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 388
23 - 29 June 2007


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Aid worker's death raises security concerns
SOMALIA: Insecurity restricting aid operations
SOMALIA: Locusts destroy livelihoods in northeast
SOMALIA: Returnees killed waiting for food distribution
HORN OF AFRICA: Act now to combat food insecurity - UN officials
SUDAN: Climate change - only one cause among many for Darfur conflict
SUDAN: Repair infrastructure so that the displaced can return home - IOM


SOMALIA: Aid worker's death raises security concerns

The International Medical Corps (IMC) has condemned the killing of one 
of its staff by unknown gunmen in the Somali town of El-Berde, 420km 
northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

Mohamed Muse Ali, 40, a doctor, and his driver, Lel Idris, were killed 
on 27 June when two men attacked their vehicle. "International Medical 
Corps mourns the loss of both victims and condemns the violence that 
claimed their lives," the medical charity said in a statement.

The agency said it was concerned about the deteriorating security 
environment in the area and urged the international community to address 
the situation as a matter of urgency.

Full report: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72980>


SOMALIA: Insecurity restricting aid operations

Insecurity and violence in Somalia's capital Mogadishu are limiting the 
population's ability to make a living and restricting aid agency 
operations, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
(OCHA) has said.

"An atmosphere of fear has intensified within the population of 
Mogadishu. Intimidation is obstructing the implementation of 
humanitarian activities," OCHA Somalia said in its latest report, issued 
on 22 June.

It said violence had intensified since the postponement of a national 
reconciliation conference that had been scheduled for 13 June. The 
conference is now scheduled for mid-July.

Full report: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72911>


SOMALIA: Locusts destroy livelihoods in northeast

A swarm of locusts has infested parts of Somalia's self-declared 
autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast, destroying crops and 
other vegetation, officials told IRIN on 27 June.

"There are millions of them and they are spreading to most of the 
region's farmland," said Muse Gelle, governor of Bari region. "There had 
been reports of locusts for about a week but the main body appeared 
three days ago and is eating anything that is green."

Abdurahman Abdulahi, a senior research officer at the Desert Locust 
Control Organization for Eastern Africa, told IRIN the group had 
received a report of a locust outbreak in the area.

Full report: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72949>


SOMALIA: Returnees killed waiting for food distribution

At least five people were killed on 25 June when security forces opened 
fire on a crowd waiting for food aid in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, 
local sources told IRIN.

The shooting occurred as hundreds of people who had returned from camps 
for the displaced gathered at a police station in the Abdiaziz district, 
north Mogadishu, to wait for food, said a resident, who only gave her 
name as Maka.

"The people were just waiting when the police opened fire," she said. 
Three people were killed on the spot, among them a pregnant woman, and 
two others died later.

"There were no warning shots; they just shot at the people." Full 
report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72928>


HORN OF AFRICA: Act now to combat food insecurity - UN officials

At least 20 million people in the drought-plagued Horn of Africa could 
need emergency aid if action is not taken immediately to combat food 
insecurity in the region, United Nations officials said on 26 June.

"The Horn is hit by some of the world's most severe food crises and they 
are coming faster and more [furiously] because of climate change, 
environmental degradation, political and armed conflicts and a host of 
other factors," Kjell Magne Bondevik, the UN Special Humanitarian Envoy 
to the Horn of Africa, told a news conference in Nairobi, the Kenyan 
capital.

"We all now need to show the commitment to end this cycle of despair and 
disaster, which if not stopped could next see over 20 million people in 
need of assistance," he said.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72929>


SUDAN: Repair infrastructure so that the displaced can return home - IOM

South Sudan should hasten the provision of basic services and 
infrastructure to encourage most of the two million displaced 
southerners around Khartoum to return home, the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

"People have to be able to support themselves and their families; if 
they know that there is very little awaiting them on the other end, that 
has to be a disincentive," Brunson McKinley, IOM director-general, said.

McKinley, who ended a six-day mission to Sudan on Saturday, also visited 
the war-ravaged western region of Darfur and Juba, the capital of South 
Sudan.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72905>


SUDAN: Climate change - only one cause among many for Darfur conflict

Climate change may be one of the causes of the Darfur crisis, but to 
consider it the single root cause would obscure other important factors 
and could hamper the search for solutions, climate and conflict analysts 
say.

A number of commentators, journalists and analysts have recently focused 
on competition for natural resources, increasingly scarce due to global 
warming, as the trigger of the conflict in western Sudan.

"It [global warming] has become such a trendy issue that everything is 
being packaged as climate change," said Sorcha O'Callaghan, a researcher 
at the UK-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

Full report: 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72985>

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