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Sunday 25 December 2005


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Southern Africa

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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 295 for 17-23 September 2005

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

CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Urban poor face food shortages due to high prices
ERITREA: Rights body asks gov't to account for detained journalists
ETHIOPIA: Six million at risk of malaria epidemic
SOMALIA: Over 900,000 people in need of humanitarian help - FSAU
SOMALIA: UN special envoy calls for dialogue among leaders
SOMALIA: PM to go to Mogadishu for consultations
SUDAN: President swears in new government of national unity
SUDAN: Violence persists, but political progress encouraging - UN envoy
SUDAN: Rebels take over government town in Darfur

DJIBOUTI: Urban poor face food shortages due to high prices

The continuously rising prices of both food and essential nonfood items are threatening the food security and livelihood of poor urban households in Djibouti, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reported in its monthly food security update for the tiny Horn of Africa country. "With again two percent increase in the total basket cost as compared to last month, poor households in the city can currently afford to purchase only around 80 percent of their basic minimum food requirements," FEWS NET said.

The network, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said the price of sugar had risen by 25 percent compared with the same period in 2004, mainly due to trade speculation. The report also noted that the explosion of international oil prices was significantly affecting the income and expenditure of middle-income households and predicted that an increase in electricity tariffs from 1 September would only exacerbate the situation.

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ERITREA: Rights body asks gov't to account for detained journalists

A media-rights watchdog has asked the Eritrean government to account for 15 journalists the organisation said have been held - some in secret prisons - since authorities banned the private media and independent reporting more than four years ago. "Holding these journalists incommunicado without due process is a gross violation of human rights," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a statement on Friday.

"We have not forgotten those brave journalists who continue to languish in Eritrea's secret jails and our hearts go out to their families at this difficult time," she added. The CPJ said the journalists had virtually disappeared since the 18 September 2001 crackdown on the press and the closure of privately owned newspapers. Eritrean officials had refused to provide information on their health, whereabouts, or legal status, CPJ said.

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ETHIOPIA: Six million at risk of malaria epidemic

Some six million Ethiopians, most of them children, are threatened by a potential malaria epidemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) cautioned. In its latest update on Ethiopia, the agency said it needed close to US $22 million to prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths. "UNICEF urgently needs $21.9 million to fight Ethiopia's looming malaria epidemic, fund a nationwide polio immunization drive and reach 963,855 people in critical need of water," it said.

"While polio is continuing to spread, a UNICEF-supported nationwide vaccination campaign planned for October and November is badly underfunded." Prevention initiatives by members of the Roll Back Malaria partnership in response to a sharp rise in malaria cases from June to August helped control the spread of the disease. A recent, widespread increase in malaria parasites and other worrying signs, however, have renewed fears of a nationwide epidemic.

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SOMALIA: Over 900,000 people in need of humanitarian help - FSAU

More than 900,000 people in Somalia will need immediate humanitarian assistance between September this year and January 2006, despite improvements in food security in some of the areas previously affected by drought, the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU) said. "We have estimated a total of 922,000 people in a state of humanitarian emergency or acute food and livelihood crisis," said Nicholas Haan, FSAU's technical adviser, following the release of the unit's annual food security analysis for Somalia on Friday.

Haan hastened to clarify that the report did not necessarily mean that the entire group needed food or money. "It does not mean that those people all need food per se or even cash assistance. We are saying that 922,000 people are facing a humanitarian emergency or livelihood crisis and we need to think, collectively, about how to solve that problem.

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SOMALIA: UN special envoy calls for dialogue among leaders

The UN Secretary-General�s special representative for Somalia, Fran�ois Lounseny Fall, urged Somali leaders to resolve their differences through dialogue and consensus and move towards restoring stability in the war-scarred Horn of Africa country. "Never again should the country be allowed to descend into war and chaos," Fall said in his message to the Somali people on the occasion of the UN International Day of Peace on Wednesday. "Today's Somali leadership has a unique opportunity to save the country. History will judge their vision and their commitment to this common cause."

Differences within Somalia's Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs), including a dispute over where the interim government should be based, have paralysed the administration. Fall said that peace could be achieved in Somalia and noted that an important step towards that goal had been made with the establishment of the TFIs.

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SOMALIA: PM to go to Mogadishu for consultations

Somali Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi is expected to visit the Somali capital, Mogadishu, within the next few days to consult with members of his cabinet who are based there, an official in his office said. "The aim of the trip is to dialogue and consult with his cabinet colleagues in the city," Abdirahman Dinari, the government spokesman, said on Wednesday. "His intention is to resolve whatever differences exist with members of his cabinet and members of parliament."

Gedi�s last visit to Mogadishu was marred by an explosion while he was addressing a public rally at a football stadium on 3 May. The blast killed 15 people and injured 50, medical sources said at the time. In June, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi and their supporters in the transitional federal institutions (TFIs) relocated from Nairobi to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of Mogadishu. They maintain that Mogadishu must be secured before they can transfer the government there.

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SUDAN: President swears in new government of national unity

Sudanese President Omar al Bashir swore in the cabinet of ministers of the new government of national unity in the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the capital, on Thursday. The first Vice-President, Salva Kiir, and Second Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha were in attendance. The ceremony followed the announcement of the formation of the new government by Bashir on Tuesday, after weeks of heated discussions over key cabinet posts and eight months after the January peace agreement that ended the country�s 21-year civil war.

"Dear citizens, I am glad to announce the special presidential decree forming the government of national unity," Bashir said during a special appearance on Sudanese television on Tuesday. "This government represents good news. It is an expression of the Sudanese people's lively spirit to agree and continue bringing peace and strengthening national unity," he added.

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SUDAN: Violence persists, but political progress encouraging - UN envoy

Incidents of violence have risen recently in southern Sudan and in the country's western region of Darfur, but there has been political progress on the implementation of the peace agreement for the south and on efforts to end the Darfur conflict, a top UN envoy said on Wednesday. The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said a Ugandan insurgent group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), was to blame for much of the violence in southern Sudan. The group had hindered demining work and the opening of roads in the area, he added.

"The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, North-South, is on track," Pronk told reporters, after urging the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and expedite its deployment. The peace agreement signed in January between Khartoum and a former southern rebel movement, the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) could present an opportunity to deal with the LRA militarily, Pronk said.

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SUDAN: Rebels take over government town in Darfur

In a further escalation of the conflict in western Sudan, rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) have taken control of the government-controlled town of Shareya, northeast of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, aid workers said. "Shareya is a highly fortified town, so clearly there was heavy fighting," George Somerwill, spokesman of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) told reporters on Tuesday.

"Certainly, the firing was of a very intense nature," Cathy Howard, operational advisor for Medecins Sans Frontieres, which had an operational presence in Shareya, told IRIN. Although it was not immediately clear how many casualties the fighting had claimed, Somerwill feared the impact of the attack on peace negotiations that have started in Abuja, Nigeria, would be considerable. Sudanese radio reported that the Sudanese government was planning a "strong response".

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[ENDS]

�Theme(s)	Other

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 306 for 17-23 December 2005, �23/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 305 for 10-16 December 2005, �17/Dec/05

UNMEE monitoring tense border despite setbacks, �16/Dec/05

UN relocates expelled staff from Eritrea to Ethiopia, �15/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 304 for 3-9 December 2005, �12/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

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