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

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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 358
6 - 12 January 2007


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Cholera kills five in southwest
KENYA-SOMALIA: Fighting halts effort to verify deadly fever
SOMALIA: Children, women most affected by fighting
SOMALIA: Security problems may affect aid plans
SUDAN: Government, rebels agree Darfur ceasefire
SUDAN-UGANDA: LRA rebels should leave Sudanese territory - Bashir


DJIBOUTI: Cholera kills five in southwest

An outbreak of cholera in Yokobi, southwest of the Djibouti capital, has 
killed five people and affected at least 40 more, who are under medical 
investigation, the Djibouti health ministry said.

Health minister Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil said the disease had been 
confirmed in Yokobi, a village near the Ethiopian border, about 170 km 
from Djibouti city. "A task-force was urgently sent to the area," the 
minister said in a statement.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56949]


KENYA-SOMALIA: Fighting halts effort to verify deadly fever

Fighting in southern Somalia has hampered efforts to confirm a possible 
spread of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) from neighbouring Kenya to the Lower 
Juba Region where seven people have died after showing symptoms of the 
rare, contagious haemorrhagic disease, Somali health officials said.

The deaths were reported in Dobley, 18 km north of the Kenyan border, in 
the last five days. "The dead are mainly nomadic herders," said Hassan 
Mursal, a clinical officer in nearby Afmadow hospital.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56968]


SOMALIA: Children, women most affected by fighting

Scores of women and children have been separated from their families or 
wounded in fighting between Somali government forces and remnants of the 
Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), sources said.

A source in southern Somalia, close to the area where air strikes have 
hit suspected UIC bases, told IRIN on Friday that some civilians, 
including women and children, "have been killed and others wounded".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57042]


SOMALIA: Security problems may affect aid plans

Aid agencies in Somalia expect to reach hundreds of thousands of 
vulnerable people but insecurity may limit their access, the United 
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has 
warned.

"Right now humanitarian access is not guaranteed; it is still precarious 
in many parts of the country," Philippe Lazzarini, head of OCHA in 
Somalia, said on Monday.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56957]


SUDAN: Government, rebels agree Darfur ceasefire

The Sudanese government and rebels in the war-ravaged western region of 
Darfur rebels have agreed a ceasefire as a first step towards ending the 
violence that has affected millions of people, a senior US official said 
in the capital, Khartoum.

The government has also agreed to ease entry visa requirements for aid 
workers, and stop the requirement for exit visas, Governor Bill 
Richardson of New Mexico State, who has been in Sudan on a four-day 
visit, said. He has been leading a delegation from the US advocacy 
group, the Save Darfur Coalition.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57035]


SUDAN-UGANDA: LRA rebels should leave Sudanese territory - Bashir

The president of Sudan wants the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army 
(LRA), which has bases in southern Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic 
of Congo, out of its territory.

In the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Tuesday, President Omar 
El-Bashir said: "We are prepared to constitute a joint force to 
eliminate the LRA. We do not want them. If we cannot find a peaceful 
solution to the LRA conflict, then we must pursue a military solution."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57024]


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