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  • 07/05/2010 - BRITISH RED CROSS
    May 2010 Visit our website Tell us what you think

    Find out how we are helping:

    > Red Cross Appeal Week now on!

    > Help for people in Mongolia

    > Do you know a young hero?

    > Join us for the Berlin Marathon

    Dear Mr Tzanos

    Did you know the Red Cross ...

  • 06/02/2010 - SOUTHERN AFRICA: Snapshot of food security.
    JOHANNESBURG, 5 February (IRIN) - Economic conditions in most southern African countries declined as a result of the global recession, pushing many more people towards greater food insecurity. According to a new food security update which focused on some southern African countries, food prices have risen and are still climbing in several countries.

    The price of most fertilizers dou...

  • 05/02/2010 - SUDAN : Mixed success on Malaria control in the South.
    JUBA, 4 February (IRIN) - More than four million insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) have been distributed across Southern Sudan since 2007, but universal coverage of treatment remains a long way off, according to experts.

    The region is, however, likely to achieve preventive targets set by African heads of state in 2000 at a summit in Abuja, Nigeria. These include at least 80 pe...

  • 02/02/2010 - SOMALIA : My farm \
    ABUDA, 2 February (IRIN) - Mohamed Olhaye Nour, 60, last cultivated his farm in Abuda, 24km southwest of Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, more than two decades ago.

    "Before the war, our life was good; we did not worry about making ends meet," he said. "In an average year, our crop production was about 40-50 `jawan' (one `jawan' = 100kg sack of maize and sorghum mixed together...

  • 01/02/2010 - NEWS - UP DATES
    With regret we have to inform all persons concerned that the company Web2Net Solutions where our domaine is hosted, last month, had a major server crash down and all our NEWS up dates for the period 01 JULY 2006 till 31 JANUARY 2010 have been lost and cannot be retrieved.

    All other details have not been effected.

    The Secretary

    ...

  • 01/02/2010 - DONATIONS
    Because the daily records have been lost we like to confirn that ALL donations received in 2005, 06,07,08,& 2009 for account of the Fistula Hospital or the Children Heart Hospital have been paid in FULL into their accounts.

    ...

  • 21/07/2006 - ETHIOPIA. Incresed efforts to prevent blindness
    Former US President Bill Clinton (middle) at a health centre during his recent visit to Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA, 21 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - The Ethiopian government is to increase efforts to prevent and treat blindness, which afflicts a large number of people across the country, said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

    Meles was speaking after visiting a cataract surgery training programme provided...

  • 14/07/2006 - WORLD BANK PLEDGES CONTINUED SUPPORT
    ETHIOPIA: The World Bank will continue supporting Ethiopia's development efforts, President Paul Wolfowitz said on Wednesday, expressing confidence that the country was recovering from the political upheaval that caused major donors to suspend direct budgetary support last year.

    "I think there is more reason to feel confident that people are learning the right lessons from the experien...

  • 14/07/2006 - ETHIOPIA: Fourteen dead as diarrhoea hits Oromiya region
    An outbreak of acute diarrhoea has claimed the lives of 14 people in the Oromiya region of southern Ethiopia, where more than 530 cases of the disease have been reported in the past two weeks, a United Nations agency said.

    Cases had been reported in the East Shoa zone of the region, with the worst-hit areas being Shashemene, Siraro and Arsi Negele, the UN Office for the Coordination of H...

  • 30/06/2006 - DJIBOUTI - Drought-affected pastoralists facing tough times
    NAIROBI, 30 June (IRIN) - Cattle farmers in Djibouti are facing an uncertain future due to continuing drought conditions and a lack of long-term planning for pastoralists in the Horn of Africa state, an early warning agency said.

    "In the absence of long-term measures to protect and restore livelihoods [...] pastoral livelihoods are in real jeopardy," reported the Famine Early Warning Sys...

  • 30/06/2006 - ERITREA- Measles vaccination campaign launched.
    NAIROBI, 30 June (IRIN) - A nationwide measles vaccination campaign aimed at children aged 6-months to five-years against has been launched in Eritrea, the health ministry has announced.

    The campaign began on Wednesday and is expected to last until 2 July. It is hoped that five million children will benefit from the campaign, which also involves the distribution of Vitamin A tablets. Par...

  • 30/06/2006 - ETHIOPIA - Bunper crop harvest expected next year.
    Ethiopians should expect a bumper crop harvest next year due to good rains and an improved use of fertilizers, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has promised.

    "We are better prepared than ever to make good use of the good rains we now have and we have imported more fertilizer then ever [...] and the regional extensions [systems that] provide technical assistance are better organised," Meles to...

  • 30/06/2006 - ETHIOPIA - Avain flu contingency plan approved.
    Ethiopia's national avian flu coordination committee has approved a multi-million dollar contingency plan to strengthen preparedness in the event of the disease spreading to the Horn of Africa country.

    The three-year plan, costing almost US $124 million, was prepared by the Avian Human Influenza National Coordination Committee. It includes the creation of surveillance systems, stockpilin...

  • 14/06/2006 - TESTIMONIES FROM ETHIOPIANS
    NAIROBI, 14 June (IRIN) - Mohamed, 27, former soldier, from Ethiopia

    I joined the military when I was 20 and was immediately posted north, first to Humera on the Sudan border. I stayed in the military for seven years, and I was injured in the Ethiopia-Eritrea war, in Badme. A bomb blast injured my face. When the war finished, I wanted to see my family. I was ...

  • 14/06/2006 - TESTOMONIES FROM SOMALIA
    NAIROBI, 14 June (IRIN) - With life in Somalia offering so little comfort and hope, some migrants risk crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, not just once, but time and time again. More than 5,000 Somalis registered as refugees in Yemen in the first four months of 2006, and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) believes many more travelled on, making their way to Saudi Arabia.

  • 14/06/2006 - TRAGIC CARGO PART TWO.
    NAIROBI, 14 June (IRIN) - Tragic Cargo, Part Two: This is the second part of a two-part Special Report by IRIN on the Somali and Ethiopian migrants who undertake a treacherous journey in small fishing boats from the tip of the Horn of Africa to the Arabian peninsula

    NAIROBI, 9 June (IRIN) - Raho Rasoni's home is made of sticks, cardboard and scraps of faded material. It is a poor shelter...

  • 05/05/2006 - WATERY DIARRHOEA CASES ON THE RISE
    ETHIOPIA: Watery diarrhoea cases on the rise Watery diarrhoea has claimed the lives of 10 people and infected more than 1,400 others in the Gambella regional state in western Ethiopia since 15 April, said Turuwork Tafesse, director of disease surveillance for the country?s health ministry.

    "We suspect cholera, but we haven't confirmed it yet," Turuwork said, adding that samples had bee...

  • 05/05/2006 - SOMALIA. APPEAL LAUNCHED TO STOP SPREAD OF POLIO.
    Health officials have warned that ongoing vaccination campaigns in Somalia, which has seen 202 children infected with polio since July 2005, must be sustained to prevent the disease spreading to neighbouring countries.

    "It must be kept in mind that despite all these other emergencies, we still have a funding gap in the polio campaign," said Marjatta Tolvanen-Ojutangas, the head of the he...

  • 05/05/2006 - NEW STRAW TO KILL DISEASE AS YOU DRINK.
    BBC NEWS 04 MAY 2006

    The LifeStraw is used in some places direct from the river A new straw that purifies water as it is drunk is hoped to be part of a solution to water-borne disease killing thousands in developing countries. Water from most sources can be drunk if done so through the LifeStraw say the makers of the product.

    Created by Danish innovator Torben Vestergaard ...

