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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 295
17 - 23 September 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Urban poor face food shortages due to high prices
ERITREA: Rights body asks gov't to account for detained journalists
ETHIOPIA: Six million at risk of malaria epidemic
SOMALIA: Over 900,000 people in need of humanitarian help - FSAU
SOMALIA: UN special envoy calls for dialogue among leaders
SOMALIA: PM to go to Mogadishu for consultations
SUDAN: President swears in new government of national unity
SUDAN: Violence persists, but political progress encouraging - UN envoy
SUDAN: Rebels take over government town in Darfur


DJIBOUTI: Urban poor face food shortages due to high prices

The continuously rising prices of both food and essential nonfood items
are threatening the food security and livelihood of poor urban
households in Djibouti, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
NET) reported in its monthly food security update for the tiny Horn of
Africa country. "With again two percent increase in the total basket
cost as compared to last month, poor households in the city can
currently afford to purchase only around 80 percent of their basic
minimum food requirements," FEWS NET said.

The network, which is funded by the US Agency for International
Development (USAID), said the price of sugar had risen by 25 percent
compared with the same period in 2004, mainly due to trade speculation.
The report also noted that the explosion of international oil prices was
significantly affecting the income and expenditure of middle-income
households and predicted that an increase in electricity tariffs from 1
September would only exacerbate the situation.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49163]


ERITREA: Rights body asks gov't to account for detained journalists

A media-rights watchdog has asked the Eritrean government to account for
15 journalists the organisation said have been held - some in secret
prisons - since authorities banned the private media and independent
reporting more than four years ago. "Holding these journalists
incommunicado without due process is a gross violation of human rights,"
said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ), in a statement on Friday.

"We have not forgotten those brave journalists who continue to languish
in Eritrea's secret jails and our hearts go out to their families at
this difficult time," she added. The CPJ said the journalists had
virtually disappeared since the 18 September 2001 crackdown on the press
and the closure of privately owned newspapers. Eritrean officials had
refused to provide information on their health, whereabouts, or legal
status, CPJ said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49127]


ETHIOPIA: Six million at risk of malaria epidemic

Some six million Ethiopians, most of them children, are threatened by a
potential malaria epidemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) cautioned.
In its latest update on Ethiopia, the agency said it needed close to US
$22 million to prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths. "UNICEF
urgently needs $21.9 million to fight Ethiopia's looming malaria
epidemic, fund a nationwide polio immunization drive and reach 963,855
people in critical need of water," it said.

"While polio is continuing to spread, a UNICEF-supported nationwide
vaccination campaign planned for October and November is badly
underfunded." Prevention initiatives by members of the Roll Back Malaria
partnership in response to a sharp rise in malaria cases from June to
August helped control the spread of the disease. A recent, widespread
increase in malaria parasites and other worrying signs, however, have
renewed fears of a nationwide epidemic.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49184]


SOMALIA: Over 900,000 people in need of humanitarian help - FSAU

More than 900,000 people in Somalia will need immediate humanitarian
assistance between September this year and January 2006, despite
improvements in food security in some of the areas previously affected
by drought, the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU) said. "We
have estimated a total of 922,000 people in a state of humanitarian
emergency or acute food and livelihood crisis," said Nicholas Haan,
FSAU's technical adviser, following the release of the unit's annual
food security analysis for Somalia on Friday.

Haan hastened to clarify that the report did not necessarily mean that
the entire group needed food or money. "It does not mean that those
people all need food per se or even cash assistance. We are saying that
922,000 people are facing a humanitarian emergency or livelihood crisis
and we need to think, collectively, about how to solve that problem.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49128]


SOMALIA: UN special envoy calls for dialogue among leaders

The UN Secretary-General's special representative for Somalia, Francois
Lounseny Fall, urged Somali leaders to resolve their differences through
dialogue and consensus and move towards restoring stability in the
war-scarred Horn of Africa country. "Never again should the country be
allowed to descend into war and chaos," Fall said in his message to the
Somali people on the occasion of the UN International Day of Peace on
Wednesday. "Today's Somali leadership has a unique opportunity to save
the country. History will judge their vision and their commitment to
this common cause."

Differences within Somalia's Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs),
including a dispute over where the interim government should be based,
have paralysed the administration. Fall said that peace could be
achieved in Somalia and noted that an important step towards that goal
had been made with the establishment of the TFIs.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49168]


SOMALIA: PM to go to Mogadishu for consultations

Somali Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi is expected to visit the Somali
capital, Mogadishu, within the next few days to consult with members of
his cabinet who are based there, an official in his office said. "The
aim of the trip is to dialogue and consult with his cabinet colleagues
in the city," Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman, said on
Wednesday. "His intention is to resolve whatever differences exist with
members of his cabinet and members of parliament."

Gedi's last visit to Mogadishu was marred by an explosion while he was
addressing a public rally at a football stadium on 3 May. The blast
killed 15 people and injured 50, medical sources said at the time. In
June, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi
and their supporters in the transitional federal institutions (TFIs)
relocated from Nairobi to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu.
They maintain that Mogadishu must be secured before they can transfer
the government there.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49166]


SUDAN: President swears in new government of national unity

Sudanese President Omar al Bashir swore in the cabinet of ministers of
the new government of national unity in the Republican Palace in
Khartoum, the capital, on Thursday. The first Vice-President, Salva
Kiir, and Second Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha were in
attendance. The ceremony followed the announcement of the formation of
the new government by Bashir on Tuesday, after weeks of heated
discussions over key cabinet posts and eight months after the January
peace agreement that ended the country's 21-year civil war.

"Dear citizens, I am glad to announce the special presidential decree
forming the government of national unity," Bashir said during a special
appearance on Sudanese television on Tuesday. "This government
represents good news. It is an expression of the Sudanese people's
lively spirit to agree and continue bringing peace and strengthening
national unity," he added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49186]


SUDAN: Violence persists, but political progress encouraging - UN envoy

Incidents of violence have risen recently in southern Sudan and in the
country's western region of Darfur, but there has been political
progress on the implementation of the peace agreement for the south and
on efforts to end the Darfur conflict, a top UN envoy said on Wednesday.
The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk,
said a Ugandan insurgent group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), was to
blame for much of the violence in southern Sudan. The group had hindered
demining work and the opening of roads in the area, he added.

"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, North-South, is on track," Pronk
told reporters, after urging the UN Security Council to renew the
mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and expedite its deployment.
The peace agreement signed in January between Khartoum and a former
southern rebel movement, the southern Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) could present an opportunity to deal with the LRA
militarily, Pronk said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49189]


SUDAN: Rebels take over government town in Darfur

In a further escalation of the conflict in western Sudan, rebels of the
Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) have taken control of the
government-controlled town of Shareya, northeast of Nyala, the capital
of South Darfur State, aid workers said. "Shareya is a highly fortified
town, so clearly there was heavy fighting," George Somerwill, spokesman
of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) told reporters on Tuesday.

"Certainly, the firing was of a very intense nature," Cathy Howard,
operational advisor for Medecins Sans Frontieres, which had an
operational presence in Shareya, told IRIN. Although it was not
immediately clear how many casualties the fighting had claimed,
Somerwill feared the impact of the attack on peace negotiations that
have started in Abuja, Nigeria, would be considerable. Sudanese radio
reported that the Sudanese government was planning a "strong response".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49162 ]


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


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