HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 363 for 10-16 February, 2007
Source: IRIN
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NAIROBI, 16
February (IRIN) - CONTENTS: ERITREA: Campaign against FGM 'is working'
SOMALIA: Ugandan peacekeepers ready to deploy in Somalia
SOMALIA: African Union discusses peacekeeping mission
SOMALIA: Food
shortages in the south as insecurity increases
SUDAN: Military solution 'not an option' in Darfur
SUDAN: No let-up in attacks on Darfur aid agencies Also See:
SOMALIA: Mogadishu residents back to
living in constant danger ERITREA: Campaign against FGM 'is working' The Eritrean government and civil society have expressed optimism that efforts to combat female genital mutilation (FGM) were
bearing fruit, saying the campaign against the practice was gaining support in rural villages where excision was most common. "We do not have the statistics yet, but we have seen a positive
response, with even village councils coming up with their own provisional laws with the people's consensus to discourage the practice," Dehab Suleiman, the head of information and research at the
National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW), told IRIN on Wednesday.
[Full story] SOMALIA: Ugandan peacekeepers ready to deploy in Somalia The first batch of Ugandan troops is expected in Somalia
within a week as part of an African peace-support mission after the parliament voted in favour of sending soldiers to support efforts to restore stability in the strife-torn Horn of Africa country,
officials said. The 1,500 Ugandan soldiers will be part of a 8,000-strong force that the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) want deployed in Somalia to help
the fledgling Transitional Federal Government (TFG) restore law and order.
[Full story] SOMALIA: African Union discusses peacekeeping mission Plans to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia have moved
into top gear, with the African Union looking at initially deploying three operational battalions from Uganda and Nigeria, officials said. "Our focus is on the deployment of those three first
battalions," Said Djinnit, AU commissioner for Peace and Security, said on Monday.
[Full story] SOMALIA: Food shortages in the south as insecurity increases Families in Somalia's Middle Juba
region in the south are consuming seeds meant for planting because of food shortages, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Somalia reports. A recent trip to
the region by a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported a "highly alarming humanitarian and livelihood situation", said OCHA Somalia. The report estimated that "20,000
families need urgent assistance" in the districts of Jamaame, Lower Juba region, and in Jilib, Middle Juba.
[Full story] SUDAN: Military solution 'not an option' in Darfur A military
solution is not an option in ending the crisis in Darfur, according to United Nations and African Union officials. Instead, the parties to the Darfur conflict must agree to a peace process. "There
is an acknowledgement that there is simply no military solution to the Darfur crisis," the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Sudan, Jan Eliasson, told reporters in the Sudanese capital,
Khartoum, on Thursday.
[Full story] SUDAN: No let-up in attacks on Darfur aid agencies NAIROBI, 12 February 2007 (IRIN) - Attacks against international non-governmental organisations and
humanitarian workers in the Sudanese region of North Darfur have created "an unsustainable level of insecurity" for operations, relief workers said on Monday. The European Union Council, in a
statement issued from Brussels, said it was alarmed by the impact of the deteriorating security situation on the humanitarian and human rights situation in Darfur.
[Full story] ah/eo
