ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN deploys military
observers
The first deployment of 46 UN military
observers in Ethiopia and Eritrea has begun as part of the effort to end
the war between the two nations which broke out in 1998.
"We just spoke with the mission, which confirmed the arrivals of seven military observers - four in Asmara, Eritrea, and three others in Addis Ababa," a UN spokesman told the press at UN headquarters in New York. According to the UN, once deployed in the two capitals, the observers would undergo a four-day training programme before being posted to operational positions in the demilitarized zones with effect from 22 September.
The UN announcement follows the establishment of military liaison offices at the outset of the mission in both Addis Ababa and Asmara, in accordance with the 31 July Security Council resolution to set up the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea with up to 100 military observers. The Security Council was expected to adopt a resolution next week authorising the establishment of a peacekeeping mission to the region, as recommended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his most recent report on the situation in the two countries.
ETHIOPIA-KENYA: World Bank approves millions in AIDS assistance
Ethiopia and Kenya are set to become the first two African countries to receive AIDS assistance in the form of a soft loan from the World Bank.
The bank has approved US $500 million in credits to help Africa combat AIDS, with the first recipients to benefit being Ethiopia and Kenya. The two countries would receive US $59.7 million and US $50 million respectively, according to the 13 September AP report.
"Last April we promised that no sensible AIDS programme would want for funding," said Bank President James Wolfensohn in a statement on Tuesday night announcing the credit. "Today we deliver on that promise," the report said. An estimated 25 million of the world's 34.5 million AIDS victims live in Africa and some 15 million Africans had already died, it said, adding that UN experts had estimated African countries would need US $1 billion to US $3 billion a year to fight the disease.
African countries would use the credit to increase prevention campaigns, establish treatment programmes and deal with the burdens they would face as millions with the HIV virus develop AIDS over the next decade.
ERITREA: USAID's humanitarian crisis fact sheet
According to the latest USAID Eritrean humanitarian crisis fact sheet, the UNHCR estimates that approximately one million Eritreans have been internally displaced as a result of the border conflict with Ethiopia. The UNHCR stated that between 90 and 95 percent of those currently displaced were women and children. The UN also reported that about 335,000 people were affected by the drought in Eritrea. The report, dated 11 September, examines the current situation in Eritrea and the US government's response in terms of both emergency food aid and non-food relief activities.
[To read a complete copy of this report see: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/ae62076e 6f3bb411c1256958002d9b93?OpenDocument]
SUDAN: Albright lobbies against Sudan for Security Council seat
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has been lobbying other UN members to back US efforts to bar Sudan from representing Africa on the UN Security Council.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, citing UN reports that Khartoum had bombed areas in the country where UN relief operations are based, described the African nation an "unsuitable candidate", according to an AP report on Wednesday.
The report said that in addition to Britain, France, Kuwait and others, Albright had raised the issue of Sudan's unsuitability with the foreign ministers of several African countries. The Organisation of African Unity as a rule picks an African country to take up a rotating seat on the council for the following year, with the General Assembly customarily approving the choice of the regional group. The report added, however, that Egypt, one of the countries Albright had approached, favoured Sudan's candidacy.
According to the report, an estimated two million people had been killed as a result of fighting, starvation and disease during the 17 years of the war waged by the Khartoum government against the south. Sudan was regarded by State Department officials as having one of Africa's worst human rights records, it added.
SUDAN: Women demonstrate in Khartoum
A Reuters report has reported that three women were injured and 26 arrested when police used teargas and batons to break up a demonstration in Khartoum against a decree banning women from working in public places such as restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and petrol stations.
According to the report, dozens of women representing women's groups and civil societies had been holding a peaceful protest on Monday to protest against the decree when they were attacked by police. Many women had condemned the decree, claiming it violated their constitutional rights and rendered them unemployed at a time when it was difficult to get jobs, the report said. It added, however, the constitutional court had earlier, on Saturday, suspended the implementation of the decree after petitions had been filed by several women and human rights groups.
SOMALIA: World Vision activity in Bay Region
Returning to Somalia's Bay Region last year after an absense of four years, World Vision's activities have expanded. World Vision told IRIN on Thursday that it had renovated and equipped a new health centre in the region's Buur Hakaba District, where as many as a quarter of the children were shown to be malnourished by a pre-harvest assessment earlier this year. Staff for the DFID-funded project were working with UNICEF to monitor the nutritional status in the district, while targeting more than 15,000 vulnerable women, children and infants for primary health care. At the same time a joint TB project in Baidoa town, run by World Vision in conjunction with the WHO, was about to start.
Meanwhile, an evaluation of an agricultural project run in Bay Region by World Vision on behalf of FAO had been positive. Somalia programme director Girma Begashaw, however, warned that health and nutritional status there and in Buur Hakhaba remained a cause for concern. "Years of chaos in Baidoa and the regions around have devastated the health system, and women and children are suffering particularly badly," said Begashaw. He added: "In the long run we need to help the local health services to be equipped to manage the health problems in the district by themselves."
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