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BHORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 290
13 - 19 August 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Precarious food situation in rural areas
ERITREA: Food aid held for taxes to be released -gov't official
ETHIOPIA: Opposition parties to boycott Somali region polls
ETHIOPIA: Malaria campaign launched amid fears of an epidemic
SOMALIA: Close to a million in need of aid, says new UN report
SOMALIA: Hijackers of food-laden ship make new demands
SUDAN: African Union short of funds for Darfur mission
SUDAN: Fresh violence and looting reported in Darfur
SUDAN: Thousands of IDPs affected by floods in North Darfur


ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Congressman Chris Smith at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48619

ETHIOPIA: Mixed signals ahead of Somali region poll at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48665

SUDAN: Focus: Fears of permanent dependency by IDPs at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48604


DJIBOUTI: Precarious food situation in rural areas

The food situation in rural areas of Djibouti is precarious and there is 
a need to accelerate emergency food distribution in the tiny Horn of 
Africa country, an early warning network has reported.

"Prices for staple foods and non-foods are increasing significantly, 
with negative impacts on poor households in both rural and urban areas," 
the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) said in 
its food security update for August. A rural exodus had been witnessed 
in the majority of secondary cities, and even in the capital, Djibouti 
city, it added.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48658]


ERITREA: Food aid held for taxes to be released, says gov't official

Hundreds of tonnes of food relief held up since July at Eritrea's 
Massawa port under new laws that require aid to be taxed were to be 
released, a senior government official said on Monday. Eritrean labour 
and human welfare minister Askalu Menkerios told reporters in the 
capital, Asmara, that the standoff over taxes had been resolved. The 
ministry, she added, would pay any taxes due. "The law says they [NGOs] 
should pay tax, but if it is UN agencies or bilateral support - 
government to government - they do not pay," the minister said.

"Instead of [the NGOs] paying tax, the ministry pays." She added: "It is 
resolved. Technically, if they don't have it [the food] out now, it is 
because they don't have the paperwork from customs." Aid workers and 
diplomats in Asmara had called for the urgent release of the food - 
about 540 tonnes - to contain a precarious food security situation and 
rising malnutrition across the Red Sea state.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48601]


ETHIOPIA: Opposition parties to boycott Somali region polls

Ethiopian opposition parties declared on Tuesday that they would boycott 
upcoming elections in 23 seats in the remote eastern Somali region, 
alleging that thousands of voter cards had been stolen and were on sale 
in local markets. The region's three main parties also claimed the armed 
forces had taken control of some polling stations and impounded ballots 
and registration books ahead of national and regional elections 
scheduled to take place on Sunday.

"We have decided to boycott the elections because of the serious 
violations that are taking place," Joseph Nur, vice chairman of the 
Western Somali Democratic Party, told a news conference in the capital, 
Addis Ababa. Nur claimed that in one town, 10,000 voter cards had been 
stolen and were on sale in local markets for the equivalent of US $3.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48606]


ETHIOPIA: Malaria campaign launched amid fears of an epidemic

Ethiopia has launched its largest ever fight against malaria amidst 
warnings of a looming epidemic in the country, with infection rates up 
to 10 times the normal levels, officials said on Monday. More than two 
million chemically treated mosquito nets and 600,000 rapid test kits to 
diagnose the disease were being distributed around the country. "This is 
the largest anti-malaria programme in Ethiopia's history," said Bjorn 
Ljungqvist, representative for the UN Children's Fund in Ethiopia, which 
is helping the government's fight.

"As we brace ourselves to confront a possible epidemic this year we are 
better armed to prevent the mass deaths that occurred during previous 
epidemics," he added. Emergency drugs for 2.5 million people had also 
been imported to stave off the outbreak, which the government and UN 
were warning could happen as early as September.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48582]


SOMALIA: Close to a million in need of aid, says new UN report

Some 919,000 people in Somalia are in need of immediate humanitarian 
assistance, with nearly 200,000 in a state of humanitarian emergency, 
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's Food Security Analysis Unit 
(FSAU) for Somalia reported. In its monthly briefing on 10 August, FSAU 
said an estimated 343,000 people faced acute livelihood crises, while 
the war-scarred nation had 377,000 internally displaced persons.

