Disaster

05/25/2012 13:07 GMT

MOGADISHU, May 25, 2012 (AFP) - African Union and Somali troops have captured the strategic town of Afgoye from Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents, who mostly fled in advance of the assault, an AU army spokesman said Friday.

"We have crossed the River Shabelle and we are now there in Afgoye, we hold the town," spokesman Paddy Ankunda told AFP. "We have been fighting since Tuesday to achieve this objective and we have achieved it now."

ADDIS ABABA, 25 May 2012 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are calling for more food assistance for areas in southern and northeastern Ethiopia where erratic rains have adversely affected the mid-February to May `Belg' crop.

"We have a very significant shortage of food in much of [the] `Belg' season dependent areas of the country particularly in SNNPR, [Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region]" Mike McDonagh, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ethiopia, told IRIN.

Nairobi, 25 May 2012 – The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, briefed the press today on the recent progress on the Somalia political process. The SRSG had just returned from three days of meetings and deliberations in Addis Ababa with the principal signatories of Roadmap for the End of Transition in Somalia. The meeting cleared many of the obstacles that have blocked the drafting and adoption of the provisional new Somali constitution and ending the transitional period on 20 August this year.

By Catherine Carter

It’s the night before I fly back into Mogadishu. I’ve developed a funny and slightly macabre ritual – pizza and beer with my friends here, and a phone call, one by one, to all the close family back home. Just in case.

The security briefings are a sobering reminder of what our team face every day in Somalia.

The security manager Graham spreads out a huge map and points out the locations of recent bombings and shootings. He tells me that the bombs tend to be IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

Press Release No:2012/474/SDN

Six Countries to Receive $177 Million to Increase Incomes, and Improve Food Security

WASHINGTON May 24, 2012 – Partners in the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a fund that supports country-led efforts to fight hunger and poverty, today announced that six countries will receive grants totaling $177 million. The grants – to Burundi, the Gambia, Kyrgyz Republic, Malawi, Senegal, and Tanzania – will help each country increase food security, raise rural incomes, and reduce poverty.

Millions of people living in the Baro-Akobo-Sobat (BAS) area of the Nile Basin are to benefit from a range of multi-purpose water resources projects to be planned by the Nile Basin Initiative. On May 4, the African Development Bank approved a €2 million grant from the African Water Facility to finance the development study needed to attract the investments required to implement them. The overall project is supported jointly by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development- Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF).

DSG/SM/617
AFR/2394

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the African Ambassadors’ Group on “Building on Africa’s Recent Progress”, in Washington, D.C., 23 May:

I am honoured to address this distinguished group. I feel very much at home. Every year on Africa Day, we recognize the people and promise of Africa.

• Second blast at camp in space of nine days

• At least three wounded (Adds details, background)

By Noor Ali

ISIOLO,Kenya, May 24 (Reuters) - At least three people were wounded in a suspected grenade attack at a hotel in a refugee camp in northeastern Kenya, police said on Thursday, nine days after another attack in the same location.

The attack occurred at a hotel in Hagadera in the Dadaab refugee camp. North Eastern Provincial Police Commander Leo Nyongesa, said the blast had wounded two people who had been rushed to hospital.

CBM through its partner SPARK facilitated the formation of groups of mothers with children with disabilities at the time of the drought by providing food rations and seeds to plant. Through the CBM post emergency community empowerment projects, the 38 members of the group have undergone various trainings to strengthen their capacity. The trainings included learning the importance of immunisation, nutritional needs for their children with disabilities, improved farming techniques and group dynamics.

Mothers day