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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 371
7 - 13 April 2007


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Flash flood damages houses in Dire Dawa
ETHIOPIA: New strategy to tackle reproductive health issues
SOMALIA: Fighting threatens peace efforts in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Afraid to return home despite prevailing calm
SUDAN: Violence in Darfur rises as more peacekeepers attacked


ALSO SEE:

SOMALIA-YEMEN: More than 15,000 Somali refugees live in squalid 
conditions
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71247


ETHIOPIA: Flash flood damages houses in Dire Dawa

Several houses were damaged by flood waters in the eastern Ethiopian 
town of Dire Dawa, 515 km from the capital of Addis Ababa, after heavy 
rains pounded the area, officials said on Thursday. "The morning floods 
swept over the Addis Ketema and Decahtu suburbs," said Binyam Fikru, 
public relations officer at Dire Dawa police station. There were no 
reports of casualties, although the flooding was quite intense.

It is the second time in less that a year that Dire Dawa, Ethiopia's 
second-largest town with a population of 400,000, suffers floods. In 
August, at least 250 people died and nearly 10,000 were forced to leave 
their homes - some 5,524 of whom are still living in tents in the Mariam 
Sefer area - when floods inundated the town.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71582]


ETHIOPIA: New strategy to tackle reproductive health issues

Ethiopia has launched a national strategy on adolescent and reproductive 
health that aims to tackle the problems of early marriages and 
pregnancies, female circumcision, abduction and rape, and poor access to 
healthcare for 10- to 24-year-olds.

"Although adolescence generally is a healthy period of life, many are 
often less informed, less experienced, and less comfortable accessing 
HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health information and services," 
Monique Rakotomalala, country representative of the UN Population Fund 
(UNFPA) said.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71575]


SOMALIA: Fighting threatens peace efforts in Mogadishu

The fighting that broke out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on 
Wednesday, prompting more people to flee their homes, has cast a cloud 
over anticipated reconciliation talks between various political groups.

"There was fighting early Wednesday morning and later in the afternoon 
at Fagah and Jamhuriya areas [north Mogadishu] but the area is quiet 
today [Thursday]," said one resident. The fighting, he added, erupted 
when government forces tried to take over a prominent hotel in the area.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71577]


SOMALIA: Afraid to return home despite prevailing calm

Malyuun Ibrahim has been sleeping under a tree along with 10 children 
since recent fighting forced her to abandon her home in the north of the 
Somali capital of Mogadishu. "The fighting was so bad we could not even 
venture to our gate," she said. "We have been displaced for two weeks; 
sleeping under a tree is not home but at least we are safe for now."

A ceasefire agreed between clan elders and the Ethiopians has been in 
place since 1 April. However, the residents, while hopeful that the 
truce may hold, still fear the worst, said one local journalist who 
requested anonymity.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71243]


SUDAN: Violence in Darfur rises as more peacekeepers attacked

The ongoing violence in Sudan's Darfur region continued to rise after 
three soldiers from the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) were attacked by 
unidentified armed men on Tuesday near Sortony in North Darfur.

One man was killed and the other two were wounded in the attack, the 
third of its kind since the end of March. The three men were part of the 
Rwandan contingent of the African Union's (AU) peacekeeping forces. 
Tuesday's death follows the killing of six other AU peacekeepers earlier 
this month.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71560]


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