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 281
3 - 10 June 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: No response to funds appeal for desperate drought victims
ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm in Addis, taxi drivers continue strike
ETHIOPIA: Scores reported killed in student unrest
ETHIOPIA: Poll results delayed after complaints from 299 constituencies
SOMALIA: Death toll rises as fighting continues in Beletweyne
SOMALIA: Vacate Kenyan hotels, MPs told
SOMALIA: Operation to remove illegal roadblocks begins
SUDAN: ICC launches Darfur investigation


ALSO SEE:

Feature: SUDAN: On patrol with AU troops in Darfur at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47529


DJIBOUTI: No response to funds appeal for desperate drought victims

An appeal for US $7.5 million in urgent drought relief for the tiny Horn 
of Africa country of Djibouti has received almost no response, the UN 
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York 
reported on Monday. "A newly released nutrition and health assessment 
shows that malnutrition among children and women is widespread in 
drought-affected areas, with moderate acute malnutrition rates high in 
communities dependent on food aid," OCHA said in a statement. It said 
chronic malnutrition had reached over 40 percent in the communities it 
had surveyed in the country.

Six weeks after an urgent flash appeal was launched on 27 April, OCHA 
sounded the alarm when just 5.3 percent of the total needs were funded. 
While Germany and the US had agreed to pay for water, sanitation and 
some health projects of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), no money had 
been promised for food and agricultural relief.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47525]


ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm in Addis, taxi drivers continue strike

Most shops in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, remained closed on 
Thursday as taxi drivers maintained their strike a day after riots 
claimed the lives of 22 people and injured 40 more, the police said. A 
statement issued by the federal police said clashes that started in 
Addis Ababa on Monday between protesters and security forces, had now 
been brought under control. The violence erupted during protests, 
initially by students angry at what they said were rigged national 
elections last month. The taxi drivers joined the protest by calling a 
strike on Tuesday.

Shooting began on Wednesday when the army's special forces arrived at 
the central business district where protesters were throwing stones. 
Information minister Bereket Simon, who is also the governing party 
spokesman, said the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) 
had been behind the protests. "Some of their followers - and some who 
wanted to use this opportunity for looting - have gathered in some parts 
of Addis and disrupted the smooth functioning of life," he said. "The 
government had to use the anti-riot police to resolve the situation."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47561]


ETHIOPIA: Scores reported killed in student unrest

At least 20 people were reported killed and others wounded following an 
outbreak of violence in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, as students 
demonstrated against alleged fraud in recent elections, hospital sources 
said on Tuesday. Police commander Mulgeta Shiferaw said the police had 
detained 520 students and protesters. A further 50 "hooligans" were also 
arrested, he added, without confirming the number of those killed. The 
deaths, according to sources, occurred during clashes between Ethiopian 
security forces and the stone-throwing students as well as other 
protesters at the main University in Addis Ababa and at a nearby 
college.

Monday's violence was followed by similar clashes at two other college 
campuses on Tuesday, which riot police quickly broke up. The students 
have accused the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic 
Front of election fraud after preliminary results showed that it had won 
the majority of provisional seats following elections on 15 May. [Full 
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47543]


ETHIOPIA: Poll results delayed after complaints from 299 constituencies

Results of parliamentary elections in Ethiopia, initially scheduled to 
be announced on Wednesday, will now be delayed by one month after the 
country's electoral board received complaints from more than half of the 
constituencies where elections were held in May, an official said on 
Monday. Electoral chief Kemal Bedri told a news conference at the 
National Election Board headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa, that 
the scale of the complaints had necessitated the month long delay.

He made the remarks as police arrested several hundred university 
students at the main campus in Addis Ababa. The students' leaders said 
they were protesting the outcome of the elections, which, according to 
provisional results, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary 
Democratic Front won. Police officers rounded up the students and took 
them away in eight trucks. The university was the scene of bloody 
clashes in 2001 where dozens of people were killed.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47485]


SOMALIA: Death toll rises as fighting continues in Beletweyne

At least 30 people have died since inter-clan fighting broke out on 
Monday in the town of Beletweyne, south-central Somalia. More than 70 
people have been wounded and hundreds more displaced in the violence, 
now in its fourth day, local sources told IRIN on Thursday. The fighting 
broke out when militias from the Galje'el and Jajele sub-clans clashed 
on the west side of the town. It was reportedly triggered by a land 
dispute and revenge killings for the deaths of two Jajele men last week 
and one Galje'el man on Sunday.

The violence subsided on Tuesday afternoon after elders from a neutral 
clan intervened, but "resumed with greater intensity on Wednesday", 
Abdullahi Muhammad, a local journalist told IRIN. "It was the most 
intense yesterday [Wednesday]." He added: "Beletweyne has seen fighting 
before, but never on this scale. It is as though they used the lull on 
Tuesday to reinforce their positions." Wednesday's clashes occurred 
after mediation efforts by a committee set up by a neutral clan failed, 
Abdullahi said.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47550]


SOMALIA: Vacate Kenyan hotels, MPs told

Hotels in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given members of Somalia's 
transitional government up to Wednesday to vacate the rooms they have 
occupied for almost three years, a Member of the Somali Parliament told 
IRIN. "We have been given a deadline of 10:00 a.m. today [Wednesday, 
07:00 GMT] to vacate our rooms," the MP, who requested anonymity, said. 
"It is a bit embarrassing, but we are doing it." Another member of the 
Nairobi-based Transitional Federal Parliament, Khalid Omar Ali, who is a 
minister in the president's office, said the quit notice was not a 
surprise.

"All MPs and government officials were informed beforehand," Ali said. 
He added that they had been given enough money to pay their bills until 
next week, when they are expected to relocate to Somalia. Kenya's 
ambassador to Somalia, Muhammad Abdi Affey, told IRIN: "All Somali MPs 
and government officials must start leaving Kenya by 14 June. Where to 
go in Somalia is a decision for the Somali government."

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47528]


SOMALIA: Operation to remove illegal roadblocks begins

An operation by a section of the Somali government to rid the capital, 
Mogadishu, of illegal roadblocks manned by armed militia began on 
Tuesday, in a move aimed at restoring security to the war-torn city. 
"Many of them were removed overnight," Mohamud Jama Sifir, the deputy 
prime minister in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) told IRIN 
from Mogadishu. "There is tremendous public support. The mood in the 
city is expectant, and there will be no room for those who try to 
resist." Government leaders who support the move said the initial stage 
of the exercise had been successful.

A crowd forced a group of militiamen who attempted to hold on to a 
roadblock on one of the city's thoroughfares to abandon it, local 
journalist Abdullahi Muhammad told IRIN on Tuesday. The decision to 
dismantle the roadblocks was made on Monday at a meeting of former 
faction leaders who are now members of the TFG in Mogadishu.

[Full story 
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47509]


SUDAN: ICC launches Darfur investigation

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis 
Moreno-Ocampo, opened an investigation on Monday into the situation in 
the war-ravaged western Sudanese region of Darfur, where human rights 
abuses have allegedly been committed. "The decision to launch the 
investigation came after the ICC had finished its analysis of the 
referral by the UN Security Council," Yves Sorokobi, spokesman for the 
ICC, said on Monday. "This included consultations with experts and 
ensuring we had met all our statutory requirements before beginning the 
investigations."

He added, "We will be taking all necessary steps in carrying out the 
investigation, including sending teams into the country and making 
arrangements for cooperation with all the stakeholders, both at the 
national and international level." The UN Security Council referred the 
situation in Darfur to the ICC prosecutor on 31 March.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47505]



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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