FSAU noted, however, that in northern and central regions of the 
country, two exceptionally good rain seasons - the Deyr 2004/5, between 
November and March, and the Gu 2005, between April and June - had ended 
more than three consecutive years of drought. Nevertheless, the agency 
said it would take a considerable amount of time before full recovery 
was achieved. Despite an increase in the overall number of people in 
need of assistance, the number of those in a state of humanitarian 
emergency had decreased from 275,000 in FSAU's 2004/5 post-Deyr 
assessment, to 197,000 in its 2005 post-Gu analysis.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48638]


SOMALIA: Hijackers of food-laden ship make new demands

The hijackers of a vessel laden with food aid off Somalia's northeastern 
coast in June have demanded that the cargo be distributed to residents 
of Haradhere and the surrounding areas, where the ship was commandeered, 
one of the hijackers told IRIN on Monday. Muhammad Abdi Afweyne said 
they had refused to sign an agreement brokered by the Somali 
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) with their representatives in the 
temporary seat of government, Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, 
Mogadishu, last week.

"Our demand was for the ship to offload the food in Haradhere [central 
Somalia], not El-Maan [north Mogadishu beach port]," he said. "The deal 
that was reached in Jowhar was not what we asked for." An earlier 
agreement - reached at a meeting on 5 August in Jowhar between local 
leaders, diplomats from Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and UN World Food 
Programme (WFP) - called for the food to be handed over to the TFG in El 
Maan, where it would be distributed to communities in central Somalia.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48584]


SUDAN: African Union short of funds for Darfur mission

The African Union (AU) is in urgent need of funds to sustain its 
operations in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur and could 
soon fail to pay salaries for its troops deployed there, sources said on 
Thursday. "Within three months we will not be able to pay the wages of 
our troops who are on the ground there," an AU official said.

"Everyone knows this mission is important and we think the international 
community will support us, but they need to do it soon because the money 
is fast running out," he added. The 53-nation bloc, which has more than 
5,000 troops in Darfur, also believes the international community has 
not pledged enough cash to finance the US $252 million-a-year mission.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48634]


SUDAN: Fresh violence and looting reported in Darfur

The UN Mission in Sudan on Tuesday said violence in the war-ravaged 
western Sudanese region of Darfur had continued, with reports over the 
past week of looting and attacks on internally displaced persons' (IDP) 
camps. The mission said a Sudanese government police officer was killed 
and had his weapon stolen on Thursday by unidentified gunmen while en 
route to North Darfur's Zam Zam IDP camp.

In South Darfur, it added, armed tribesmen reportedly attacked returnees 
from South Darfur's Kalma IDP camp in their village of Sarman Jago. 
According to the mission, unidentified gunmen had killed four people on 
Saturday in a village close to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. 
Several reports were also received indicating that banditry and armed 
attacks on vehicles - UN-hired trucks, as well as vehicles operated by 
NGOs and commercial enterprises - had continued in the three Darfur 
states.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48624]


SUDAN: Thousands of IDPs affected by floods in North Darfur

Pounding rains on Friday night damaged a dam, causing heavy flooding 
that affected nearly 800 displaced families in Abu Shouk camp in the 
strife-torn Sudanese state of North Darfur, aid workers said. "According 
to a rapid assessment by the humanitarian agencies, 778 families were 
affected by the flooding," Lidia Hernandez Alonso, camp coordinator for 
the Spanish Red Cross in Abu Shouk, said.

"The rain damaged a dam that was built to prevent the wadi [seasonal 
riverbed] to the west of Abu Shouk from flooding," Alonso added. "When 
the dam broke, the IDP [internally displaced person] camp flooded." 
Sections of Abu Shouk were still under water on Monday and several parts 
of the nearby capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, were also flooded, 
according to Caesar Hall, the UN Children's Fund water and environmental 
sanitation project manager in the state.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48587]


IRIN-CEA
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Fax: +254 2 622129
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2005


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