  • 02/05/2006 - Horn of Africa Invest in development to reduce drought vulnerability - UN envoy
    ADDIS ABABA, 2 May (IRIN) - In a pledge of continued cooperation between his country and Africa, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for reforms to the United Nations Security Council to make it more representative of member states.

    "We must realise UN Security Council reform without delay so that the African voice is heard more in the Security Council," Koizumi said during...

  • 28/04/2006 - ETHIOPIA launches anti-malaria plan
    Ethiopia has launched a five-year malaria treatment and prevention plan at cost of US $447 million in an effort to lessen the burden of the disease, one of the leading causes of illness and death in the Horn of Africa country, the health ministry has said.

    The plan, which the government distributed to its partners on Tuesday, is intended to provide early diagnosis and treatment services ...

  • 28/04/2006 - SOMALIA : NEW MALARIA THERAPY INTRODUCED
    A new malaria treatment, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), is being introduced in Somalia to combat the disease, one of the leading causes of death among children and women in the Horn of Africa country, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

    ...

  • 28/04/2006 - SOMALIA : SEVEN KILLED.
    At least seven people were killed and scores wounded as rival armed groups fought on Sunday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, displacing dozens of families.

    The violence erupted in Hamarweyne district in south Mogadishu when local residents opposed the setting up of a checkpoint by armed militias reportedly loyal to Mogadishu faction leader Abdi Nure Siyad, also known as "Abdi Wal".

  • 28/04/2006 - ERITREA: UN envoy urges stronger links between Govt, agencies.
    The United Nations special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, Kjell Magne Bondevik, has called for the strengthening of cooperation between the Eritrean government and humanitarian organisations in a bid to improve food security in the Horn of Africa country, one of several in the region affected by drought.

    "There is a need for more effective dialogue and enhanced cooperation on...

  • 20/04/2006 - ANTI-POLIO CAMPAIGN
    ETHIOPIA: Anti-polio campaign targets five million children

    Following the recent confirmation of polio cases in Ethiopia, local health authorities in collaboration with the United Nations and other agencies will embark on a second round of a four-day vaccination campaign to stem the spread of the polio virus in identified high-risk regions in the north and east of the country, officials ...

  • 13/04/2006 - vaccin against measles
    TUKA, 13 Apr 2006 (IRIN) - Diramu Arero had waited since early morning along with dozens of other mothers and their babies in front of Tuka's small health centre in drought-stricken southern Ethiopia to get her child vaccinated against measles.

    Having lost her youngest child to the disease during the last major drought five years ago, Diramu was determined this time to get her little one...

  • 10/04/2006 - Funding shortfalls could worsen humanitarian situation
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 April (IRIN) - The Ethiopian government and humanitarian organisations have expressed concern about the slow donor response to the drought crisis in the Horn of Africa nation, where nutrition and water needs are severely underfunded.

    "On the non-food items, around 82 percent is still missing," said Wodayehu Belew, fundraising team leader for the Ethiopian government's De...

  • 07/04/2006 - UNMEE ENVOY LEAVES. NEW FORCE COOMANDER APPOINTED.
    ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: The top United Nations envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea expressed both regret and determination in his farewell remarks on Thursday. "I leave with sadness that the border has not been demarcated, but with pride that I have led this mission for five-and-a-half years, even under difficult circumstances," said Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the outgoing special representative of the Secre...
  • 07/04/2006 - FIRST TWO PRIVATE RADIO STATIONS
    ETHIOPIA: Gov't licenses first two private radio stations

    Residents of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, heard their first independent radio broadcast on Tuesday morning, after authorities issued licences to the East African nation's first two privately owned radio stations.

    The proprietor of Zami Public Connections, Mimi Sebhatu, had been waiting for her broadcast licence fo...

  • 07/04/2006 - SOMALIA - DISPLACED FAMILIES.
    SOMALIA: Displaced families in Mogadishu in dire conditions - rights group

    The main human rights group in Somalia, the Mogadishu-based Isma'il Jim'ale Human Rights Centre (IJHRC), has called on Somalis and the international community to come to the aid of hundreds of families displaced by recent fighting in the capital city.

    "Hundreds of families are either sheltering with rel...

  • 06/04/2006 - DEAD BIRDS TEST NEGATIVE FOR H5N1 VIRUS
    ETHIOPIA: ADDIS ABABA, 6 April (IRIN) - Final laboratory tests on birds suspected of having died of the H5N1 avian flu virus in Ethiopia in March are negative, according to health officials.

    "We were informed on Tuesday by the Italian-based laboratory that the avian flu has not been detected in the samples. We have been waiting eagerly for over a month to know the final results of the ...

  • 07/02/2006 - IT IS NOT THE RAINS IN ETHIOPIA YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT,BUT WHETHER IT RAINS IN AMERICA OR CANADA.
    ETHIOPIA: Struggling to end food aid dependency

    ADDIS ABABA, 7 February (IRIN) - There is a joke told in Ethiopia that encapsulates the country's struggle with food aid dependency. In it, two subsistence farmers are talking about the year's poor rains and the impact on their harvests.

    The older, his face and hands worn from a lifetime of hard work, turns to his younger friend...

  • 20/01/2006 - ETHIOPIA. SOUTHEASTERN REGION RAVAGED BY DROUGHT
    DENAN, 20 January (IRIN) - For a two-year-old child, Bishir Arab should be twice his weight, but severe malnutrition has seen his body weight plummet to just six kilogrammes.

    Too exhausted to show any emotion, Bishir was one of many children hospitalised in Gode, some 75 km southwest of Denan, southeastern Ethiopia. From a handful of children initially brought in for treatment, the numbe...

  • 19/01/2006 - UK IMPOSES ETHIOPIAN AID SACTION
    Clashes between police and protesters followed last year's polls The UK has ended unconditional aid to the Ethiopian government over concerns about its commitment to human rights. All aid will now be earmarked for specific projects, UK Development Minister Hilary Benn announced on a visit to Ethiopia.

    Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was once seen as a key British ally.

  • 03/01/2006 - SOMALI GOVERNMENT SET TO RELOCATE.
    Somali government set to relocate The speaker and president are continuing in talks in Yemen Somalia's interim government is close to agreeing to relocate to the capital, at talks with rivals in Yemen. The president and speaker, who have been in dispute over the issue, initialled an agreement which could be finalised in Yemen on Wednesday.

    Yemeni officials say that if the deal...

  • 02/01/2006 - ETHIOPIA : Halt in budget support will effect the poor, minister says.
    U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving the humanitarian community

    1 - ETHIOPIA: Halt in budget support will affect the poor, minister says ADDIS ABABA, 30 December (IRIN) - Ethiopia's finance minister, Sufyan Ahmed, has said that the poor in his country would suffer if ...

  • 30/12/2005 - DJIBOUTI : Food insecurity worsens as dry spell peersists.
    The delayed onset of the October-February rainy season in Djibouti has led to worsening food insecurity in pastoral areas due to lack of pasture and water in the coastal dry period grazing areas, a famine alert agency has reported.

    Milk production and livestock sales were far below seasonal average levels, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said in its month...

  • 30/12/2005 - ETHIOPIA - Donors withold budget support to government.
    Donors have put on hold US $375 million in budget support to the Ethiopian government because of a crackdown on opposition supporters, development officials said Thursday. They said the money would be diverted to other programmes in the country.

    "Until the situation gets better we will look to disburse funds in other ways, but we are not going to halt aid to the country because it is one...

  • 30/12/2005 - ETHIOPIA : A million people in southeast face extreme food insecurfity.
    At least one million people in southeastern Ethiopia are facing extreme food insecurity following a prolonged drought, a famine early warning agency reported on Thursday, saying the crisis had sparked conflicts over scarce water and pasture.

