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 361
27 January - 2 February 2007


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-YEMEN: 122 Ethiopians deported after a month's detention
SOMALIA: Sisters doing it for themselves
SOMALIA: AU seeks troops for peace mission
SOMALIA: Puntland leader's plea for environment
SOMALIA: Families flee as police targeted in worsening violence
SUDAN: Conscription of children, sexual abuse unabated in Darfur - UN envoy


ETHIOPIA-YEMEN: 122 Ethiopians deported after a month's detention

Yemeni authorities deported 122 illegal migrants from Ethiopia along 
with 129 Somalis on 30 December, an official at the Immigration 
Authority said on condition of anonymity. This news ended a month's 
speculation over the whereabouts and condition of these asylum seekers.

"The 122 Ethiopians who entered the country illegally were deported 
after representatives from the Ethiopian Embassy in Sana'a visited them 
and processed their documents," the Yemeni official told IRIN on 
Tuesday.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57260]


SOMALIA: Sisters doing it for themselves

Somali women are taking the initiative in the fight against AIDS with a 
programme to educate their peers in this conservative Muslim nation.

An extensive consultative process, conducted by the United Nations 
Children's Fund (UNICEF), led to the development of a women's training 
manual in the local Somali language, which trained women use to reach 
other women in their home towns.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57271]


SOMALIA: AU seeks troops for peace mission

The African Union's (AU) new chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana, 
appealed on Tuesday to African governments to contribute troops to a 
planned peace and stabilisation force for strife-town Somalia.

"We need 8,000 troops; we only have 4,000 so far," Kufuor said at the 
end of the AU summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the 
pan-African body is headquartered. The Ghanaian leader said Uganda, 
Malawi, Burundi, Ghana and Nigeria had expressed a willingness to 
contribute to a peacekeeping force for Somalia.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57258]


SOMALIA: Puntland leader's plea for environment

The president of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, 
Gen Mahmud Muse Hirsi, has appealed for help in tackling an 
environmental emergency caused by increased charcoal burning, which has 
been compounded by greater numbers of displaced people since 1992.

Hirsi said due to the influx of displaced people and drought-induced 
displacement of pastoral communities - which pushed them to urban areas 
- more acacia trees are being burned for charcoal.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57247]


SOMALIA: Families flee as police targeted in worsening violence

The Somali capital of Mogadishu was quiet on Monday, a day after 
government forces engaged heavily armed gunmen in the north of the city, 
as worsening violence forced families to flee the area, local sources 
told IRIN.

According to an update issued on Friday by the United Nations Office for 
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "an estimated 1,000 
people left Mogadishu in January 2007 due to fear of conflict and 
instability".

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57229]


SUDAN: Conscription of children, sexual abuse unabated in Darfur - UN 
envoy

Boys in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region are increasingly at risk of being 
recruited into armed groups, while sexual violence against girls is 
unabated, despite growing official awareness, a top United Nations envoy 
said on Thursday.

Following visits to Darfur and the South Sudanese capital of Juba and 
meetings with top Sudanese government representatives, Radhika 
Coomaraswamy, the UN Special Representative to the Secretary-General on 
Children and Armed Conflict, told reporters in Khartoum that while 
Sudanese officials have made promises to reduce threats to children, 
little progress has been seen on the ground.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57284]


IRIN-CEA
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Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org


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