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Friday 29 April 2005


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 235 for 19-25 March 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Aid worker shot and injured in Darfur
SUDAN: IDPs forced to move as Khartoum settlement is demolished
SUDAN: Meningitis breaks out in North Darfur
SUDAN: Response to funding appeal insufficient, uneven
ERITREA: Reported meningitis outbreak under control - WHO
ETHIOPIA: Majority lack access to clean water - UNICEF
ETHIOPIA: EU to observe May general elections
SOMALIA: Interim government to relocate to Baidoa and Jowhar
SOMALIA: Sudanese and Ugandan peacekeepers to be deployed first - IGAD

ALSO SEE:
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ETHIOPIA: Fistula hospital continues services for young women
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SUDAN: Aid worker shot and injured in Darfur

An American aid worker was shot in the face on Tuesday in South Darfur, a state in western Sudan, when unidentified gunmen ambushed her convoy, the US State Department said. The clearly marked humanitarian vehicle was attacked between the towns of Nyala and Kass.

"I was deeply saddened to learn that a member of the United States Agency for International Development’s [USAID] Disaster Assistance Response Team was shot and wounded in Darfur," Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said in a statement read by spokesman Adam Ereli. "The thoughts and prayers of all of us at the Department of State and USAID are with her and her family as she continues to receive treatment.”

Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy to Sudan condemned the attack. In a statement, Pronk said such incidents were unlikely to stop unless a robust protection force of at least 8,000 troops was deployed in Darfur to protect both the civilian population and humanitarian workers. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed deep regret over the incident, and "strongly condemned the unjustifiable attack on the relief convoys and workers of humanitarian aid in Darfur."

Full report

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SUDAN: IDPs forced to move as Khartoum settlement is demolished

At least 11,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were forced to move following the demolition of the Shikan settlement, 18 km north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday. They were now living rough in El Fateh, a desert area north of the capital, she added.

"From 28 December, the Sudanese authorities began demolishing Shikan, an area the size of 16 football fields, as part of a re-zoning policy in Khartoum state," Kirsten Zaat, advocacy officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Khartoum, told IRIN.

Abd El Wahab M. Osman, Minister of Physical Planning and Utilities of Khartoum State was not available for comment but another government official, who declined to be named, said the destruction was part of a larger re-planning programme that was meant to provide plots for residents and bring them vital services such as electricity and water.

More than 13,000 IDPs, displaced by the 21-year-old war that ended in southern Sudan in January, had found shelter in Shikan, a squatter area established in the 1980s. Nuba, Majanin, Arab, Shilluk, Dinka, Masalit, Felata and Khofra were among the ethnic groups in Shikan. Around 15 percent of the resident IDP population of Shikan was permitted to stay. The remaining 85 percent were moved to El Fateh, a desert area 38 km north of Omdurman, a city just north of Khartoum.

Full report

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SUDAN: Meningitis breaks out in North Darfur

A meningitis outbreak was reported in the North Darfur state of western Sudan, after humanitarian agencies confirmed five cases in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in the area, the UN reported on Sunday. Five people in the Saraf Umra camp had been diagnosed with the disease since 11 January, the UN Advance Mission to Sudan (UNAMIS) said. Twenty-seven other suspected cases in North Darfur, including two deaths, had been reported.

A meningitis vaccination plan for the camp had been developed, and about 160,000 doses of meningitis trivalent vaccine requested from WHO. UNAMIS’s situation report said that vaccines for UN and NGO staff were available at the UN clinic in Khartoum, and the MERT (WHO medical emergency response team) clinics in the three Darfur states.

WHO provided laboratory reagents and supplies for the confirmation of the disease, together with drugs necessary for case management in all of Sudan’s states. In February, another outbreak of the disease was reported in North Kordofan, central Sudan.

Full report

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SUDAN: Response to funding appeal insufficient, uneven - UN

Donor support for humanitarian aid and recovery projects in Sudan has remained insufficient and unbalanced, a UN spokesperson said on Monday. The 2005 UN Work Plan for the Sudan, released in November 2004, had appealed for US $1.5 billion to fund an emergency programme to support humanitarian, protection, recovery and development activities in the conflict-affected country in 2005.

Donors had so far contributed only $387 million, about a quarter of the requested funds, according to a Work Plan Funding Overview of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released on 13 March.

The lion's share of the donations to Sudan went towards food assistance, while other sectors, including health, education, shelter and water, received three percent or less. On average, Darfur received about 75 percent of the donated funds, while southern Sudan received slightly more than 14 percent. National programmes, including mine action, infrastructure and the rule of law, got an eight percent allocation, while the rest of Sudan, including the east and the transitional areas, got no more than one percent.

Full report

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ERITREA: Reported meningitis outbreak under control - WHO

The onset of seasonal rains in Eritrea has helped to bring under control an outbreak of meningitis that killed one child in the southern Debub Zone, a WHO official told IRIN. Another 33 cases had been reported in nine villages in the zone, the WHO country representative in Eritrea, Andrew Kosia, said on Wednesday.