    There had also been reports of some children dying of hunger-related causes, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said. ...

  • 29/12/2005 - ETHIOPIA THREATENED WITH AID CUTS
    Many of the country's opposition leaders are now in jail Western donors are considering withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia, after a recent crackdown on the opposition and the press. The sum of $375m in direct funding for Ethiopian government programmes is reported to be under review.

    More than 80 opposition leaders and journalists were in court in Addis Ababa this we...

  • 29/12/2005 - SOMALIA : COUGHT IN THE STORM
    SPECIAL NEWS FROM : MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERS.

    Since 1991, Somalia has been a state with no government. Fourteen years of conflict have left the country with enormous humanitarian needs and a high level of everyday violence. MSF was running health care projects in the capital, Mogadishu, as well as northern Somalia when war broke out, having begun working in the country in 1986.

    ...

  • 29/12/2005 - BBC NEWS. ETHIOPIA THREATENED WITH AID CUTS.
    Many of the country's opposition leaders are now in jail Western donors are considering withholding millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia, after a recent crackdown on the opposition and the press. The sum of $375m in direct funding for Ethiopian government programmes is reported to be under review.

    More than 80 opposition leaders and journalists were in court in Addis Ababa this we...

  • 25/10/2005 - AFRICA AIDS ORPHANS
    Africa Aids orphans 'may top 18m' Sub-Saharan Africa will be the main focus of the campaign UN charity Unicef says 18 million children in sub-Saharan Africa could be orphaned by Aids by the end of 2010. It also says that every minute, a child is infected with HIV and another child dies from an Aids-related illness.

    The charity says children are being overlooked in the global f...

  • 30/09/2005 - MAIN OPPOSITION COALITION MERGES TO FORM PARTY.
    The four parties that make up Ethiopia's largest opposition alliance, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) have merged to form one party, an official of the coalition said on Thursday.

    The All Ethiopia Unity Party, the Union of Ethiopia Democracy Party, Rainbow Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Democratic League announced their unification on Saturday. Members of the new party elected H...

  • 22/09/2005 - ETHIOPIA. Six million at risk of Malaria Epidemic.
    NAIROBI, 22 September (IRIN) - Some six million Ethiopians, most of them children, are threatened by a potential malaria epidemic, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) cautioned.

    In its latest update on Ethiopia, the agency said it needed close to US $22 million to prevent tens of thousands of additional deaths.

    "UNICEF urgently needs $21.9 million to fight Ethiopia's looming malar...

  • 15/09/2005 - HORN OF AFRICA CRISIS. Polio Vaccintion campaign targets 34 millions kids
    NAIROBI, 14 September (IRIN) - The UN-backed Global Polio Eradication Initiative has launched a new campaign to vaccinate more than 34 million children in the Horn of Africa against the polio virus amid concern that the crippling disease was re-emerging in the region.

    The new plan follows the confirmation of a polio case in Somalia, a country that had been polio-free since 2002, the UN W...

  • 14/09/2005 - AKIS DRINK
    How I look after my Health

    We are a few friends who with the age have developed some problems either with the Prostate or Kidneys (as my self)

    My case started in the beginning of March 2003 when I noticed blood in my urine. I went to my doctor who after a small examination in his clinic, he believed that on my left kidney I had a lamp and water. He immediately refer me to th...

  • 29/08/2005 - UN envoy calls for greater flexibility in providing AID
    ADDIS ABABA, 29 August (IRIN) - Greater flexibility in providing aid to Ethiopia is needed to tackle widespread hunger and underdevelopment in the region, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa, Martti Ahtisaari, said on Sunday.

    "Our difficulties now are in the non-food [area]," he said.

    While donors had provided more t...

  • 29/08/2005 - HORN OF AFRICA CRISIS
    NAIROBI, 29 August (IRIN) - Some 90,000 Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees living in eastern Sudan could go hungry unless more money is found to fill a 47-percent funding gap in a feeding programme for them, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.

    "Food distributions to the refugees are in real danger of being scaled down or even interrupted because of the lack of funds, and becau...

  • 25/08/2005 - ETHIOPIA. Three million in need of emergency food Aid - WFP -
    ADDIS ABABA, 25 August (IRIN) - More than three million Ethiopians face food shortages this year unless they receive emergency food aid, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

    "Ethiopia has had five major droughts in just two decades, causing untold deaths, suffering and hardship," Mohamed Diab, head of WFP in the capital, Addis Ababa, said.

    His comments came on t...

  • 23/08/2005 - HORN OF AFRICA CRISIS
    ADDIS ABABA, 23 August (IRIN) - The UN Special Envoy for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa, Martti Ahtisaari, began an eight day visit to the region on Monday to assess prospects for long-term food security.

    The former Finnish president began his visit in Eritrea where food shortages have left more than 2.3 million people in need of aid.

    While 80 percent of the Erit...

  • 19/08/2005 - DJIBOUTI- Precarious food situation in rutal areas
    NAIROBI, 19 August (IRIN) - The food situation in rural areas of Djibouti is precarious and there is a need to accelerate emergency food distribution in the tiny Horn of Africa country, an early warning network has reported.

    "Prices for staple foods and non-foods are increasing significantly, with negative impacts on poor households in both rural and urban areas," the USAID-funded Famine...

  • 27/07/2005 - ASMARA- NATURAL DISASTERS STRIKE COMMUNITIES
    ASMARA, 27 July (IRIN) - Of all the natural disasters that strike communities and environments, a drought can be the most devastating. If it develops into a full-blown famine or forces people to leave their homes or become dependent on external food aid, drought becomes a humanitarian crisis.

    Unlike the more dramatic "acts of God", such as volcanoes, earthquakes or tsunamis, the full im...

  • 26/07/2005 - OGADEN REGION - SERIES OF GRENADE ATTACKS
    ADDIS ABABA, 26 July (IRIN) - A series of grenade attacks on Sunday that killed five people in Ethiopia's Somali region was designed to disrupt forthcoming elections there, officials said.

    Simultaneous attacks occurred in six places across the region, said Ali Mohammed Kunaye, speaker of the Somali regional parliament, whose home was among those attacked.

    "These attacks are an...

  • 25/07/2005 - OGADEN REBEL GROUP OFFERS TO END WAR.
    An armed rebel group waging a bloody guerrilla war in lawless eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday offered a truce to end its decade-old fight against the government. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) offered peace talks in a neutral country to try to bring an end to the fighting that has plagued this arid region. The decision was announced in a statement following an exchange of letters between ...
  • 22/07/2005 - Waiting for election results
    ADDIS ABABA, 22 July (IRIN) - Two months after more than 25 million Ethiopians went to the polls in the country's third ever national election on 15 May, it is still not clear who won or lost the ballot.

    As each day passes, claims and counterclaims emanate from rival political parties, the tone and rhetoric causing anxiety across the country.

    On Thursday the national election b...

  • 22/07/2005 - SOMALIA. Houses to be built for TSUNAMI survivors
    SOMALIA: Houses to be built for tsunami survivors

    Four hundred housing units are to be built for survivors of the December 2004 tsunami in Hafun town, northeastern Somalia in a joint programme between the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). The 12-month project that begins in August will reconstruct houses, public buildings and sanitation faci...

  • 22/07/2005 - ERITREA- OXFAM GIVING SEEDS AND TOOLS TO HOUSEHOLD
    1 - ERITREA: Oxfam giving seeds and tools to households

    NAIROBI, 22 July (IRIN) - Some 5,301 Eritrean families in areas of the country worst affected by recurrent drought will benefit from an Oxfam programme to provide them with seeds, fertiliser and agricultural tools, the British charity said.

