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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 285
4 - 8 July 2005


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: SPLM/A releases prisoners of war
SUDAN: ICG calls for NATO troops in Darfur
SUDAN: Darfur death rates decline, but health concerns remain
SOMALIA: Monitoring committee warns of rising tension
SOMALIA: WFP suspends humanitarian shipments
ERITREA: World Bank approves health sector-support grant
ERITREA: Petrol prices rise by 28 percent
ETHIOPIA: Election results delayed again
ETHIOPIA: Locust swarms growing in the west, say officials
ETHIOPIA: Donors showing signs of fatigue - UNICEF


Also see:
DJIBOUTI: Rags despite riches
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47967]

DJIBOUTI: Pastoralists Suffer Drought
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48015]

SUDAN-UGANDA: Sudanese refugees living rough
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48030]

SUDAN: Too few trained teachers in the south - aid workers
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47961]


SUDAN: SPLM/A releases prisoners of war

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) released more than
150 prisoners of war ahead of the inauguration on Saturday of a new
Sudanese government of national unity, the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

The communications coordinator for the ICRC in Sudan, Paul Conneally,
said the total number of prisoners released by Thursday was 180. The
SPLM/A was expected to release a total of 300 prisoners by the weekend.
However, the ICRC had repeatedly asked the Sudanese government to grant
it similar access to detainees under its jurisdiction, without success.

The southern-based SPLM/A signed an agreement with the Khartoum
government on 9 January, ending more than two decades of north-south
conflict that left an estimated two million people dead and four million
displaced.

The chairman of the SPLM/A, John Garang, was due to be sworn in on 9
July as first vice president of a new transitional government of
national unity and president of a newly semi-autonomous southern region.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48019]


SUDAN: ICG calls for NATO troops in Darfur

NATO should deploy troops to the strife-torn western Sudanese region of
Darfur to support the African Union (AU) until the pan-African body can
provide a sufficient number of soldiers to protect civilians, the
International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Wednesday.

In its report, 'The Military Mission in Darfur: Bridging the Gaps', the
ICG said bold new action was urgently required to safeguard the
inhabitants of Darfur, many of whom were still dying, being raped or
facing indefinite displacement from their homes.

"The concept of African solutions for African problems has given western
policymakers a convenient excuse to do no more than respond to AU
requests," John Prendergast, special adviser to the ICG president, said
in a statement. "Darfur should not be treated solely as some
capacity-building exercise for the emerging AU."

The ICG called for more courageous thinking by the AU, NATO, the EU, the
UN and the US to get adequate force levels, with an appropriate civilian
protection mandate, on the ground in Darfur as quickly as possible. Full
story at: [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47987]


SUDAN: Darfur death rates decline, but health concerns remain - WHO

The mortality rate in the strife-torn Darfur region of western Sudan
declined significantly in 2004, but the general health situation
remained of concern, according to the preliminary findings of a survey
coordinated by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

"The three-fold drop in mortality is a clear demonstration that the
assistance provided by the Ministry of Health and by the international
community has made a dramatic impact in Darfur. However, we must
consolidate the results and be vigilant to avoid [a] worsening of the
situation," the Federal Minister of Health of Sudan, Ahmed Osman Bilal,
said in a statement on Monday.

The survey revealed that the crude mortality rate was around 0.8 deaths
per 10,000 people per day in northern, western and southern Darfur -
below the threshold of one death per 10,000 people per day usually
observed in humanitarian crises. Humanitarian agencies remained cautious
and warned against an overly optimistic interpretation of the figures.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47983]


SOMALIA: Monitoring committee warns of rising tension

The reported increase in weapons entering Somalia in violation of a UN
embargo and continuing differences between Somali leaders are fuelling
tension in that country, a committee monitoring the peace process warned
on Tuesday.

"The international community calls the attention of all Somali leaders
as well as regional and other countries to the 1992 [UN] arms embargo on
Somalia and recalls declarations by all Somali leaders to avoid arms as
a solution to differences," the joint Co-ordination and Monitoring
Committee (CMC), said in a statement.

The statement issued on Tuesday after a CMC meeting in Nairobi, Kenya,
also cited reports of increased militia movements in Somalia. The
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia, Francois
Fall, chaired the meeting. It was attended by representatives of the
African Union, the European Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), the US and other donors to Somalia.

Somalia has had no functional central authority for the past 14 years,
following the collapse in 1991 of the government of Muhammad Siyad
Barre. Civil war erupted in the country soon after Barre was toppled, as
various factions and rival warlords fought for power.

