HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HORN OF AFRICA Weekly Round-up 392 for 28 July – 3 August 2007
Source: IRIN
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NAIROBI, 3 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS: SOMALIA: Call for agencies to scale up aid operations in capital
ETHIOPIA: Female circumcision declines in southern region
SUDAN:
Darfur force 'should boost humanitarian access'
SUDAN: Darfur rebels gather for talks, key figures yet to arrive SOMALIA: Call for agencies to scale up aid operations in capital A
senior UN official has urged humanitarian agencies to take advantage of security provided by African Union troops in Mogadishu to improve the delivery of aid to tens of thousands of displaced people
camped in surrounding areas. "Response [to the crisis] has not been adequate because of difficulties of access and too many security incidents," Eric Laroche, the UN Resident and
Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said on 2 August, a day after a visit to Mogadishu. Aid agencies should be mobilised to scale up their operations in the Somali capital, he said, adding that
this would help get relief supplies both to the city and the surrounding areas.
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73562 ETHIOPIA: Female circumcision declines in southern
region The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia's Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties
were enforced, an NGO leader said. "Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo," said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women's Self-Help Centre, a
local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones. According to official statistics, FGM/C prevalence in the state decreased from 80 percent in 2000 to 74 percent in
2005. Bogaletch said this could improve with legal reform.
Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73509 SUDAN: Darfur force 'should boost humanitarian access' The new
hybrid UN-African Union force for Darfur, established by the UN Security Council and accepted by the Sudan government on 1 August, will improve security and humanitarian access, aid officials and
analysts say. According to a UN official in Darfur, the number of people recently rendered inaccessible by continuing violence had risen. "In May 2006, the humanitarian community had access
to almost everybody; now we do not have access to about half a million people," Mike McDonagh, north Sudan manager for the UN Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73532 SUDAN: Darfur rebels gather for talks, key figures yet to arrive Leaders of rebel groups from western Sudan arrived in the northern
Tanzanian town of Arusha on 3 August, ahead of talks aimed at securing common ground for fresh negotiations on Darfur with the Sudanese government, an official said. However, concerns remained that
one of the leaders, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), would not attend the talks. The group is influential in the crisis. It was also unclear if Suleiman
Jamous, another important leader from Darfur, would be at the meeting as he has been in a hospital in Kordofan for 13 months, and the government said he would be arrested should he try to leave.
Full
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