Reuters August 19, 2011 Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA – Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki, accused by the West of supporting Somalia’s Islamist rebellion, denied on Thursday that his country backed the al Qaeda-affiliated group which has been waging a four-year insurgency in Somalia. The diplomatically isolated president, speaking in the Ugandan capital at the end of a [...]
Category Archives: UN
Sharp rise in mortality seen at refugee camp in southeast Ethiopia
August 24, 2011 – 12:29 am
UNHCR August 16, 2011 This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 16 August 2011, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. An assessment of mortality in one of four refugee camps at the Dollo Ado [...]
Ethiopia famine dwarfs Somalia’s tragedy in scale
August 24, 2011 – 12:24 am
Telegram August 17, 2011 Luc Van Kemenade HUNGER UNDER THE RADAR (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) A Somali man from southern Somalia constructs a makeshift shelter from tree branches at a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, today. SHEBEDINO, Ethiopia — Malnourished children are flocking into feeding centers in this forested corner of southern Ethiopia after a drought in [...]
Britain says 400,000 Somali children at risk of death
August 24, 2011 – 12:16 am
Reuters August 17, 2011 Ibrahim Mohamed MOGADISHU – Britain said on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of children could starve to death in Somalia if the international community did not ramp up its response to the famine there. Britain has already pledged more than 80 million pounds to help tackle what aid agencies are calling [...]
Cholera Outbreaks Spread Across Somalia, U.N. Says
August 16, 2011 – 4:17 pm
New York Times August 13, 2011 JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Thomas Mukoya/Reuters Refugees at Dolo Ado, near the Somalia-Ethiopia border, buried an 18-month-old girl who died of malnutrition and dehydration. NAIROBI, Kenya — A cholera epidemic is sweeping across Somalia, the United Nations said on Friday, as thousands of starving people flee famine zones and pack into [...]
Somalia: Rights group says all sides guilty of crime
August 16, 2011 – 4:03 pm
BBC August 14, 2011 HRW says Somalis are not being given the protection they are entitled to Human Rights Watch has said all sides in Somalia’s are guilty of serious violations of international law. The campaign group says civilians are bearing the brunt not just of a terrible famine but also a failure by any [...]
Council on Foreign Relations: Al-Shabaab and Somalia’s Spreading Famine
August 13, 2011 – 12:50 am
Council on Foreign Relations August 10, 2011 Interviewee: Rashid Abdi, Analyst, Horn of Africa, International Crisis Group Interviewer: Jayshree Bajoria, Senior Staff Writer The famine declared in five areas in southern Somalia is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks, according to the UN Office for [...]
Ethiopia rebuffs UN recommendation to halt dam construction over environmental concerns
August 13, 2011 – 12:45 am
Washington Post/AP August 11, 2011 ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopian officials say they will not heed the U.N.’s recommendation to halt construction on a dam that the world body says endangers a world heritage site. Project manager Azeb Asnake said Thursday that government impact studies found Gilgel Gibe III dam does not endanger Lake Turkana, [...]
UN calls for suspension of giant hydroelectric dam in Ethiopia
August 11, 2011 – 9:09 pm
Daily Nation, Kenya July 28, 2011 ARGAW ASHINE Addis Ababa – The United Nations has added its voice to the barrage of criticism on Ethiopia’s massive Gibe III hydropower project, calling for work to be suspended until the negative impacts of the dam have been determined. The World Heritage Committee, which establishes sites to be [...]
US Envoy Backs UN Sanctions On Eritrea
August 11, 2011 – 8:56 pm
Wall St. Journal August 10, 2011 Samuel Rubenfeld The U.S. threw its support to impose international sanctions on Eritrea for its alleged links to militant attacks, AFP reported. East African nations, led by rival Ethiopia, are lobbying for tougher measures against Eritrea, which first came under sanctions in 2009 (pdf). A United Nations monitoring group [...]