    "For the past five years, the cumulative effects of recurrent drought, in addition ...

  • 01/02/2005 - SOMALIA- Tsunami survivors need help to overcome the trauma.
    HAFUN PENINSULA, 28 January (IRIN) - Nurfo Ibrahim Mudey, a 27-year-old widow and mother of four, is still unable to go to the shore where her home once stood in the Somali hamlet of Hafun, destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December. Her husband and her six-month-old baby drowned when the surging waves swamped their house.

    "I do not want to see the sea again because it remi...

  • 01/02/2005 - Mr Blair launches appeal for Africa
    U2 singer Bono (right) joined Mr Blair to plead Africa's case Africa's poverty is "a scar on the conscience of the world", UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He criticised global leaders for neglecting Africa, saying there would be an outcry if another part of the world was to suffer similar problems.

    He appealed for more aid for A...

  • 01/02/2005 - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and rock star Bon joined forces an attempt to focus the world spotlight on the plight of Africa
    DAVOS, Switzerland -- UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and rock star Bono joined forces Thursday in Davos an attempt to focus the world spotlight on the plight of Africa.

    The three men were sharing a platform at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort where 2,250 political and business leaders have gathered to address key issues facing the world ...

  • 21/01/2005 - AFAR REGIONS - DROUGHT INCREASING LIVESTGOCK DEATHS.
    Increasing livestock deaths are threatening the livelihood of nomadic pastoralists in Ethiopia's drought-hit Afar region, the UN and aid agencies said on Tuesday.

    Paul Herbert, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia, said drought had continued to whittle away the assets of Afar pastoralists. It was vital, he added, to prevent more livestock deaths ...

  • 20/01/2005 - THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE TSUNAMI HAD ALREADY BEEN DISPLACED.
    GARACAD, 20 January (IRIN) - Thousands of people affected by the tsunami in Somalia had already been displaced by years of successive drought from their areas of origin and had moved to the coastal areas in search of opportunities, a report released by the Somali government and various agencies said.

    "They [had] lost their livestock in the drought and the rest of the animals were de...

  • 20/01/2005 - SOMALIA-THOUSANDS OF TSUNAMI SURNIVIVORS WERE DISPLACED PEOPLE.
    GARACAD, 20 January (IRIN) - Thousands of people affected by the tsunami in Somalia had already been displaced by years of successive drought from their areas of origin and had moved to the coastal areas in search of opportunities, a report released by the Somali government and various agencies said.

    "They [had] lost their livestock in the drought and the rest of the animals were decima...

  • 10/01/2005 - MR BLAIR TO MAKE TSUNAMI STATEMENT
    UK soldiers have been clearing up debris in Sri Lanka and elsewhere Prime Minister Tony Blair is to make a statement to the Commons on the Asian tsunami, including an update on the British death toll. His statement to MPs will also include details of the UK's contribution to the relief effort so far.

    So far 50 Britons have died with 391 more likely to have died. The total death toll...

  • 10/01/2005 - ETHIOPIAN ORPHANS
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 January (IRIN) - Wrapped in a bundle of warm blankets and lucky to be alive, four-month-old Thomas Bekele still faces a precarious future.

    Orphaned three weeks ago when his mother died from tuberculosis, he is one of the almost five million orphans in Ethiopia - a mushrooming crisis that the government warned was "tearing apart the social fabric" of the country.

  • 07/01/2005 - SOMAILA - SHELTER MATERIALS BEING SENT TO TSUMANI AFFACTED AREAS.
    NAIROBI, 7 January (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency is to ship a consignment of shelter materials and other non-food items this weekend to people left homeless in Somalia by the tsunami that also wreaked havoc in South Asia on 26 December.

    "UNHCR has taken charge of the shelter aspect of the operation [in Somalia], targeting 5,000 households," the agency's spokesman in Nairobi, Emmanu...

  • 06/01/2005 - TSUNAMI EFFECTS ON SOMALIA
    The UN has launched a flash inter-agency appeal for more than US $10 million dollars to help thousands of people in Somalia who were affected by the tsunami that devastated areas of South Asia and swamped some Indian Ocean coastal areas on 26 December.

    The Somali appeal, which was launched on Thursday, was part of a larger request for $977 million for all the countries affected by the ts...

  • 04/01/2005 - TSUNAMI DEVASTES SOMALI ISLAND
    SOMALIA: 130 reported killed over 15,000 affected and in urgent needs .

    NAIROBI, 29 December (United Nations IRIN) - An estimated 110 people were killed in Somalia when the tsunami triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean struck the Horn of Africa coastline, relief workers and local authorities said.

    About 15,000 affected people are in need of immediate assistance, espec...

  • 15/12/2004 - ERITREA CALLED ETHIOPIA TO COMPLY WITH BORDERS RULING.
    NAIROBI, 15 December (IRIN) - Eritrea has called on Ethiopia to abide by the ruling of an independent commission that delineated their disputed border in 2002 and urged the international community to help secure peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.

    An Eritrean foreign ministry statement sent to IRIN on Tuesday said the wrangle over the 1,000-km border could be resolved if Addis...

  • 14/12/2004 - POWER LINK TO BOOST ELECTRICITY SUPPLY
    ADDIS ABABA, 14 December (IRIN) - Ethiopia and Djibouti are to link up their power generation in a bid to boost electricity access in both countries using loans worth US $32 million and $27 million respectively, the African Development Fund (ADF) said on Monday.

    "The common sector goal is to improve the population's access to electricity in Ethiopia and Djibouti through regional coo...

  • 13/12/2004 - GERMAN PRESIDENT MAKES A PLEA FOR PEACE
    ADDIS ABABA, 13 December (IRIN) - German President Horst Kohler made an impassioned plea on Monday for peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea, saying neither of the two countries could afford another war over their unresolved border dispute.

    "The most important reason why wars should not happen is because wars are against the interests of the people," Kohler, former head of the Internat...

  • 13/12/2004 - FISTULA HOSPITAL
    ADDIS ABABA FISTULA HOSPITAL

    HOSPITAL REPORT FOR THE QUARTER APRIL 2004.

    Imagine arriving for the first time, and seeing the Hospital’s wonderful garden, the bright sunny words, colorful shawls on cold shoulders and smiles that you thought were long since gone.

    So daily the women trickle in, dressed in simple clothes, some with shoes and others barefoot. Heads down, ...

  • 11/11/2004 - OLD ALPHABET ADAPTED FOR MODERN USE IN TECHNOLOGY.
    ADDIS ABABA, 11 November (IRIN) - One of the world's oldest living alphabets could make its debut soon on mobile phones, Ethiopian scientists said on Thursday. In groundbreaking research, the ancient script of Ethiopic, which dates back to the fourth century, has been adapted so it can be used for SMS text messaging.

    The scientists believe it will open up the digital age to millions ...

  • 02/11/2004 - POTENTIAL FAMINE IN 2005
    ADDIS ABABA, 2 November (IRIN) - A government agency warned of a "potential famine" in Ethiopia during 2005, saying food shortages could affect up to 12 million people and the crisis, which could hit the country by the end of 2004, has worsened due to inadequate rainfall and a gradual loss of farmers' assets.

    The government's emergency arm, the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness C...

  • 01/11/2004 - FISTULA HOSPITAL - OCTOBER 2004
    FISTULA HOSPITAL ADDIS ABABA

    Hospital Report for the Quarter October 2004

    There has been no reduction in the number of patients arriving at the hospital, many of them with so little hope, and it is with deep sadness that we report on one young lady of only eighteen years who took her own life because of the total despair of her injuries and suffering. We continue to repair ...

