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 372
14 - 20 April 2007


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Thousands exposed to danger from landmines
SOMALIA: Displaced Somalis living rough near Kenyan border
SOMALIA: Help thousands displaced, civil society urges aid agencies
SUDAN: Children in urgent need of protection, says new report
SUDAN: End restrictions on aid workers, says top US official
SUDAN: New hope for Darfur as Govt accepts UN support package

See Also:

ETHIOPIA: Training community workers to sustain pastoralist livelihoods 
at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71643

SUDAN: Peace bolsters food security in the south at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71676


ETHIOPIA: Thousands exposed to danger from landmines

Ethiopia's Afar and Tigray regional states are so heavily mined that 
hundreds of thousands of people living there are exposed to danger from 
the ordnances, official statistics show.

Most of the landmines were planted during the recent Ethiopia-Eritrea 
boundary war, which was mainly fought in the two states because they 
share borders with Eritrea. Data compiled by the national Landmine 
Action Office shows that 375,899 and 66,478 people in Tigray and Afar 
regional states, respectively, are exposed to the danger of landmines.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71684]


SOMALIA: Displaced Somalis living rough near Kenyan border

At least 15,000 Somalis who fled violence in the capital, Mogadishu, are 
facing disease and uncertainty in Dobley town, near the Kenyan border, 
local sources told IRIN on Thursday. "Our estimate is that since 
February, some 2,500 families [15,000 people] have arrived in Dobley," 
Ali Hussein Nur, the Dobley District Commissioner, said.

Families in the small town, he added, were hosting two to three 
families, while others had set up makeshift camps under trees. He said 
up to eight minibuses carrying internally displaced persons (IDPs) had 
been arriving daily from Mogadishu since February.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71707]


SOMALIA: Help thousands displaced, civil society urges aid agencies

Civil society organisations in Somalia have appealed to the 
international community to help thousands of families that have been 
displaced over the past three months following violence in the capital, 
Mogadishu.

"We are appealing to donor agencies, particularly to the United Nations, 
to urgently come to the assistance of these people who are living in the 
open," Madina Muhammad Ilmi, the deputy head of a civil society 
taskforce to help the displaced, said on Wednesday.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71683]


SUDAN: Children in urgent need of protection, says new report

Children in war-ravaged areas of Sudan have endured unspeakable 
violations and urgently need protection, according to a report by a 
network of NGOs monitoring violations against children in situations of 
armed conflict.

"The violations include killing and maiming, rape and other forms of 
sexual violence, abductions, denial of humanitarian assistance, attacks 
on schools and hospitals, and recruitment and use by armed groups," the 
report, released by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, said on 
Wednesday.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71681]


SUDAN: End restrictions on aid workers, says top US official

The Sudanese authorities must honour an agreement with the United 
Nations to end restrictions on humanitarian operations in the western 
Darfur region, a top United States official has said. "When it comes to 
humanitarian access, the government of Sudan's record is not 
encouraging," US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said on 
Monday.

"The denial of visas, the harassment of aid workers and other measures, 
have created the impression that the government of Sudan is engaged in a 
deliberate campaign of intimidation."

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71630]


SUDAN: New hope for Darfur as Govt accepts UN support package

Sudan's long-awaited agreement to the United Nations-African Union (AU) 
"Heavy Support package" for Darfur has been cautiously greeted by the 
international community, but both the UN and AU admit that the task of 
setting up the operation has just begun.

"The Heavy Support package, as its name indicates, is not the robust 
force Darfur needs," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping 
Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno after a meeting with AU Chairman Alpha 
Oumar Konare this week. "It is a support package to lay the ground for a 
future robust force."

The current AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) force of 7,000 deployed in the 
region is understaffed and underfunded, creating a crucial need for 
improved security for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps and 
aid workers. AMIS has also come under attack from unknown gunmen and 
lost seven men in April. It now plans to establish two battalions to 
protect its men and the upcoming support package.

"This is going to be critical to the Heavy Support package in view of 
the deteriorating situation in several places in Darfur because these 
kinds of enablers [and] resources, including civilian personnel, need to 
have security," said Guehenno.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71720]


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