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Unstable Horn: Never ending Famines and Crazy Eritrea

What are the citizens of Horn doing to solve the crises?

How come the citizens of the Horn stand oblivious to never ending suffering?

Why the citizens of the Horn failed utterly and allowed their regions to become hell on earth?

When the citizens of the Horn take full responsibility and feed their people and end dictatorial rules and usher just society?

Where are the brave, intelligent, caring and righteous citizens of the Horn?

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African states pledge nearly $380 million for drought crisis

Africa | 25.08.2011

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the drought African countries have pledged around $380 million as they attempt to bring relief to millions suffering famine in the Horn of Africa. The region's worst drought in decades has already claimed tens of thousands of lives.

African states pledged nearly $380 million (264 million euros) at a much-delayed donor's conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday in a bid to put a halt to a crippling famine afflicting much of the Horn of Africa.

The African Development Bank offered $300 million while African countries and other private donors raised the rest, the African Union (AU) Commission chief Jean Ping announced. The AU meeting was called to plug an aid shortfall of some $2 billion needed for millions facing starvation during one of the region's worst droughts in decades. According to the 54-member organization's official donor conference website, the aid will go towards emergency intervention and recovery projects.

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told African leaders "the conference sends a clear message to the world: the African Union remains fully engaged with this crisis, and is taking a leading role in all our efforts to save lives."

Doing enough?

Hopes of meeting the pledge target were dealt a blow early on when only four African heads of state confirmed their attendance at the Ethiopia summit despite furious criticism of the continent's response to the crisis. African Union chairman Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Djiboutian President Ismael Omar Guelleh and Somali leader Sharif Sheikh Ahmed were in attendance.

The United Nations has said around $2.4 billion was needed to help victims of the drought, which has left an estimated 12.4 million people spread across Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda in dire need of aid. Tens of thousands are estimated to have already perished.

The crisis has also led to significant movements of people seeking food and shelter, with around 76,000 Somalis have arrived at the Dolo Ado refugee camp since January. Aid has already come from the United States, European Union, China, Japan, Brazil and Turkey, as well as from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. But those pledges fell short of requested sums.

Author: Darren Mara (AFP, AP)

Editor: Rob Turner

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15344015,00.html

African Leaders Hold Delayed Famine Fundraiser VOA

African presidents shun AU famine fundraiser Reuters

'West acts as Africa moans' Timeslive

Horn Famine In depth coverage

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Eritrea thrown out of IGAD meeting

By Argaw Ashine

Posted Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Share The six-country Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) on Wednesday blocked Eritrea's representative from attending a ministerial meeting on Somalia. Eritrea reactivated its membership to the bloc after four years of self-suspension, a decision initially welcomed by the IGAD secretariat.

But the country's deputy ambassador to the African Union, Benyam Berhe, was in Addis Ababa told that his country's membership status was still under review by the bloc's heads of states. Ministers and diplomats meeting then resisted the envoy's concerted efforts to remain in the meeting room.

"We did not invite Eritrea to this meeting and he appeared in the hall by his own motive," IGAD secretary general Mahbub Mualem told the Africa Review. Mr Mualem said Eritrea's membership would be discussed in any upcoming head of states meeting and that the horn of African remained suspended from all IGAD activities. The IGAD chief also pointed out that the organisation had proposed to the UN further sanctions on Eritrea and that the case was under discussion in New York.

As such, it would not be easy for Eritrea to directly rejoin the bloc. "We have ample evidence to show Eritrea's negative role in this region, and we had earlier called on Asmara to rejoin the bloc but they rejected this," said Mr Mualem.

"Why now? They know the UN is preparing for further sanctions." The UN Security Council is preparing to vote on adopting a report that accuses increasingly isolated Asmara of working to destabilise the Horn of Africa region, including financing armed groups in Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti.

South Sudan has also applied for membership to IGAD and this will be decided on by the organisation's heads of state before the end of this year

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/-/688340/1224590/-/11hdr14/-/

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Eritrean representative thrown out of IGAD meeting in Ethiopia