Weekly Round-Up - IRINHA-280: 27-May-05
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 280
21 - 27 May 2005
CONTENTS:
ERITREA: Media watchdog calls for release of detained journalists
ERITREA: Food security is a priority, says Isayas
ETHIOPIA: Expanded health coverage plan launched
ETHIOPIA: Floods kill 32, destroy property in the east
SOMALIA: Detained journalists released in Puntland
SOMALIA: Amnesty appeals for release of "Gaboye" demonstrators
SUDAN: Living with the trauma of FGM
SUDAN: AU calls for increased support to Darfur mission
SUDAN: Concerns over fragile food situation in Bahr el Ghazal
ALSO SEE:
ERITREA: Widespread food shortages at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47252
KENYA-SOMALIA: Focus: Waiting in Dadaab for peace in Somalia at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47318
SUDAN: Living with the trauma of FGM at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47286]
ERITREA: Media watchdog calls for release of detained journalists
The global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders has called
on Eritrean President Isayas Aferwerki to release journalists and
political detainees who it said are being held in Eritrean jails. In a
statement issued on Monday to mark Eritrea's independence day, the group
told the president that "to turn this day into a genuine celebration he
would need to release senior journalists from the newspapers Tsigenay,
Maqaleh, Keste Debena, Zemen, Admas and all the other political
detainees." Eritrean authorities have denied allegations that they hold
political dissidents.
Yemane Gebremeskel, spokesman and director of the Eritrean president's
office, told IRIN in an interview on 6 May: "We don't have political
dissidents. No one is jailed because he has a different opinion."
According to Reporters Without Borders, 13 Eritrean reporters have been
in jail since 2001. Another 15 highly placed officials, it added, who
were reported by the media to have called for "democratisation" in May
2001, were also in jail, while privately owned media was "suspended".
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47309]
ERITREA: Food security is a priority, says Isayas
Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki has said food security is his
country's priority, but acknowledged that self-sufficiency and economic
stability would not be achieved immediately. "Food security remains the
priority of the priorities," Isayas said in a speech on Tuesday to mark
14 years of independence from Ethiopia. "It is clear that food security
cannot be achieved in one day." It would take "a long way to resolve all
economic problems", he added.
While Eritrea had implemented most major initiatives to replace
traditional farming methods with modern agricultural practices, Isayas
said, delays in the importation of heavy equipment and the high price of
oil had impacted negatively on development programmes. Eritrea attained
independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after a war that lasted 30 years.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47294]
ETHIOPIA: Expanded health coverage plan launched
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday announced a massive expansion of
health coverage for the 35 million Ethiopians who do not have access to
hospitals and clinics. Meles said the government was dramatically
increasing the number of clinics and hospitals in the country as part of
the drive against HIV that has infected 1.5 million people. Speaking at
an international conference in Addis Ababa, to discuss how to combat the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, he said the government planned to set up one health
centre for every 25,000 people in all rural areas within three years.
The health centres would provide "counselling, diagnosis and treatment,"
Meles said. He added that they would also try and encourage behavioural
change. "The HIV/AIDS pandemic has been and continues to be a major
threat to our viability as a nation," the prime minister said. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47266]
ETHIOPIA: Floods kill 32, destroy property in the east
Flash flooding has killed 32 people including six children in Ethiopia's
second largest city, police said on Sunday. A wall of water hit Dire
Dawa in the east of the country causing an estimated US $1.2 million
worth of damage and leaving a massive trail of destruction in its wake,
police said. "We have recovered 32 bodies and still have 10 people
missing," police sergeant Mohammed Yassim, told IRIN.
"This is the first time we have ever had flooding here. It was a wall of
water that was 20 metres high that came down the river," he said by
telephone from the town some 500 km east of the capital, Addis Ababa.
"It has caused enormous damage to houses and cars," he said. The flood
hit the town at about 1800 GMT on Friday when most people sit along
cafes and wander along the Ashewa River, which runs through the town of
100,000 people. Yassim said that although the waters had quickly
receded, cars and lorries had been turned over and left in the riverbed.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47242]
SOMALIA: Detained journalists released in Puntland
Two journalists arrested by the authorities in the self-declared
autonomous region of Puntland, in northeastern Somalia, have been
released, a local journalist told IRIN on Wednesday. Moulid Haji Abdi
and Mahmud Abdirahman Rod, director and programme manager of the Somali
Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) radio in Bosaso, were "picked up by
officers of the Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS)" said Muhammad Said
Kashawito, of the Bosaso-based Midnimo radio station.
The journalists were reportedly released without being charged. "I have
spoken with Moulid, and they are both out," said Kashawito. He explained
that the two were arrested in connection with a story about economic
difficulties faced by the people of Qardo town, that was broadcast by
SBC on Tuesday morning.
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47291]
SOMALIA: Amnesty appeals for release of "Gaboye" demonstrators
Amnesty International has urged authoritities in the self-declared
republic of Somaliland to release 100 members of the minority Gaboye
community detained earlier this month as they demonstrated against the
killing of one of their number by the police. The detainees were being
held incommunicado and without charge in unknown locations in Hargeysa,
the Somaliland capital, Amnesty said in a statement.
A large group of Gaboye people held peaceful demonstrations in various
parts of Hargeysa on 13 May to protest the shooting of Khadar Osman
Dhabar by a police officer, in the Hawl Wadag area of Hargeysa. Khadar,
31, later died in hospital from gunshot wounds. Details of the shooting
incident, which happened on 11 May, were still unclear due to differing
accounts from the authorities and Khadar's family and friends. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47287]
SUDAN: AU calls for increased support to Darfur mission
Africa's peacekeeping mission in war-torn Darfur risks failure unless it
receives increased support, the African Union (AU) warned on Wednesday.
Speaking on the eve of a major fundraising conference for the
peacekeeping mission, AU Peace Commissioner Said Djinnit told reporters
Darfur was a critical test of international commitment and Africa's
resolve to end wars on the continent. "We strongly believe that now is
the time for peace in Darfur," he said at the AU headquarters in Addis
Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, where he laid out a US $723 million rescue
package.
"It is the time for the AU, it is the time for the parties and it is
time for the international community to secure peace in Darfur," he
added. "We strongly believe the AU needs support because alone we cannot
do it." Djinnit said the 53-nation bloc required financial, military and
logistical backing. "It is not easy for us because we have limited means
and resources - financial and human," he noted. "We are struggling to
live up to the challenge; we know it is formidable."
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47288]
SUDAN: Concerns over fragile food situation in Bahr el Ghazal
Returnees and poor households in the southwestern Sudanese region of
Bahr el Ghazal are having difficulty accessing sufficient food, an
assessment report released on Monday said. As a result of the
difficulties, the report warned, malnutrition levels were starting to
rise in southern Sudan. "Poor households have reduced the numbers of
meals they have per day to cope with the reduced food availability," the
report said of areas around Aweil, the main town of Northern Bahr el
Ghazal state.
"The health and living condition of the IDPs [internally displaced
persons] and returnees is deplorable." The assessment, carried out
jointly by UN agencies, NGOs and Sudanese authorities in both
government-controlled and former-rebel-controlled areas between March
and April 2005, aimed to estimate the effects of increased returns into
South Sudan, in light of poor agricultural production in 2004. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47258]
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