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 414
26 January - 1 February 2008


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Government seeks urgent help for drought regions
SOMALIA: Kismayo's only hospital closes as aid workers killed
SOMALIA: Food, water shortages hit Galgadud
SOMALIA: Anti-government activities spreading, warns AU


SOMALIA: Government seeks urgent help for drought regions

People in drought-affected regions of central and southern Somalia need
urgent help after losing most of their livestock, the deputy prime
minister and minister of information, Ahmed Abdisalam, told IRIN on 30
January.

"The reports we are getting are that the drought-affected areas are in a
grave situation, with shortages of water, inadequate pasture for
remaining livestock and the consequent destitution of many families,"
Abdisalam said.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76488]


SOMALIA: Kismayo's only hospital closes as aid workers killed

Services at the only hospital in Somalia's coastal city of Kismayo,
500km south of the capital Mogadishu, stopped on 29 January, a day after
four people - including two foreign aid workers - were killed in a
blast, local sources told IRIN.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF-Holland) took over running the hospital
in September 2007, after it had been abandoned by MSF-Belgium in 2001
due to insecurity.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76470]


SOMALIA: Food, water shortages hit Galgadud

Little or no rain in Abudwaq district of the central Somali region of
Galgadud has resulted in serious food and water shortages for thousands
of residents, local administrative officials said.

"Almost all parts of the district are affected, with some losing between
60 and 70 percent of their livestock," Mohamed Awil Janagale, the
district commissioner of Abudwaq, told IRIN on 28 January.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76446]


SOMALIA: Anti-government activities spreading, warns AU

Forces opposed to the Somali government have expanded their insurgent
activities to areas that were previously peaceful and could be planning
attacks in the Middle and Lower Juba regions, the African Union (AU) has
warned.

"Their strategy seems to be to further weaken the TFG [Transitional
Federal Government] by destabilising as many areas as possible, fully
aware that the government does not, at the moment, have the capacity to
deploy significant numbers of troops in all the regions," according to a
report by AU Commission Chairman Alpha Konare on 18 January.

[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76345]


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