HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 361 for 27 January-
2 February, 2007
Source: IRIN
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NAIROBI, 3 February (IRIN) - CONTENTS: ETHIOPIA-YEMEN: 122 Ethiopians
deported after a month's detention
SOMALIA: Sisters doing it for themselves
SOMALIA: AU seeks troops for peace mission
SOMALIA: Puntland leader's plea for environment
SOMALIA: Families flee as
police targeted in worsening violence
SUDAN: Conscription of children, sexual abuse unabated in Darfur - UN envoy ETHIOPIA-YEMEN: 122 Ethiopians deported after a month's detention Yemeni
authorities deported 122 illegal migrants from Ethiopia along with 129 Somalis on 30 December, an official at the Immigration Authority said on condition of anonymity. This news ended a month's
speculation over the whereabouts and condition of these asylum seekers. "The 122 Ethiopians who entered the country illegally were deported after representatives from the Ethiopian Embassy in Sana'a
visited them and processed their documents," the Yemeni official told IRIN on Tuesday. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57260] SOMALIA: Sisters doing it for themselves Somali women are taking the initiative in the fight against AIDS with a programme to educate their peers in this conservative Muslim nation. An extensive consultative process, conducted by the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), led to the development of a women's training manual in the local Somali language, which trained women use to reach other women in their home towns. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57271] SOMALIA: AU seeks troops for peace mission The African Union's (AU) new chairman, President John Kufuor of Ghana, appealed on Tuesday to
African governments to contribute troops to a planned peace and stabilisation force for strife-town Somalia. "We need 8,000 troops; we only have 4,000 so far," Kufuor said at the end of the AU
summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the pan-African body is headquartered. The Ghanaian leader said Uganda, Malawi, Burundi, Ghana and Nigeria had expressed a willingness to contribute
to a peacekeeping force for Somalia. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57258] SOMALIA: Puntland leader's plea for environment The president of Somalia's self-declared
autonomous region of Puntland, Gen Mahmud Muse Hirsi, has appealed for help in tackling an environmental emergency caused by increased charcoal burning, which has been compounded by greater numbers of
displaced people since 1992. Hirsi said due to the influx of displaced people and drought-induced displacement of pastoral communities - which pushed them to urban areas - more acacia trees are
being burned for charcoal. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57247] SOMALIA: Families flee as police targeted in worsening violence The Somali capital of Mogadishu was
quiet on Monday, a day after government forces engaged heavily armed gunmen in the north of the city, as worsening violence forced families to flee the area, local sources told IRIN. According to an
update issued on Friday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "an estimated 1,000 people left Mogadishu in January 2007 due to fear of conflict and
instability".
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57229] SUDAN: Conscription of children, sexual abuse unabated in Darfur - UN envoy Boys in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region
are increasingly at risk of being recruited into armed groups, while sexual violence against girls is unabated, despite growing official awareness, a top United Nations envoy said on Thursday. Following visits to Darfur and the South Sudanese capital of Juba and meetings with top Sudanese government representatives, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN Special Representative to the
Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, told reporters in Khartoum that while Sudanese officials have made promises to reduce threats to children, little progress has been seen on the
ground. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=57284] ah
