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

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 408
17 - 23 November 2007


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Six more NGOs to operate in Somali region
SOMALIA: New prime minister named
SOMALIA: Exodus continues as IDPs surpass one million
SOMALIA: "The voice for the voiceless is no more"
SUDAN: Darfur peace talks now extend to four locations
SUDAN-ETHIOPIA: Thousands of Sudanese to return from Ethiopia in 2008


ETHIOPIA: Six more NGOs to operate in Somali region

More aid agencies - including three medical organisations - have been
approved to operate in the troubled Somali region of Ethiopia.

Mercy Corps, International Medical Corps and Medecins Sans Frontieres
Switzerland, as well as Italian agency Coopi, Mother and Child
Development Organization and German Agro Action, have been accredited by
the government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA).

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75402


SOMALIA: New prime minister named

Nur Hassan Hussein, popularly known as Nur Ade, has been appointed
Somalia's new prime minister by President Abdullahi Yusuf. Hussein, in
his 70s, replaces Ali Mohamed Gedi who resigned on 29 October.

A Lawyer by training, Hussein is a former police colonel who, until his
appointment, had been the secretary-general of the Somali Red Crescent
Society since 1991.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75453


SOMALIA: Exodus continues as IDPs surpass one million

Despite a lull in fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, hundreds of
families are still fleeing the city, joining what the UN has estimated
to be one million displaced people (IDPs).

"Many families are leaving because they don't believe the current break
in the fighting will last," a civil society source in Mogadishu, who
requested anonymity, told IRIN on 21 November.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75430


SOMALIA: "The voice for the voiceless is no more"

A popular Somali aid worker, described by her colleagues as a champion
of the vulnerable and disadvantaged, has died after she was hit by a
stray bullet while distributing food at camp for the displaced on the
outskirts of Mogadishu.

Madina Mahamud Ilmi, a mother of nine in her late 50s, was seriously
wounded in the accident on 15 November and died the next day at the
Medina hospital, her colleague Abdullahi Shirwa told IRIN.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75379


SUDAN: Darfur peace talks now extend to four locations

The UN and African Union (AU) mediated Darfur peace talks have spread
beyond the Libyan town of Sirte in efforts to get all key groups on
board, according to a UN official.

"Although we cannot as yet set the exact time for full-blown
negotiations, meetings are now ongoing in Sirte [the original venue of
the talks] as well as in Darfur, Khartoum and Juba," George Ola Davies,
spokesman of the UN-AU Joint Mediation Support Team, told IRIN. Full
report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75376


SUDAN-ETHIOPIA: Thousands of Sudanese to return from Ethiopia in 2008

Close to 30,000 Southern Sudanese who fled the country's 21-year long
north-south war are to return home from camps in neighbouring Ethiopia
during 2008 as part of an agreement between the governments of the two
countries and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), signed on 22 November in
Khartoum.

"More than 41,000 Sudanese currently live in four camps in Ethiopia and
we are repatriating refugees from all of them," Ato Ayalew Aweke, deputy
director of Ethiopia's Administration of Refugee and Returnee Affairs,
said at a press conference following the signing of the tripartite
agreement. "We are hoping to have closed two camps in Gambella [region
of western Ethiopia] by the end of 2008." The remaining 11,000 refugees
are scheduled to be repatriated by the end of 2009.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75471


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