Highlights

Ethiopia- Failure of the last seasonal rains

The failure of the last seasonal rains has affected cereal and root crops as welll as livestock conditions. As a result, the number of emergency beneficiaries has increased from an estimated 2.2 million in April to 4.6 million in June 2008. The most affected areas are in SNNPR, Oromya ans Somalia regions. Deteriorating situations have also been reported in Afar and Amhara regions. Although the rains have recently improved and humanitarian interventions have been put in place, the emergency has not yet fully beem addressed.

SANAA, 24 June 2008 (IRIN) - Ministry of Agriculture field teams have been fighting an infestation of African armyworms which have attacked crops in several governorates since the end of May, officials told IRIN.

Armyworms are caterpillars that develop into nocturnal moths and can migrate thousands of kilometres, covering over 100km a night, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The armyworms attack cereals, grazing land and sugar cane.

Shihab al-Shamiri, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN they have spread to the governorates

SANAA, 22 June 2008 (IRIN) - Living conditions for displaced civilians caught in ongoing clashes between government forces and a Shia rebel group in Saada Governorate, northern Yemen, have worsened as diesel and food supplies there are dwindling, according to an opposition party official.

"There is no electricity and no water as a result of the lack of diesel. The city [of Saada] has been immersed in darkness for four days," Abdul-Aziz Ali, head of the Information and Political Department at the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party office in Saada, told IRIN on 20 June.

SANAA, 19 June 2008 (IRIN) - Health officials have started a campaign to persuade people to eat bread made of mixed grains and whole wheat in a bid to tackle malnutrition and counteract soaring wheat prices. Yemen imports some 95 percent of its wheat.

Ismael Muharram, head of the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Authority, said many consumers preferred white bread, which is devoid of bran, even though bran is nutritious and has a high fibre content, he said.

"Bran is generally used for animal fodder," he told IRIN.

Mixed grain bread is made of wheat and

SANAA, 18 June 2008 (IRIN) - The Yemeni authorities on 17 June moved to close arms markets and shops and arrest arms dealers throughout the country. A similar campaign in 2007 targeted shops selling weapons in the cities, but not in rural areas.

Ahmed Hayel, head of the Ministry of Interior's Information Centre, told IRIN the security authorities were closing arms shops and stopping dealers' activities for security reasons." This is an emergency security measure in the national interest," he said.

The campaign is taking place as clashes

SANA'A, June 15 - In an attempt to control the troubled areas of Bani Hushaish district in Sana'a governorate where a number of Houthi rebels took refuge, security authorities placed a blockade around the area on diesel and food products.

According to local sheikhs and citizens in the surrounded area, there are military checkpoints on all roads leading into the district, inhabited by over 75,000 people.

Security forces at the checkpoints prevent any diesel, used primarily for farming equipment like tractors, from entering

Situation générale en mai 2008

Prévisions jusqu'à'mi-juillet 2008

La situation relative au Criquet pèlerin a été généralement calme en mai, hormis quelques incertitudes relatives à des infestations acridiennes dans l'est de l'Éthiopie. Il existe un risque élevé que des criquets soient présents et se reproduisent dans l'Ogaden, ce qui pourrait entraîner l'apparition de bandes larvaires, voire de petits essaims. Tous les efforts sont requis pour entreprendre les opérations de prospection et de lutte nécessaires. Les effectifs acridiens ont diminué

SANAA, 5 June 2008 (IRIN) - Yemen's Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) has said it wants to achieve food security by way of a new plan that would also enable it to cope with current soaring food prices.

"The strategic plan would help us be prepared for any food crisis by organising our capacity to deal with the food crisis," Mohammed al-Himiari, adviser for food security affairs at MIT, told IRIN. He added that part of the plan was for the government to establish grain silos to store food stock for at least six months.

A number of ministries and government