resume in May, although specific dates
will only be finalised at the end of the current consultation," he
added. The talks will be a follow-up to the first round of discussions
held at the end of February, with all parties to the Darfur conflict.
The AU team on Darfur, led by Sam Ibok and accompanied by the special
representative of the AU chairperson for the Sudan, Baba Gana Kingibe,
met the Sudanese Vice President, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, and the
Minister of Agriculture and head of the government delegation to Abuja
peace talks, Magzoub Al Khalifa.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46834]


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


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