IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 276 for 23-29 April 2005

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

CONTENTS

DJIBOUTI: UN appeals for $7.5 million to combat food crisis
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Four injured by landmines along border
ETHIOPIA: Thousands homeless as aid reaches flood-affected areas
ETHIOPIA: Opposition complains of abuses ahead of elections
SOMALIA: Interim gov't to move from Nairobi in May, says official
SOMALIA: Returnees lose homes to floods in Somaliland
SOMALIA: Torrential rains kill five, cause massive destruction in Somaliland
SUDAN: Darfur peace talks to resume in May - AU spokesman

DJIBOUTI: UN appeals for $7.5 million to combat food crisis

The UN has issued a flash appeal for US $7.5 million to urgently provide food and water to thousands of drought-stricken people in the Horn of Africa nation. The appeal, made on Wednesday, follows an announcement last week by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that an estimated 28,650 people in Djibouti were experiencing severe food and water shortages due to an extended drought. "The income of households [in Djibouti] is dependent almost entirely on the health and productivity of their livestock," OCHA said in a report.

"Since livestock productivity has been undermined by the consecutive deteriorating seasons, household income and food access has been severely constrained." Djibouti’s government appealed for international help on 9 April and has already initiated an emergency water-provision programme in the southeastern Roadside Pastoral Sub-Zone, according to the OCHA report. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46848]

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Four injured by landmines along border

Four Ethiopians were injured along the disputed border with Eritrea after a spate of blasts from freshly planted landmines, a senior UN official said on Thursday. Phil Lewis, head of the UN’s Mine Action Coordination Centre (MACC), said three anti-tank mines had exploded and damaged vehicles in the last month.

Another landmine was discovered before it exploded. They were the first of newly planted landmines along the 1,000 km contested frontier that has separated Ethiopia and Eritrea since early 2004. "These are all newly laid landmines," Lewis told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. "They are of a concern because there have been four of them in the last month. These weapons are indiscriminate so anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time could be killed."
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46849]

ETHIOPIA: Thousands homeless as aid reaches flood-affected areas

Relief aid begun to reach survivors of devastating floods that hit eastern Ethiopia, but the death toll could rise further without more help, officials said on Wednesday. Some plastic sheeting and high-energy biscuits had arrived in the region, but rescuers had been unable to get to all the survivors, Ahmed Abdi, from the UN’s World Food Programme, told IRIN from Gode, one of the worst-affected areas. Many parts of the region still remained cut off, he said.

"This is a catastrophe," Muktar Mohammed Seyyid, government relief coordinator, told IRIN. "If we don’t take action I am afraid the death toll will increase." The toll had risen to 82 dead with 30 people still missing, although Muktar said those figures could change. The floods, he added, had affected about 30,000 people, and at least 5,000 families had been left homeless. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46833]

ETHIOPIA: Opposition complains of abuses ahead of elections

Ethiopia’s third-ever democratic elections have been marred by random killings, mass arrests, torture and intimidation, five main opposition groups alleged on Wednesday. The groups said two opposition members had been shot dead, hundreds rounded up and imprisoned, while dozens had disappeared less than three weeks ahead of the 15 May legislative elections.
Bereket Simon, Ethiopian information minister and spokesman for the ruling party, dismissed the allegations as "baseless".

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, he said, had provided a code of conduct to its 600,000 members to prevent abuses. "This is an absolute lie and pure fabrication," Bereket told reporters on Thursday. "Our members would be prosecuted if found to have taken part in abuses. Any diversion from this code of conduct would make our members accountable." [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46845]

SOMALIA: Interim gov't to move from Nairobi in May, says official

The interim Somali government, which has operated from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, since its formation six months ago is planning to finally relocate to Somalia at the end of May, according to one of its senior officials. "The entire government will relocate to Somalia no later than the end of May," Abdirahman Dinari, government spokesman told IRIN on Thursday. "We are all preparing for the move." The government, which includes several faction leaders, has been unable to relocate because of security considerations.

It has, however, come under increasing pressure from the Kenyan government and western diplomats to return to Mogadishu. Dinari said an earlier decision to relocate temporarily to the towns of Jowhar and Baidoa in south-central Somalia "still stands." Interim Somali President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and Prime Minister, Ali Muhammad Gedi, have said the government cannot function in Mogadishu until the city is pacified and secured. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46850]

SOMALIA: Returnees lose homes to floods in Somaliland

Hundreds of Somali returnees living in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland lost their makeshift homes during flooding that occurred when torrential rains hit the region on Monday and Tuesday, local leaders told IRIN. The floods damaged infrastructure and killed thousands of livestock in several towns including Berbera, Burao and Hargeysa - the Somaliland capital. In Burao, 340 km east of Hargeysa, a school, a hospital and an airstrip were damaged, Somaliland transport minister Osman Kassim told IRIN.
The airstrip, he added, had been temporarily closed because the runway had been washed away by the water. Other sources said the floods also destroyed a tannery and more than 200 homes in the town. "At least 300 huts belonging to Somali returnees were swept away by the floodwaters, rendering them homeless," Kinsi Ahmed, a social worker in Burao told IRIN. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46846]

SOMALIA: Torrential rains kill five, cause massive destruction in Somaliland

Five people died and more than 1,000 others were displaced on Sunday when torrential rains battered Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, the town's governor, Abdillahi Irro, told IRIN on Monday. "The number of deaths might be higher since some villages outside Hargeysa were also affected by the torrential rains, and reports on the damages, deaths and casualties have not all come in yet," he said. He said more than 500 families, among them elderly women and children, were displaced.

He added that 270 families had been relocated to a camp belonging to the Somaliland police force, where they were receiving food aid and non-food items from relief agencies and the government. Others had sought refuge with relatives and friends, he said. For decades, torrential rain and floods have devastated Somaliland, located to the northwest of Somalia, and weakened the region, already suffering from the ravages of a civil war and recurring drought. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46808]

SUDAN: Darfur peace talks to resume in May - AU spokesman

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the western region of Darfur are expected to resume in May, a spokesman for the African Union (AU) in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, told IRIN on Wednesday. An AU mediation team, he added, had been holding consultations with Sudanese government officials in a renewed effort to jumpstart the negotiations. "The team briefed the Sudanese officials on the preparations made by the AU to create an environment conducive to the resumption of the Darfur peace talks in Abuja [Nigeria]," the spokesman, Nourreddine Mezni, said.

"The peace talks are expected to resume in May, although specific dates will only be finalised at the end of the current consultation," he added. The talks will be a follow-up to the first round of discussions held at the end of February, with all parties to the Darfur conflict. The AU team on Darfur, led by Sam Ibok and accompanied by the special representative of the AU chairperson for the Sudan, Baba Gana Kingibe, met the Sudanese Vice President, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, and the Minister of Agriculture and head of the government delegation to Abuja peace talks, Magzoub Al Khalifa.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46834]

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