NAIROBI, 23 November 2007 (IRIN) -

CONTENTS

ETHIOPIA: Six more NGOs to operate in Somali region SOMALIA: New prime minister named SOMALIA: Exodus continues as IDPs surpass one million

SOMALIA: "The voice for the voiceless is no more" SUDAN: Darfur peace talks now extend to four locations SUDAN-ETHIOPIA: Thousands of Sudanese to return from Ethiopia in 2008

ETHIOPIA: Six more NGOs to operate in Somali region

More aid agencies – including three medical organisations - have been approved to operate in the troubled Somali region of Ethiopia.

Mercy Corps, International Medical Corps and Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland, as well as Italian agency Coopi, Mother and Child Development Organization and German Agro Action, have been accredited by the government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA). Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75402

SOMALIA: New prime minister named

Nur Hassan Hussein, popularly known as Nur Ade, has been appointed Somalia's new prime minister by President Abdullahi Yusuf. Hussein, in his 70s, replaces Ali Mohamed Gedi who resigned on 29 October.

A Lawyer by training, Hussein is a former police colonel who, until his appointment, had been the secretary-general of the Somali Red Crescent Society since 1991. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75453

SOMALIA: Exodus continues as IDPs surpass one million

Despite a lull in fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, hundreds of families are still fleeing the city, joining what the UN has estimated to be one million displaced people (IDPs).

"Many families are leaving because they don't believe the current break in the fighting will last," a civil society source in Mogadishu, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 21 November. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75430

SOMALIA: "The voice for the voiceless is no more"

A popular Somali aid worker, described by her colleagues as a champion of the vulnerable and disadvantaged, has died after she was hit by a stray bullet while distributing food at camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

Madina Mahamud Ilmi, a mother of nine in her late 50s, was seriously wounded in the accident on 15 November and died the next day at the Medina hospital, her colleague Abdullahi Shirwa told IRIN. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75379

SUDAN: Darfur peace talks now extend to four locations

The UN and African Union (AU) mediated Darfur peace talks have spread beyond the Libyan town of Sirte in efforts to get all key groups on board, according to a UN official.

"Although we cannot as yet set the exact time for full-blown negotiations, meetings are now ongoing in Sirte [the original venue of the talks] as well as in Darfur, Khartoum and Juba," George Ola Davies, spokesman of the UN-AU Joint Mediation Support Team, told IRIN. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75376

SUDAN-ETHIOPIA: Thousands of Sudanese to return from Ethiopia in 2008

Close to 30,000 Southern Sudanese who fled the country's 21-year long north-south war are to return home from camps in neighbouring Ethiopia during 2008 as part of an agreement between the governments of the two countries and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), signed on 22 November in Khartoum.

"More than 41,000 Sudanese currently live in four camps in Ethiopia and we are repatriating refugees from all of them," Ato Ayalew Aweke, deputy director of Ethiopia's Administration of Refugee and Returnee Affairs, said at a press conference following the signing of the tripartite agreement. "We are hoping to have closed two camps in Gambella [region of western Ethiopia] by the end of 2008." The remaining 11,000 refugees are scheduled to be repatriated by the end of 2009. Full report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75471

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