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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 233
26 February - 5 March 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Poor rains threaten livelihoods in pastoral zones
ERITREA: Fears of widespread malnutrition as food shortages worsen
ETHIOPIA: Meles reaffirms readiness to send peacekeepers to Somalia
ETHIOPIA: Internet coffee sales expected to boost economy
ETHIOPIA: Two new polio cases reported
SOMALIA: Tsunami may have spread previously dumped hazardous wastes
SOMALIA: Somaliland bans use of plastic bags
SUDAN: IDPs report continuing killings by gunmen in Darfur
SUDAN: Government to withdraw troops from Darfur - Taha


DJIBOUTI: Poor rains threaten livelihoods in pastoral zones

Inadequate rainfall during the past two seasons has resulted in a
serious food security situation in Djibouti's pastoral zones, the Famine
Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) reported on Monday. In its
February update on Djibouti, the USAID-funded famine alert agency said
that a drastic decline in income and food sources, coupled with high
staple food prices, had resulted in significant food deficits in the
Southeast Pastoral and Northwest Pastoral Zones of the country.

The prevailing unfavourable food situation had led to massive migrations
of people and livestock to coastal areas, where the carrying capacity of
the ecosystem was low and limited. FEWS Net said pasture would be unable
to support the increased number of livestock herds present in the
traditional Heys/Dada grazing area. Migrations of Ethiopian and Somali
pastoralists were also reportedly creating even more competition for
scarce pastures, according to the FEWS Net report.

Food security was likely to deteriorate further and a crisis was
imminent unless the Diraa/Sougoum rains came on time (March/April), it
added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45850]


ERITREA: Fears of widespread malnutrition as food shortages worsen

Eritrea is in desperate need of assistance to pre-empt widespread
malnutrition resulting from worsening food shortages as the country
experiences a fourth consecutive drought cycle over the coming months,
the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

"We have met with donors and pleaded with them to come forward
immediately or else the country will face a terrible food crisis later
this year," Christian Balslev Olesen, UNICEF country representative for
Eritrea, told IRIN on Wednesday.

"It is cheaper to give the support now to avoid starvation, rather than
later, when an enormous amount of people are moving to hospitals for
treatment for malnutrition," he added. "Then it will be much more
expensive."

According to UNICEF, all six regions of Eritrea had malnutrition rates
higher than 10 percent, and in three of them, the rates were above 15
percent. Olesen was particularly concerned about the alarmingly high
levels of maternal malnutrition in the country. "We are specifically
concerned about vulnerable groups, such as women and children," he said.
"About 40 percent of lactating and pregnant women are malnourished,
which is one of the highest global indicators." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45867]


ETHIOPIA: Meles reaffirms readiness to send peacekeepers to Somalia

Ethiopia stands ready to send peacekeepers to war-ravaged Somalia,
despite opposition from some Somali faction leaders, among others, to
the potential move, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Wednesday. "The
bottom line is our offer is still on the table, but we are not going to
impose ourselves on Somalia," Meles told a joint news conference with
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital, Addis Ababa.
"It is up to the Somali government and the Somali people." Meles blamed
"internal Somali politics" for the opposition in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, to the offer of Ethiopian peacekeepers.

"We have offered to send troops and cover the costs ourselves, until
such time as the African Union or the United Nations can take over," he
said. "Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Djibouti have also made the same offer.
That offer is still on the table. It is up to the Somalis to take it or
leave it." He added: "If they do not want Ethiopian peacekeeping troops
in Somalia, then we have no problem with it because we will have saved
some money. If they want to have our troops there, we have no problem
with that because peace is of direct interest to us and whatever you do
in that regard is worthwhile." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45869]


ETHIOPIA: Internet coffee sales expected to boost economy

Ethiopia has turned to the Internet to help sell its finest beans, the
agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. In the first move of its kind in
the country, the ministry is to start auctioning nine of its best
quality coffee brands to help boost sales and reach a wider clientele,
officials added. "This is the first time we have ever tried something
like this," Abraham Begashawe, manager at the Coffee and Tea Quality
Control Centre, told IRIN. "We are hoping the auction will attract a
wider audience and also increase sales overall."

Ethiopia produces around 200,000 mt of coffee a year. It expects to sell
around 30,000 kg in the auction, appealing mainly to small, specialised
roasting companies in the US, Japan and Europe. Some nine different
types of coffee have been selected for the auction from 196 different
bean types. According to the government, coffee contributes 60 percent
of Ethiopia's foreign earnings and supports 25 percent of its 70 million
people. In recent years, however, the price has slumped, hitting export
earnings, which dropped from 70 to 35 percent in five years. Ethiopia's
finance ministry estimates the collapse in coffee prices has cost the
country some US $830 million in lost export earnings over that same
period. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45866]


ETHIOPIA: Two new polio cases reported

Two children have contracted polio in Ethiopia, the first time the virus
has been reported in the country in four years, a ministry of health
official said on Monday. Almaz Gebre Senbet, a polio expert, said that a
boy and a girl living close to the Sudanese border had contracted the
crippling virus. The new outbreak occurred as the UN launched a mass
polio immunisation campaign that began on Friday across Africa,
targeting 100 million children. To be certified polio free, Ethiopia
must have no cases of the virus for three years. A target date of 2005
has been set for the global eradication of the disease.