  • 18/10/2004 - WORLD BANK OFFICIAL WARNS OVER OIL PRICES
    A senior World Bank official warned on Tuesday of the "substantial" impact of continuing high oil prices on developing countries. Francois Bourguignon, the bank's chief economist, said that precious foreign exchange reserves were being depleted by as much as one third and families were paying more for goods.

    "With the same amount of money people will not be able to buy the same amount of...

  • 11/10/2004 - BRITISH PRIME MINSTER IN ADDIS ABABA
    ADDIS ABABA, 11 October (IRIN) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday the time for excuses on Africa was over, adding that Africa must be pushed to the top of the world's agenda.

    As he left Ethiopia after the opening of the British-sponsored Commission for Africa, set up to reverse the continent's fortunes, Blair charged that now was the time for action.

    "The pr...

  • 20/08/2004 - UNMEE DIRECT FLIGHTS BETWEEN ADDIS ABABA & ASMARA
    ADDIS ABABA, 20 August (IRIN) - The Ethiopian government has allowed the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to operate direct flights between Addis Ababa and Asmara, lifting a ban that was put in place after the border war between the two countries ended in 2000.

    "The (Ethiopian) Prime Minister wrote to the Secretary-General and we were informed [of the decision t...

  • 14/08/2004 - URGENT APPEAL FOR £ 3,000
    This is an URGENT appeal to raise £ 3,000 to ship ONE container with Medical equipment to Ethiopia.

    It took a long time and a very hard work of Dr M.R. Brett-Crowther to prepare this shipment for Ethiopia with the care of, “ORDER OF THE ORTHODOX HOSPITALLERS” Charity No 1052263 (This order was founded with...

  • 01/08/2004 - FISTULA HOSPITAL JULY 2004
    FISTULA HOSPITAL ADDIS ABABA

    Hospital Report for the Quarter July 2004

    We received a young patient in so much pain, her face a picture of misery and perplexity, quite emaciated and looking like an old woman at 16 years of age. One day she had been joyfully pregnant with bated Breath awaiting her newborn baby and then a few days later a life destroyed simply because there was...

  • 20/07/2004 - RAINFALL, TIMELY FOOD AID DELIVERIES IMPROVE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
    NAIROBI, 20 July (IRIN) - Recent rainfall and increased distribution of aid have improved the immediate humanitarian situation in the country, but additional pledges are still required to cover an 11 percent food shortfall in the June-December period, a famine alert network has reported.

    The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net), however, said an estimated 50 p...

  • 12/07/2004 - ANNAN CALLS FOR
    ADDIS ABABA, 12 July (IRIN) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told Ethiopia and Eritrea that "sober choices" must be made if they are to end their potentially dangerous stalemate. In his latest report to the UN Security Council on the progress of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Annan said the four-year-old peace process was unlikely to succeed without flexibility from both...
  • 12/07/2004 - UNPRECEDENTED ECONOMIC AND AGRICULTURE GROWTH REPORTED FOR 2003/2004
    ADDIS ABABA, 12 July (IRIN) - Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Friday that Ethiopia enjoyed unprecedented economic and agricultural growth over the past 11 months. Presenting his annual progress report for 2003/2004 to parliament, he said the economy had grown by 11.6 percent, and agriculture by nearly 20 percent.

    Meles also told the country's 547 parliamentarians that foreign inv...

  • 07/07/2004 - BORDER SITUATION IMROVING
    ADDIS ABABA, 7 July (IRIN) - The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has said that incidents along the 1,000-km common border have declined and the situation in the area is calm.

    Maj-Gen Robert Gordon, the UNMEE force commander, told senior military officials on Monday that the border situation had seen some improvement. The recent visit by UN Secretary-General Kof...

  • 02/07/2004 - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visit t
    ADDIS ABABA, 2 July (IRIN) - The proposed visit to Eritrea by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this weekend should have a positive impact on the stalled peace process with Ethiopia, UN officials said on Thursday.

    Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte, the spokeswoman for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said the visit comes at a "critical time" for the mission.

    Annan is ...

  • 28/06/2004 - Major Obstacles to Ending Conflict
    ADDIS ABABA, 28 June (IRIN) - The commissioner of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) has spelt out four major obstacles to ending conflict on the continent.

    Addressing leaders of civil society organisations from all across Africa meeting at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Sunday, Said Djinnit said limited resources, lack of suppor...

  • 24/06/2004 - POTENTIAL FOR INVESTMENT DESPITE WIDESPREAD POVERTY.
    ADDIS ABABA, 24 June (IRIN) - Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations on earth, but it has the potential to be a land of opportunity for investors and businesses, analysts say.

    In a newly launched Investment Guide to Ethiopia, the United Nations and the International Chamber of Commence (ICC) spell out three reasons why financiers should look to setting up shop in the country. "There ...

  • 22/06/2004 - LIKELY FOOD SHORTAGE REPORTED.
    ADDIS ABABA, 22 June (IRIN) - Unless donors provide additional food aid to Ethiopia, there could be shortages as early as July when the "hungry season" that precedes the November-December harvest starts, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS Net) reported.

    "Unless new pledges are made, partial cereal shortfalls are almost certain from July onwards, and food aid availabi...

  • 10/06/2004 - SMALL FARMERS BATTLING POVERTY
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 June (IRIN) - Cooperatives are playing a key role in helping impoverished Ethiopian farmers escape from the cycle of poverty, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Wednesday.

    Ethiopia's cooperatives were vital in helping to promote rural economic development and getting farmers a fairer price for their crops, USAID said in a statement...

  • 01/05/2004 - FISTULA HOSPITAL - APRIL 2004
    ADDIS ABABA FISTULA HOSPITAL

    HOSPITAL REPORT FOR THE QUARTER APRIL 2004.

    Imagine arriving for the first time, and seeing the Hospital’s wonderful garden, the bright sunny words, colorful shawls on cold shoulders and smiles that you thought were long since gone.

    So daily the women trickle in, dressed in simple clothes, some with shoes and others barefoot. Heads down, ...

  • 30/04/2004 - WORLD BANK
    ETHIOPIA: World Bank announces US $3.3 billion debt relief under HIPC

    Ethiopia has become the 13th country to obtain debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of the World Bank and IMF, the World Bank reported on Thursday. It said in a statement that Ethiopia, which had made sufficient progress and taken the necessary steps to reach its completion point unde...

  • 19/03/2004 - SITUATION IN SOMALI REGION DETERIORATING.
    ADDIS ABABA, 19 March (IRIN) - Fears are mounting for the welfare of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Ethiopia, the United Nations warned on Friday. Disease, lack of food and dwindling water supplies are hitting the IDPs, the UN said in a special alert.

    "There is a need to respond with timely assistance in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating...

  • 05/03/2004 - IRIN Interview with US Ambassador. Aurelia Brazeal
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 March (IRIN) - Aurelia Brazeal is the US ambassador to Ethiopia. Last year the US provided over US $500 million in food relief for 14 million people facing starvation in Ethiopia. In an interview, she told IRIN that in the wake of that enormous crisis - an emergency she said was not yet over - the US would now begin refocusing on the country's democratic and economic development. <...
  • 04/03/2004 - US Ambassador - Calls for Telecommunication and Banking Reforms
    ADDIS ABABA, 4 March (IRIN) - Ethiopia must "get trade going" and get rid of obstacles precluding overseas businesses from investing in the country, the US ambassador urged on Wednesday. Ambassador Aurelia Brazeal said reforms in the country's telecommunications and the banking sectors were vital as a means of stimulating foreign investment.

    The ambassador - whose country is Ethiopia...

