NAIROBI, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Governments, NGOs and affected communities must continue the struggle to end the suffering of an estimated three million girls around the world who endure the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) every year, UN agencies have said. Full report

ADDIS ABABA, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - There is a joke told in Ethiopia that encapsulates the country's struggle with food aid dependency. In it, two subsistence farmers are talking about the year's poor rains and the impact on their harvests.Full report

GAROWE, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - One person was killed and three others injured in Bosasso, capital of the self-declared autonomous Somali region of Puntland, when thousands of Muslims protested against the publication in Denmark of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Full report

DJIBOUTIVILLE, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Up to 150,000 people, mainly pastoralists, are threatened by a continuing drought that has degraded pastures and dried up watering points across Djibouti, a government official said. Full report

NAIROBI, 6 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik as his new special humanitarian envoy for the Horn and eastern Africa. Full report

NAIROBI, 6 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - An estimated 11 million people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa continue to face critical food shortages brought on by drought and non-natural factors, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said. Full report

HARGEYSA, 6 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - At least six people were killed and more than 30 injured when rival Somali clans clashed over land on the outskirts of Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Full report

ADDIS ABABA, 2 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Ethiopian authorities have denied reports by a global human rights watchdog that thousands of students have been arrested during the past three months in continued unrest over disputed election results. Full report

NAIROBI, 2 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The military situation in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) and adjacent areas along the disputed Ethiopia-Eritrea border remains tense, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a statement on Thursday. Full report

NAIROBI, 31 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Preparations for a meeting of Somalia's interim parliament in Baidoa have begun, following a decision by the president and the speaker to convene the house inside Somalia for the first time since it was created in neighbouring Kenya in 2004. Full report

SOMALIA: Year in brief 2005 A chronology of key events

SOMALIA: Year in Review 2005: Still waiting for change

SOMALIA: Drought bites southern region

ERITREA: Coping with economic hardships

ETHIOPIA: Struggling to end food aid dependency

SOMALIA: Interview with parliamentary speaker

ETHIOPIA: Southeastern region ravaged by drought

SOMALIA: Interview with Bob McCarthy, UNICEF Somalia emergency officer