IGAD, which is made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan,
Uganda and Somalia, sponsored two years of talks between the various
Somali clans and factions that culminated in the establishment of the
TFG in Nairobi in October 2004.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48008]


SOMALIA: WFP suspends humanitarian shipments

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) suspended on Monday all shipments of
humanitarian assistance to Somalia following the hijacking of a
WFP-chartered vessel carrying food aid for 28,000 tsunami survivors.

"The decision was taken because of the insecurity of Somali waters along
the east coast," WFP said in a statement. "It will be reviewed depending
on the release of the detained relief food, vessel and crew."

The MV Semlow was hijacked on 27 June between Haradheere and Hobyo, some
300 km northeast of the capital, Mogadishu. WFP had chartered the ship
from the Kenyan port of Mombasa, with a crew that included a Sri Lankan
captain, a Tanzanian engineer and eight Kenyan crew members. The vessel
left Mombasa on 23 June destined for Bossaso in Puntland, carrying 850
tonnes of rice donated by Japan and Germany.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47952]


ERITREA: World Bank approves health sector-support grant

The World Bank said on Thursday it had approved a grant of US $24
million to support Eritrea's efforts to reduce maternal mortality, fight
malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections
(STI).

The funds would support Eritrea's HIV/AIDS/STI, TB, Malaria and
Reproductive Health Project (HAMSET II), which aims to stem the spread
of HIV, with particular attention to high-risk populations, the Bank
said in a statement. The project would also improve detection and
treatment of TB, reduce the morbidity and mortality rate of malaria, and
strengthen reproductive health coverage.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47915]


ERITREA: Petrol prices rise by 28 percent

Eritrean authorities have hiked fuel prices by 28 percent, saying the
increase was necessitated by rising oil prices in the international
market. The prices went up on Sunday from 25 nakfa (US $1.67) per litre
of petrol to 32 nakfa ($2.13), according to an official statement
published in the Tigrinya language press.

"It's a global phenomenon and of course we will be affected by rising
world prices," Ali Abdu, Eritrea's Minister of Information, said. Petrol
rationing, introduced in September, 2004, was, meanwhile, reported to
have come to an end. Diesel rationing would however remain.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47988]


ETHIOPIA: Election results delayed again

Final results of Ethiopia's 15 May parliamentary election will once
again be delayed until investigations into allegations of electoral
fraud are completed, the National Electoral Board (NEB) chairman said on
Wednesday.

NEB officials had previously postponed declaring the final results of
the poll from 8 June to 8 July, saying they needed time to investigate
disputed results. "There was a delay and that delay is continuing and we
expect it will be another two or three weeks before we know who the
winner is," Kemal Bedri, the chairman of the NEB, said.

Kemal said the NEB would only release results from 250 to 300
constituencies, which he said would show who was leading but would not
show the overall winner of the election.

The allegations of fraud sparked protests in June in which 36 people
were reportedly killed by security forces. The board is investigating
complaints of election violations in 140 constituencies. The ruling
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front has contested the
results of five seats, while opposition parties are contesting the rest.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48009]


ETHIOPIA: Locust swarms growing in the west, say officials

Ethiopia has began spraying chemicals to battle growing swarms of desert
locusts that were recently spotted in the far western Tigray and Amhara
regions, officials said on Monday.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that the numbers
of desert locusts would grow unless urgent action was taken to kill the
swarms.

"Unless control measures are carried out immediately there will be a
great deal of destruction of crops," Yimer Assen of FAO Ethiopia, said.
"The volume of the locusts is increasing and the problem we face is that
they are migrating from one village to another."

Swarms contain millions of locusts that literally eat everything in
their path. Each insect can eat its own body weight in food each day.
"They are very destructive in the amount of matter they eat in a day,"
Peter Odiyo, head of the Desert Locust Control Organisation of East
Africa (DLCO), said.

Locusts have in the past laid to waste parts of Africa. In 2004, they
ruined more than one million hectares of crops in Mauritania. The swarms
have spread from Chad through Sudan and into Eritrea and northern
Ethiopia.

Full story at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47963]


ETHIOPIA: Donors showing signs of fatigue - UNICEF

Donors are showing worrying signs of "compassion fatigue" in responding
to the plight of Ethiopia's severely malnourished and dying children,
the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, warned on Wednesday.

Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF's Representative in Ethiopia, said in a
statement that major donors were not stepping up fast enough to provide
vital funding for a package of life-saving treatments and other
interventions.

"A cloud of cynicism has settled over Africa; cynicism caused by
everything from corruption to armed conflicts; cynicism felt by everyone
from donors to the general public," he said, "But this cloud hides the
fact that innocent children are dying unnecessarily. There are simple
things that we can do, and must do, to save these children."

Full story
at: [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48016]


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


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