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 406
3 - 9 November 2007


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Relief agencies bolster operations in Somali region
SOMALIA: Fatal flash floods destroy hundreds of homes in Puntland
SOMALIA: Mogadishu residents trapped by violence - MSF
SOMALIA: Thousands more leave capital as troops converge
SUDAN: OCHA concerned over official's expulsion from South Darfur
SUDAN: Team arrives to probe deadly JIU attack in Yambio
SUDAN: Veteran Darfur leader blames conflict on marginalisation


ETHIOPIA: Relief agencies bolster operations in Somali region

UN agencies have begun to deploy staff in Ethiopia's Somali region in an
effort to step up humanitarian aid delivery to the area, officials said.

Paul Hebert, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) in Ethiopia, said several UN agencies had set up offices
in Kebridehar and Degehabur. These include the UN World Food Programme,
UN Children's Fund, OCHA and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75207]


SOMALIA: Fatal flash floods destroy hundreds of homes in Puntland

Heavy rains have wreaked havoc in Somalia's self-declared autonomous
region of Puntland, with floods killing three people and leaving
thousands homeless, according to local officials.

Alula district mayor Hareed Isse Omar said that hundreds of families in
the area were evacuated to safer grounds in the mountains on 4 November.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75206]


SOMALIA: Mogadishu residents trapped by violence - MSF

Increasing violence in parts of the Somali capital Mogadishu has trapped
many residents, leaving them with no safe place to go, Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) said on 7 November.

"People are terrified but most have little choice except to wait and
hope that the violence does not come to them," Colin McIlreavy, the MSF
head of mission for Somalia, said in a statement.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75188]


SOMALIA: Thousands more leave capital as troops converge

Fears of a major military offensive have sparked a further civilian
exodus from the Somali capital Mogadishu, local sources told IRIN on 5
November.

"Thousands of people are leaving the city as we speak," said Mohamed
Hassan Haad, the chairman of the Hawiye [the predominant clan] elders'
council. "They are worried that the arrival of thousands of Ethiopian
troops will lead to a major attack on the city."

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75155]


SUDAN: OCHA concerned over official's expulsion from South Darfur

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in
Sudan is holding talks with government officials over the expulsion of
its South Darfur head of office, an official said on 8 November.

"We are extremely concerned at the expulsion and meetings are going on
at the highest levels with the government to resolve the issue," said
Orla Clinton, the OCHA Public Information Officer in the Sudanese
capital, Khartoum.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75213]


SUDAN: Team arrives to probe deadly JIU attack in Yambio

Southern Sudan's government has sent a team to Yambio in Western
Equatoria State to investigate a weekend attack on a police station
which left three senior officers dead, local officials said on 7
November.

"Tension has been high since the killings but we are slowly returning to
normalcy after the team from Juba [capital of Southern Sudan] arrested a
key suspect yesterday," Andrew Mbugo Elisa, a bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Sudan, in Yambio, told IRIN on 7 November. [Full
report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75185]


SUDAN: Veteran Darfur leader blames conflict on marginalization

Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige is a man who has experienced a world of change in
his home Darfur. Now in his 70s, he has seen the tribal chiefdom system
give way to a Khartoum-based government that he holds responsible for
the neglect of the region and the subsequent slide into conflict.

Diraige is the son of a paramount chief and became a chief himself at
the age of 11 when his father died. Effectively leader of the Fur
community, the largest in Darfur, he abdicated from the post in 1953 -
handing it to a cousin - and opted to continue his studies in the United
Kingdom.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75170]


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