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 344
16 - 22 September 2006


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: ICRC suspends operations after kidnapping
ETHIOPIA: Diarrhoea death toll rises to 182
SOMALIA: Security tightened in Baidoa town
KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugee crisis festers as more flee
SUDAN: Darfur peace accord on verge of collapse - UN envoy
SUDAN: AU mission extended with Arab League and UN support
SUDAN: Lack of funds threatens refugee repatriation - UNHCR

Also see:
SOMALIA: Hear our Voices -"I do not want to live in Mogadishu" at:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55635]


ETHIOPIA: ICRC suspends operations after kidnapping

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended operations
in eastern Ethiopia after two staff-members were kidnapped by armed
gunmen near the town of Gode in the Somali region, a spokesman said.

The ICRC has worked in the region for 11 years. The two, one Irish and
the other Ethiopian were kidnapped on Monday morning as they drove in a
convoy of three cars about 1,100 km southeast of the capital, Addis
Ababa.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55657]


ETHIOPIA: Diarrhoea death toll rises to 182

Some 49 people died within a week of acute watery diarrhoea in Ethiopia,
raising the death toll since the disease broke out in April to 182, with
almost 20,000 others infected, the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday.

In a weekly bulletin, OCHA said the disease had spread to all five
regions of the country, including Addis Ababa. Last week, 1,608 acute
watery diarrhoea cases and 49 deaths were reported across the country,
bringing the total to 19,176, with 182 deaths, the bulletin said. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55620]


SOMALIA: Security tightened in Baidoa town

Security was tightened in Somalia's southwestern town of Baidoa, the
seat of the transitional government, two days after an assassination
attempt on President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, but sources said the town
was calm on Wednesday.

"It is calm now but there is an element of fear," Mukhtar Muhammad
Atosh, a town resident said. "No vehicles are being allowed anywhere
near the president and prime minister's residences."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55642]


KENYA-SOMALIA: Refugee crisis festers as more flee

Asha Muhammed Nur, a 55-year-old grandmother, who arrived in Kenya
recently after fleeing violence in Somalia, wept when asked if she
thought of going home to Mogadishu, the capital.

"I do not even want to hear the word Mogadishu," said Nur, recalling the
day in April when a group of armed men came to her neighbourhood and
stabbed four men to death with a knife, including her son-in-law and a
nephew.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55614]


SUDAN: Darfur peace accord on verge of collapse - UN envoy

A top United Nations envoy warned on Thursday that the Darfur peace
agreement was on the verge of collapse and lambasted the Darfur
Ceasefire Commission (CFC), which is responsible for monitoring and
implementing the accord.

Jan Pronk, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General in
Sudan, echoing comments made on Wednesday to the UN Security Council in
New York, warned that the 5 May Darfur peace agreement, signed by the
Sudanese government and one faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army,
was floundering.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55662]


SUDAN: AU mission extended with Arab League and UN support

The African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Sudan will be extended
until December 31, with regional and United Nations support, Burkina
Faso's President and current AU President, Blaise Comparore, announced
today after a high-level meeting with AU Peace and Security Council
members.

"There are a certain number of measures that were agreed upon, such as
reinforcing the African troops, but also to strengthen the application
of the Abuja agreement that was signed to bring all the parties involved
to implement its terms," said Comparore through a translator. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55656]


SUDAN: Lack of funds threatens refugee repatriation - UNHCR

Efforts by the United Nations to repatriate hundreds of thousands of
southern Sudanese refugees from neighbouring countries could end unless
aid donors made more funds available, a senior official at the UN
refugee agency said.

"Expenditures are such that if we do not get more funds we will be out
of money by the end of September," said Marjon Kamara, director of the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) regional bureau for Africa,
in an interview with IRIN in Nairobi.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55616]


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