  • 02/02/2004 - AFRICA : Conference delegates in Ethiopia call for end to FGM
    ADDIS ABABA, 6 February (IRIN) - African governments faced renewed demands on Friday to introduce and enforce tough laws to stamp out female genital mutilation (FGM) and protect the women of their countries. Leading health and human rights experts on the continent called for legislation to end the practice to which 2 million African women and girls in 28 countries are subjected every year. <...
  • 20/01/2004 - ETHIOPIA & ERITREA, : END THE IMPASSE, BRITISH ENVOY URGES.
    ADDIS ABABA, 20 January (IRIN) - Ethiopia and Eritrea have been warned that the international community is gradually running out of patience with their stalled three-year-old peace process.

    Speaking at a news conference on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Chris Mullin, the UK's foreign minister for Africa, warned the two countries that the West had not ruled out sanction...

  • 06/01/2004 - ETHIOPIAN WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV
    ETHIOPIA: New film depicts the suffering of women living with HIV

    © IRIN/Anthony Mitchell

    Genet Zewde, Ethiopia's Education Minister ADDIS ABABA, 6 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Ethiopia’s first-ever film depicting the real-life tragedy being brought about by HIV/AIDS was broadcast across the country on Monday. The documentary is a powerful portrayal of the lives of women in Ethiopia ...

  • 12/12/2003 - SEASONS GREETINGS
    TO ALL THE DONORS AND READERS OF OUR NEWS.

    WE ARE WISHING A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS TIME AND A LOT OF HAPINESS IN 2004...

  • 11/12/2003 - RISKS OF NEW FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA
    West 'risks new Ethiopia famine' By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Will Ethiopians starve again? Ethiopia's efforts to feed itself and avoid another famine are being fatally undermined by Western policy, a senior scientist has told BBC News Online. Dr Tewolde Egziabher, of the country's Environmental Protection Authorit...

  • 11/12/2003 - COUNTRY PROFILE : ETHIOPIA
    Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country and, with the exception of a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, has never been colonised.

    But it has become better known for its periodic droughts and famines, and for its long civil war and subsequent border war with Eritrea.

    OVERVIEW

    OVERVIEW | FACTS | LEADERS | MEDIA

    In the fi...

  • 11/12/2003 - SEASONS GREERINGS
    To All our donors and readers of our news

    We are wishing a wonderful Christmas time and a lot of happiness in 2004 **

    ** TIPS OF THE YEAR **

    Did you know ..

    * Ethiopia's New Year was on 12 September

    * Ethiopia's Christmas is on 7th January

    * Ethiopia has 13 months in a year

    * It is now 1996 in Ethiopia

    * ...

  • 10/12/2003 - ETHIOPIA : Plea for more food aid
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 December (IRIN) - Seven million Ethiopians could go hungry next year without international aid to make up a chronic food shortfall, the government warned on Wednesday.

    Simon Mechale, head of the Ethiopian government's emergency arm, appealed for an estimated US $380 million in food and medical support to help avert a catastrophe.

    A further two million people...

  • 25/11/2003 - WFP APPEALS FOR FOOD FOR REFUGEES
    ADDIS ABABA, 25 November (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia face severe food shortages early next year, the UN's World Food Programme warned on Tuesday.

    It has appealed for US $5.3 million to help feed 123,000 refugees - mainly from war-ravaged Sudan and Somalia.

    Wagdi Othman, spokesman for WFP, said that the lack of food could hamper efforts to help Somali...

  • 20/11/2003 - ERITREA-ETHIOPIA & ASSAB
    ASSAB, 20 November (IRIN) - The straight ribbon of road from the Eritrean port city of Assab to Bure, just over the border in Ethiopia, is deserted. Save for a few camels and their Afar herdsmen, the only moving objects are the patrol cars of UN peacekeepers.

    The Kenyan battalion - known as Kenbatt - of the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) is responsible for ensuri...

  • 12/11/2003 - ETHIOPIA. AN OTHER DROUGHT LOOMS.
    ADDIS ABABA, 12 November (IRIN) - Water shortages in eastern and southern Ethiopia are reaching "emergency proportions" as a result of failed rains, according to the Ethiopian government's federal early warning system (EWS), based in the capital, Addis Ababa. (inserting "eastern and southern")

    Pastoralists in the remote Somali Region [now officially classified as the Somali National...

  • 12/11/2003 - BRITISH GOVERNMENT PLEDGES US $ 2.5 TO FIGHT
    ADDIS ABABA, 12 November (IRIN) - The British government pledged US $2.5 million on Wednesday to combat a massive malaria epidemic threatening 15 million people in Ethiopia. The funding follows an emergency appeal by the UN for $5 million to provide drugs and mosquito nets for affected regions.

    British ambassador to Ethiopia Myles Wickstead called on the international community to fo...

  • 10/11/2003 - IRIN interview with UN Special Envoy Martii Ahtisaari.
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 November (IRIN) - Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is the United Nations Special Envoy for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa. During a six-day visit to drought-stricken Ethiopia and Eritrea, where 15 million people are facing starvation, he told IRIN that the international community should not overload with too many development initiatives a new five-year food ...
  • 28/10/2003 - BLINDNESS, MALARIA, FAMINE & POVERTY.
    LBC RADIO 97.3 FM

    Blindness, Malaria, Famine & Poverty From Thursday 30 October to Wednesday 05 November we will appeal for help through the LBC Radio 97.3 FM with the following message.

    QUOTE

    This is an Urgent appeal on behalf of the Children of Ethiopia AID. The Children of Ethiopia are increasingly suffering from blindness, malaria, famine and pover...

  • 06/10/2003 - A holy book
    ADDIS ABABA, 6 October (IRIN) - A holy book looted from Ethiopia by British troops more than a century ago was back home and on public display for the first time on Saturday.

    Professor Richard Pankhurst, who campaigns for the return of treasure to Ethiopia, returned the 300-year-old handwritten Book of Psalms to the country last week.

    The book, which is written in the old E...

  • 03/10/2003 - ANTI MALARIA MEDICINES
    4 - ETHIOPIA: Vital medicines arrive to combat malaria

    ADDIS ABABA, 3 October (IRIN) - Vital anti-malaria medicines to combat a looming epidemic in Ethiopia have been released from customs, officials told IRIN on Friday.

    The medicines, worth US $700,000 arrived in the country on 18 August and were released on 2 October. They will be distributed to hard hit areas early next ...

  • 25/09/2003 - Ethiopians urged to eat RICE
    ADDIS ABABA, 25 September (IRIN) - Ethiopians should consider changing their eating habits as part of the fight against repeated famines that have hit the nation, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

    Sam Nyambi, the UN country representative in Ethiopia, urged the nation to adopt "diet diversification" as a means of combating recurrent droughts.

    "It is a process we want to ...

  • 10/09/2003 - Eritrea-Ethiopia:End
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 September (IRIN) - The peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea must not "lose momentum" in the crucial run-up to the demarcation of their common border, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged. In his latest report on both countries, he also called on them to end their "cold peace" and take advantage of the economic potential normal relations would offer.

    "While...

  • 10/09/2003 - USA EMBASSY ADDIS ABABA : LAUNCHED OF APPEAL
    ADDIS ABABA, 10 September (IRIN) - The United States embassy in Addis Ababa launched on Monday a small grants scheme worth $360,000 to support human rights organisations in Ethiopia.

    Aurelia Brazeal, the US ambassador to Ethiopia, said 43 local organisations and charities would benefit from the scheme, aimed at helping to bolster democracy in the country.

    Ms Brazeal told re...