Between March and May, Eritrea's central highlands, where the Debub Zone is located, along with other parts of the country, tend to receive scattered rains (called the Azmera rains), followed by the main rainy season (Kremti) between July and September.

Meningitis is an infection of the thin lining surrounding the brain and the spinal cord and is transmitted through droplets in the air by coughing and sneezing, for example. It can cause death, brain damage, hearing loss or learning disability, and its most common symptoms are a stiff neck, high fever, sensitivity to light, confusion, headaches and vomiting.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Majority lack access to clean water - UNICEF

Three-quarters of Ethiopia’s 71 million people do not have access to clean water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. Four out of five live without proper sanitation, it added.

Speaking on World Water Day, Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF’s representative in Ethiopia, said the country faced enormous challenges if it was to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He said Ethiopia must provide clean water for 3.6 million people, and toilets for 4.5 million, every year if it was to reach the targets.

Ethiopian athlete Berhane Adere, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, said hundreds of children were dying each day from diarrhoea and other dirty-water-related illnesses. She told officials in Addis Ababa, where World Water Day was being celebrated, that clean water could also help get girls into school.

Ethiopian president Girma Woldegiorgis said that water management in the country could boost food production and end hunger. "With the frequent droughts and unreliability, the obvious way for Ethiopia to increase its food production is to develop irrigation schemes," he said. "In areas where water is scarce and rains are erratic, rainwater harvesting is being widely implemented to supply farmers with this important commodity."

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: EU to observe May general elections

The European Union (EU) has fielded one of its largest ever teams of election observers to Ethiopia for the 15 May general polls, the mission chief, Ana Gomes, said. She told reporters on Monday in Addis Ababa, that the forthcoming national elections could play a critical role in fostering democracy in Ethiopia and greater stability in the Horn of Africa.

The 159-strong observer mission, which would cost about €2.8 million (US $3.68 million), had some initial concerns over whether the elections would be free and fair, she added. Gomes said that access to the media for the opposition groups, as well as potential partisanship of the national election board, were issues they would address.

In April 50 additional observers will arrive, and in early May, 100 more observers will be deployed for the polls, she added. Opposition groups, however, criticised the mission, saying it had arrived too late and with too few observers to effectively monitor the 38,000 polling stations.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Interim government to relocate to Baidoa and Jowhar

The interim Somali government, based in Nairobi, Kenya, is to relocate to the towns of Baidoa, 240 km southwest of the capital Mogadishu, and Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, an official told IRIN on Tuesday. "The cabinet has decided that the government will temporarily relocate to Jowhar and Baidoa," Abdirahman Nur Dinari, a government spokesman, said. It would operate simultaneously from the two towns, he added.

The move, he added, was backed by 64 of the 74 ministers present during a Council of Ministers meeting on Monday. However, other sources said ten ministers, including key Mogadishu-based faction leaders, walked out of the meeting in protest. These included Usman Hassan Ali "Atto", Muse Sudi Yalahow, Umar Mahamud "Finish" and Muhammad Qanyare Afrah.

The leaders who walked out, between them, control most of the capital city and wanted the government to move there directly. They had asked for three months "to prepare and secure the city" for the government, according to a Somali political source.

The spokesman said the government would open an office in Mogadishu "to monitor the situation and once it is decided that the capital is ready, the government will move there".

The new government, which includes several faction leaders, has so far failed to move to Mogadishu, citing security considerations. However, it has come under increasing pressure from the Kenyan government and western diplomats to relocate from Nairobi.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Sudanese and Ugandan peacekeepers to be deployed first - IGAD

Sudan and Uganda will be the first countries to send peacekeepers to Somalia, while neighbouring states will initially only provide logistical support, a top official at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) told IRIN on Monday.

Ugandan foreign minister and chairman of the IGAD Council of Ministers, Sam Kutesa, said the regional body had decided to send just Sudanese and Ugandan troops "because of the suspicion among many Somalis that frontline states, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, supported different factions during the war, and therefore have their own interests".

IGAD’s Council of Ministers said on Friday that other member states would, during the first phase of the deployment, be required to provide equipment and emergency assistance, as well as to train the Somali army and police force. Troops from the other states were, however, expected to participate in the second phase of the peacekeeping mission, after which an African Union force was planned for Somalia, the council said in a communique.

The inclusion of troops from the neighbouring countries has divided Somali politicians, with some supporting the deployment and others saying that soldiers from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya might be tempted to meddle in Somalia's internal affairs.

IGAD - which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda - sponsored the reconciliation process that culminated in the formation of Somalia's transitional federal government in Nairobi last year.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 276 for 23-29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 275 for 16-22 April 2005, 22/Apr/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 274 for 9-15 April 2005, 15/Apr/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 273 for 2-8 April 2005, 8/Apr/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 236 for 26 March - 1 April 2005, 1/Apr/05

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 29/Apr/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 17 covering the period 23 - 29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

ZIMBABWE: Mining decline hits workers hard, 29/Apr/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 228 for 23-29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly 274 covering 23 - 29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

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