Abera W.kidan
8 February 2008
Addis Ababa — Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin left for Kenya early on Thursday to attend a meeting of the seven-nation, regional bloc IGAD, where post election crisis would be high on the agenda.
According to ministry Spokesman Wehade Belay, the meeting was being held in a sign of solidarity with the people of Kenya and in an effort to bring peace and stability in the country where disputed elections killed 1000 people and displaced about 300,000 in one of Kenya's darkest moments since its independence from Britain 44 years ago.
The bloodshed ensuing from the Dec. 27 election has seriously harmed Kenya's image as a stable and prosperous country in a turbulent part of Africa.
Wehade also said the regional meeting in line with the consensus reached by African leaders to support peace initiatives in Kenya at the 10th ordinary session held here between 31st January and 2nd February 2008.
But the opposition had threatened more street protests if the government holds Thursday's planned meeting of the regional bloc IGAD, whose rotating chairmanship is now held by President Mwai Kibaki.
Echoing a complaint it made when Kibaki attended the AU summit as head of state last week, the ODM said the IGAD meeting would legitimise his position "through the back door".
Wehade said on Thursday that, given the circumstances, Ethiopia will take over and Foreign Minister Seyoum will chair the meeting.
The government has banned protests and most previous ones have ended in violence, looting or rioting.
"If the government goes ahead and holds the IGAD meeting, we will protest peacefully. We will march, carry placards, show our messages," a Reuters report quoted an opposition official as saying on Wednesday.
Kenya's government is banking on goodwill in African diplomatic circles -- earned from years as a continental peacemaker -- to win support for its view that the opposition should challenge the vote in court, not in the streets.
IGAD issued a communique last week that backed that position, while supporting the talks. The opposition argues that Kenya's institutions are too flawed or biased to do the job.
Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, mediating between the opposing sides about a disputed election, has chided the opposition for threatening mass action while talks were under way.
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It’s like mixing a rotten apple in the basket full of fine apples.
Ethiopian rulers are the master of war in the horn Africa. Particularly the TPLF military juntas which during last election won only in Tigray zone (about 5% of the total Ethiopian population) know better than anyone how to rig the election votes. The best thing Kenyan will get from the TPLF messenger is roadmap to join Ethiopian made horn Africans war club. War made by Ethiopia in horn Africa.
1.train and equip SPLA to divide Sudan and created unsolvable wars in Sudan. 2.by training and arming SNM created endless suffering in Somalia and finally occupied it. 3.Donate 10 military helicopters to Eritrea to invade the Red sea islands. When Eritrea isolated invaded the new nation inorder further to expand the big Tigray.
Due to the Ethiopian fascism principles the country became the poorest of the poor in the Africa and their jealousy for Kenyans economic successes and great civil liberties is beyond the limit so giving such wicked minded fascist a chance to interferer in the peaceful and stable Kenya is worst and the biggest mistake that one can commit.
ETHIOPIA: "Eight million need assistance, 07 Feb 2008 12:09:50 GMT Source: IRIN
NAIROBI, 7 February 2008 (IRIN) - Ethiopia experienced a record harvest during the meher season that runs from June and October but pockets of poor food production across the country have still left millions of people needing food assistance, according to a food security update.
Citing the Somali region in particular, the update issued by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) on 6 February stated that poor rains during the deyr season, from October to November, exacerbated extreme food insecurity in parts of the region.
This was when the dry season was in progress and the peak hunger season had set in. Various other factors, including restrictions on movement and trade, locust infestations and limited humanitarian access had exacerbated matters.
"Despite record meher-season production, about eight million chronically food insecure people and a significant number of acutely food insecure people ... will require food or cash assistance in 2008," the January report stated.
Production during the meher season is one of the most important determinants of food security in Ethiopia, especially in the crop-producing areas that cover most of the country, except the mainly pastoral Afar and Somali regions, and the lowlands of Oromiya region.
An assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme estimated the meher crop was about 45 percent higher than the past five-year average.
"This represents the fourth consecutive bumper meher harvest in Ethiopia," the report noted. "Yet, despite good overall production, pockets of poor production have been identified across the country as a result of weather-related hazards."
In the Somali region, the update noted, the deyr rains performed poorly across seven zones that depend on precipitation for regeneration of pasture, replenishment of water sources and crop production.
"In Gode, Warder, Korahe, Degahabur and Fik the situation is worse because the 2007 main season, which occurs between March and May, performed poorly," it noted, adding that poor water availability and abnormal livestock migrations had already been reported in several areas.
"In all these areas, pasture is scarce, milk production and livestock body conditions have also started to deteriorate," the update said. "Reduced milk production will have a serious impact on child malnutrition."
Citing a report issued by the Somali Region Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau in December indicating that about 745,000 people in the region could meet their minimum food needs and thus faced a survival deficit, the update noted that these people will require immediate food assistance from January to June 2008.
Market access for agro-pastoralists had also been affected by restrictions on trade and movement in parts of Somali region that began in mid-June 2007.
"Although the movement of commercial food into restricted zones continues especially in the main woreda towns, the supply of food is inadequate especially in rural areas and prices are beyond the purchasing power of most consumers," the update noted.
The restrictions on trade and movement had also affected income sources for poor households, including labour and the sale of charcoal and firewood, because demand had fallen.
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