  • 09/09/2003 - URGENT APPEAL
    Appeal to target:
    • BLINDNESS - over 900,000 are suffering in Ethiopia only. 80% could have been saved.
    • MALARIA - 3rd big killer in Ethiopia only.
    • WATER PURIFICATION KITS - To tackle blindness & Malaria.
    • SMALL-SCALE FARMING - To tackle blindness & famine.

    ...

  • 05/09/2003 - The progress of Polio vacinnation
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 September (IRIN) - Almost a million children are being vaccinated in Ethiopia as part of the global polio eradication campaign which aims to eliminate the crippling disease by 2005.

    Tens of thousands of children aged between six months and 14 years are being targeted under the joint government and United Nations campaign in remote Somali Region.

    The weeklong ...

  • 01/09/2003 - Chronic food shortage- Major turning point
    ADDIS ABABA, 1 September (IRIN) - Ethiopia has reached a "major turning point" in tackling its chronic food shortages, the head of the United Nations in the country stated on Monday.

    Sam Nyambi, who heads the UN's Development Programme (UNDP), said "new efforts" were needed to overcome the massive hurdles that spark recurrent food crises in Ethiopia.

    His rallying call comes...

  • 29/08/2003 - Malaria worsening due to drug resistance
    The fight against a growing malaria epidemic in Ethiopia is being hampered because of a resistance to available drugs, humanitarian agencies warned on Monday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the parasite's resistance was "aggravating the epidemic and causing a high death toll". Malaria is already the third biggest killer in Ethiopia with some 100,000 l...
  • 29/08/2003 - Water distribution aims to combat disease
    Vital water purifying equipment is being distributed in Ethiopia's drought-stricken areas to combat the growing threat of water-borne diseases, the United Nations said on Monday. The water supplies will be targeted at women and children in eight hard-hit areas around the country, according to the UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF). "This contribution is particularly significant as safe water is vital t...
  • 18/08/2003 - EMERGENCY FOOD ARRIVING VIA BERBERA
    Emergency food aid to tackle Ethiopia's devastating famine is being shipped in through the Somaliland port of Berbera, officials said on Monday.

    The shipment - some 15,000 mt tons of wheat from the European Commission - is the first consignment of emergency aid through the port this year.

    But the commission - one of the largest donors in Ethiopia - is trying to shift the fo...

  • 15/08/2003 - HIV/AIDS
    ADDIS ABABA, 15 August (IRIN) - Ethiopia must radically expand the country 's voluntary testing centres if it is to curb the AIDS scourge, a conference heard on Friday.

    Gebeyehu Mekonnen, who heads the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia, said offering testing to the entire population was a vital weapon in the war against the deadly virus.

    His call came at a conference ...

  • 05/08/2003 - Families unwilling to go home until border marked.
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 August (IRIN) - Families displaced during the Ethiopia-Eritrea war are still not returning home because of the danger of landmines and the impending demarcation of the border.

    The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Tuesday that until implementation of the controversial boundary decision takes place, Ethiopian families will be reluctant to go home.

    Figh...

  • 05/08/2003 - Feares if Malaria Epidemic.
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 August (IRIN) - Fears are mounting of a major malaria epidemic in Ethiopia, officials at the ministry of health told IRIN on Tuesday.

    Gezahegn Tesfaye, who heads the department's anti-malaria unit, said the country was bracing itself for an outbreak after the rainy season ends in September.

    He also appealed to the international community for additional suppor...

  • 05/08/2003 - Still struggling to escape the grip of famine.
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 August (IRIN) - Ethiopia is still struggling to escape the grip of famine with the numbers in need increasing by more than half a million people, according to a government-led assessment.

    The study, due out this week, says the number of victims of the unprecedented crisis now stands at 13.2 million.

    The increase by 600,000 people - all requiring food aid - fo...

  • 04/08/2003 - Anti-AIDS drugs
    ADDIS ABABA, 4 August (IRIN) - For Sister Tibebe Maco there is little reason to note, let alone celebrate, the first distribution of drugs to treat victims of the AIDS pandemic in Ethiopia.

    Neither do the hundreds of patients living with the virus that she currently looks after pay much attention. "They are not for us," is their oft-repeated mantra.

    Anti-retroviral drugs - whic...

  • 31/07/2003 - WFP appeals for aid to feed Somali refugees in Ethiopia
    ADDIS ABABA, 31 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - Food for tens of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia will run out in three months unless urgently needed supplies are provided, the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Thursday.

    WFP said food aid for 130,000 refugees, who fled fighting in Sudan and Somalia, would dry up by October.

    It also also warned that without adequate food aid, a massive rep...

  • 02/06/2003 - Millions of Ethiopians are at risk of starvation
    Millions of Ethiopians are at risk of starvation because of a funding shortfall for food aid, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday.

    WFP said it was facing a US $90 million shortfall for its emergency operations in 2003 in drought-stricken Ethiopia. "As we enter Ethiopia’s lean season before the harvest, the number threatened by starvation has shot up from 11 million to 12...

  • 26/05/2003 - Sir Bob Geldof returns to the impoverished country as it stands on the brink of yet another disaster
    Twenty years ago he helped raise US $60 million to fight the devastating famine that hit Ethiopia. The world vowed never to let it happen again. On Monday, Sir Bob Geldof returns to the impoverished country as it stands on the brink of yet another disaster, and millions once again face starvation.

    The drought has provoked renewed dismay that such a tragedy can befall the Horn of Africa...

  • 18/03/2003 - Appeal for more aid
    The UN and the Ethiopian government have appealed for more aid to address the humanitarian crisis in the country.

    In an addendum to their joint appeal for 2003 issued in December, they estimated that about 20 percent of Ethiopia's population was at risk due to the drought currently affecting the country.

    The government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC...

  • 09/03/2003 - Appeal for non-food aid
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 September (IRIN) - Ethiopia on Friday appealed for US $40 million to help fight the devastating crisis which has affected 13.2 million people in the impoverished, drought-stricken country.

    Simon Mechale, who heads the government's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), warned that more than just food aid was needed to avert an unprecedented crisis that...

  • 05/02/2003 - Malnutrition rates in Ethiopia are gradually increasing
    Malnutrition rates in Ethiopia are gradually increasing despite widespread efforts to help millions of people facing starvation in the country, according to aid organisations.

    The UN’s Country Team (UNCT) said the increase is particularly alarming because the so-called critical period – when current harvests normally run out - has not been reached.

    “An increasing trend gives in...

  • 13/12/2002 - Food for the Hungry Prevents Famine
    Food for the Hungry is implementing a comprehensive plan to prevent famine in multiple regions of Ethiopia, where officials warn that more than 12 million people could go hungry.

    The United Nations and the Ethiopian government say that drought conditions killed 15 percent of the October/November harvest. Thus, families who depend on subsistence farming will not only lack food but also...

  • 29/11/2002 - Interview with Dr Catherine Hamlin, founder of the Fistula Hospital
    Dr Catherine Hamlin, 75, founded the world-renowned Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia with her late husband in 1974. In that time they have treated over 20,000 women suffering from appalling birth injuries. Here Dr Hamlin tells IRIN of why more needs to be done to improve a key millennium development goal of maternal health.

    QUESTION: Why is it important to tackle fistula?

    ANSWE...

  • 29/11/2002 - Fading hope for Children hit by drought
    At the tender age of seven Nuria Ibrahim shouldn't have to worry about starvation or death. But like many children in Ethiopia she soon learnt the harsh realities of life in one of the poorest countries in the world.

    The familiar cloud of despair once again hangs over Ethiopia where famine has a stranglehold on 15 million people - one in four of the population.

    Nuria, dressed i...