"It is extremely unfortunate because we were just on the verge of being
declared polio free," Bjorn Ljungqvist, the head of the UN Children's
Fund told IRIN. "This has put us back several years and now means we
have to start full-scale immunisations again."  The new cases are
another sign that the epidemic is spreading across Africa. Ethiopia is
the 14th African country, previously polio free, to record new cases. It
is believed the new epidemic originated in northern Nigeria 18 months
ago. Ethiopia had itself launched a massive vaccination campaign along
its border region with Sudan late last year, fearing it would spread
across the frontier. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45839]


SOMALIA: Tsunami may have spread previously dumped hazardous wastes

The Indian Ocean tsunami that hit the Somali coast in December may have
spread hazardous wastes dumped there earlier, exposing residents to
possible health problems, the UN environment agency, UNEP, said on
Thursday. Nick Nuttall, UNEP head of media services, told IRIN that
preliminary reports had shown that waste containers on the Somali coast
may have been damaged by the tsunami and toxic chemicals blown around by
the wind. "Our experts believe that a wide range of wastes had been
dumped there," Nuttall said. "Radioactive wastes, hospital wastes, heavy
metals like lead and Cadmium, chemical wastes and leather treatment
wastes."

The issue of hazardous waste in Somalia dates back to the early 1990s,
when foreign companies - taking advantage of the lack of government -
dumped unknown quantities of waste. "There have been reports from time
to time of dumping," Nuttall added. "It costs [US] $2.50 a tonne to get
rid of waste in Africa, whereas to dispose of the same waste in Europe
costs more like $250 a tonne." Nuttall said that it was not clear where
the waste originated. "All we know of country of origin is that they are
likely to have been European countries," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45902]


SOMALIA: Somaliland bans use of plastic bags

Authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland on Monday banned
the use of all types of plastic bags, information minister, Abdillahi
Duale, told IRIN. "The bags have not only become an environmental
problem, but also an eyesore," he said on Tuesday from the Somaliland
capital, Hargeysa. The Somaliland cabinet, he added, made the decision
to ban the bags, which had been nicknamed "the Hargeysa flower",
following an assessment of the damage they caused to the environment.
The ban marked the end of a 120-day grace period that the government had
given to the public to get rid of their stocks.

The bags were mostly used to carry groceries and other goods. They were
often discarded and litter most streets and landscapes across
Somaliland. Many of them ended up being blown around and deposited on
trees or shrubs, posing a danger to livestock because the animals that
feed on the leaves in the shrubs often ingest the bags accidentally. The
Ministry of Trade and Industries announced the decision in a decree
titled: "Banning importation, production and use of plastic bags in the
country". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45842]


SUDAN: IDPs report continuing killings by gunmen in Darfur

At least 16 people have been killed by unidentified gunmen in South
Darfur state amidst reports of continuing violence in western Sudan, UN
officials told IRIN in the capital, Khartoum. "A number of IDPs
[internally displaced persons] reported that in an attack in Thur, 20 km
north of the town of Kas in South Darfur, approximately 16 people were
killed on 23 February," Leon Willems, spokesperson for the UN Advance
Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS), said on Wednesday. Those killed, Willems
added, were apparently attacked while on their way to tend to their land
in nearby place called Salakoyo.

"The AU is aware of these reports and investigations are ongoing,"
Nourreddine Mezni, a spokesperson for the African Union (AU) in
Khartoum, told IRIN. Reports of more armed clashes and other ceasefire
violations in Darfur had continued to be received even as the AU was
attempting to bring the warring parties back to the negotiation table,
the officials said. During the weekend of 26 and 27 February, a number
of incidents were reported, including an attack by tribal militias on a
village called Aduana, in South Darfur. The monitoring team of the AU,
which investigated the report, established that two villagers were
killed and two others injured. The attackers fled after looting
livestock. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45876]


SUDAN: Government to withdraw troops from Darfur - Taha

Sudanese vice president, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, reaffirmed Khartoum's
commitment on Friday to the withdrawal of government forces from the
troubled western region of Darfur. Speaking in the Ethiopian capital,
Addis Ababa, Taha said his government had already started to pull back
its forces as part of an African Union-backed ceasefire agreement,
whereby Khartoum agreed to withdraw troops to lines occupied before it
launched a major offensive on 8 December.

"We have started," the vice president told journalists after two hours
of talks with AU commission chairman, Alpha Oumar Konare. The move paves
the way for the resumption of peace talks between the government and
rebels, according to the AU.

"The withdrawal will help facilitate the peace talks to resume," the AU
spokesman, Assane Ba, told IRIN. Taha said a date for the talks between
rebels and the government would be announced after the Cairo mini-summit
on 5 March. The talks are aimed at ending a conflict that started in
February 2003, when rebels began attacking government targets, claiming
that the region was being neglected by Khartoum. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45802]


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


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