  • 12/11/2002 - Debt and Famine in Ethiopia
    The international public seems to be hardly aware of the current crisis in Ethiopia, which could have dimensions even surpassing the imminent food shortages in Southern Africa. Ethiopia is facing a famine of such catastrophic proportions that it could be even worse than the crisis of 1984 which led to Bob Geldof's Band Aid appeal. According to the Ethiopian Government, up to 15 million Ethiopians ...
  • 11/11/2002 - Massive famine stalks Ethiopia
    Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine worse than that of 1984 which killed nearly one million people and sparked a big international relief effort.

    The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies renewed an appeal for aid, calling for $11m to alleviate drought suffering across Ethiopia, where much of the population alread...

  • 05/11/2002 - Migrant Children Starving to Death in Bale
    At least 10 children have starved to death among drought-stricken families who fled to one of Ethiopia's most important national parks seeking refuge.

    The children were among some 20,000 people who have descended on Bale National Park in search of food, according to the UN's Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE).

    It said the region, in southeastern Ethiopia, is facing a loomi...

  • 10/09/2001 - Sowing the Seeds of Famine in Ethiopia
    Crisis in the Horn
    More than 8 million people in Ethiopia - representing 15% of the country's population - had been locked into "famine zones". Urban wages have collapsed and unemployed seasonal farm workers and landless peasants have been driven into abysmal poverty. The international relief agencies concur without further examination that climatic factors are the sole and inevitable ...
  • 11/03/2001 - NETHERLANDS TO AID EDUCATION
    ADDIS ABABA, 5 November (IRIN) - Six million schoolbooks are to be printed and distributed to children throughout Ethiopia, the Dutch government announced on Wednesday.

    Mieke Vogels, an education expert with the Netherlands embassy, told IRIN that a massive shortfall of textbooks was hampering teaching efforts across the country. "The quality of education is being negatively influen...

  • 10/04/2000 - Mr Tony Blair visit in Ethiopia.
    ADDIS ABABA, 7 October (IRIN) - British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, flew into Ethiopia on Wednesday to discus the plight of the world's poorest continent at a meeting of the new Commission for Africa that he helped to create.

    The 17-member commission itself faces a challenge, though: the perception among its detractors that it is simply "a talking shop". Such critics maintain that w...

  • 09/04/2000 - UK aid to famine-ravaged Ethiopia slashed by half
    Britain has halved its aid to Ethiopia, despite a drought which has triggered the worst food shortages in the Horn of Africa since the terrible famine that killed a million Ethiopians in the mid-1980s. Despite fresh evidence of the massive scale of the disaster threatening Ethiopia, International Development Secretary Clare Short has cut Ethiopia's three-year aid programme from £39.3 million to ...
  • 00/00/0000 - SOMALIA-TSUNAMI OVER 10,000 PEOPLE AFFECTED.115 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIFE.
    NAIROBI, 31 December (IRIN) - UN agencies appealed on Friday for immediate assistance to communities on the Somali coast that were affected by the earthquake-generated tsunami which devastated much of South Asia on 26 December.

    "We need to act now and mobilise the needed resources," Wafaa El Fadil, a humanitarian affairs officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitaria...

  • 00/00/0000 - FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN DROUGHT-HIT AREAS STILL INADEQUATE
    NAIROBI, 4 June (IRIN) - The distribution of food and other relief items in drought-affected areas of Ethiopia has remained inadequate, and donors need to expedite food deliveries to avert shortages before the end this month, a famine-alert agency said on Thursday.

    "Food aid carry-over and new pledges meet only 64 percent of Ethiopia's May-December 2004 assessed needs [and] donors n...

  • 00/00/0000 - MAJOR RELIEF EFFORTS UNDER WAY
    ADDIS ABABA, 8 June (IRIN) - A major relief effort is under way to avert a potential crisis from affecting the government's controversial resettlement scheme, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. Some 250,000 people are being provided with supplementary food as families who moved under the scheme face serious shortages.

    Two therapeutic feeding centres have been established in o...

  • 00/00/0000 - MALNUTERITION LOOMING IN OROMIYA REGION
    NAIROBI, 24 August (IRIN) - Ethiopia's south-central Oromiya region is threatened with rising malnutrition levels, hunger, disease and water shortages as a result of inadequate and erratic rainfall, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.

    OCHA, in a report issued on Monday, warned that a crisis would be inevitable unless more seeds were ma...

  • 00/00/0000 - 750,000 CHILDREN VACCINATED AGAINST POLIO.
    ADDIS ABABA, 27 October (IRIN) - Ethiopia has completed the vaccination of 750,000 children against polio as it seeks to eradicate the last traces of the paralysing disease in the country. The campaign comes amid fears that polio could re-emerge in Ethiopia after new cases were discovered close to the border of neighbouring Sudan.

    Although no case of wild polio virus has been detecte...

  • 00/00/0000 - RULING PARTY WANTS MORE WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.
    ADDIS ABABA, 29 October (IRIN) - Ethiopia's ruling party is imposing female quotas on candidates in a bid to have more women in parliament, officials said on Friday. Women are guaranteed up to 30 percent of seats in the national elections for the incumbent Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).

    Opposition groups have also taken up the "historic" move as political ...

  • 00/00/0000 - BBC NEWS
    'No rop' in world hunger deaths All but one of the 16 hungriest nations are in sub-Saharan Africa A child still dies of hunger every five seconds, eight years on from a pledge to halve the world's hungry by 2015, a United Nations agency has said. The annual UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report says present levels of hunger cause the death of more than five million children a...
  • 00/00/0000 - ETHIOPIAN CHILDREN SEEK ANSWERS
    Half of Africa's population is made up of young people. It is they who are often hardest hit by the continent's poverty, and they who face the challenge of creating a better future. BBC Africa Live invited eight Ethiopian children to put their questions to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's Commission for Africa, which is examining how to pull the continent out of poverty.

    Zerehun: 18, t...

  • 00/00/0000 - ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE warns of continuing border incidents
    The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has expressed concern over "continuing incidents of violence" along the disputed 1,000 km border between the countries. At UN-hosted Military Coordination Commission talks on Saturday between the armed forces of Eritrea and Ethiopia in Nairobi, Kenya, the commander of the UN peacekeeping forces in the region, Maj Gen Rajender Singh, called on both sid...
  • 00/00/0000 - OGADEN REBEL GROUP, OFFERS TO END WAR
    An armed rebel group waging a bloody guerrilla war in lawless eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday offered a truce to end its decade-old fight against the government. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) offered peace talks in a neutral country to try to bring an end to the fighting that has plagued this arid region. The decision was announced in a statement following an exchange of letters between ...
  • 00/00/0000 - EU PLEDGES FUNDS TO HELP END HUNGER
    ADDIS ABABA, 27 July (IRIN) - The European Union pledged on Tuesday to provide 60 million Euros (US $71.9 million) to help end hunger and food aid dependency for five million people in Ethiopia.

    The funds, from the European Development Fund, will help finance the government's pilot safety nets scheme, in which hungry people are each given food or US $0.60 a day in return for doing public...

  • 00/00/0000 - SOMALIA. 100,000 need urgent humanitarian assistance - UN
    NAIROBI, 22 September (IRIN) - More than 100,000 people in southwestern Somalia's Gedo district are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

    Some 59,000 people faced a livelihood crisis, OCHA spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. Another 53,000 were in a "humanitarian emergenc...

  • 00/00/0000 - MAIN OPPOSION COALITION MERGES TO FORM PARTY
    The four parties that make up Ethiopia's largest opposition alliance, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) have merged to form one party, an official of the coalition said on Thursday.

    The All Ethiopia Unity Party, the Union of Ethiopia Democracy Party, Rainbow Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Democratic League announced their unification on Saturday. Members of the new party elected H...