Ethiopia

The death toll from a flash flood that hit a town in south-eastern Ethiopia has climbed to at least 27 with rescue and recovery efforts still under way, officials said on Sunday. Police said the bodies of 21 people, including at least six children, who died in the overnight on Friday flood have been recovered.

The European Union on Tuesday scolded Ethiopia’s ruling party and opposition for premature announcements of their success in the hotly contested weekend elections, but said the process has been relatively smooth. Officials of the National Election Board of Ethiopia cannot confirm any result until Saturday.

Buoyed by early returns suggesting significant gains in the capital, Ethiopia’s opposition on Monday backed off a threat to reject nationwide results from hotly contested weekend elections. As vote counts trickled in, observers said Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling party appears to have lost parliamentary seats.

The African Union announced on Friday the deployment of an initial force of 1 700 troops to Somalia to aid the return of the country’s government-in-exile. The AU’s Peace and Security Council endorsed the move on Thursday following a decision by the Council of Ministers of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

Campaigning in Ethiopia’s parliamentary elections officially ended on Friday ahead of a weekend vote that will be a critical test of freedom and democracy in one of the United States’s closest allies in Africa. The balloting marks the end of a race that has tested the tolerance of regime that has ruled the Horn of Africa nation since 1991.

Ethiopian authorities said on Wednesday they take ”very seriously” European Union concerns about virulent language being used by rival parties in the campaign for the country’s weekend general elections. The National Election Board of Ethiopia said the concerns expressed by EU election observers in a letter last week will be addressed.

European Union observers on Monday lauded the openness of the run-up to Ethiopia’s upcoming general elections, following peaceful mass rallies at the weekend by government and opposition supporters. ”Never before in Ethiopian history has there been such an open debate in the country,” said the EU delegation chief in Addis Ababa.

The death toll from more than a week of devastating floods in south-eastern Ethiopia has risen to at least 154 with nearly 260 000 people left homeless, officials said on Wednesday. The raging waters have taken a huge toll on livestock and agriculture in the remote, impoverished region, they said.

At least 134 people have been killed and nearly 250 000 displaced in massive floods that have hit south-east Ethiopia since last week, taking a huge toll on livestock and agriculture, officials said on Monday. The flood’s toll on livestock and farmland in the state has been particularly disastrous for the impoverished region.

At least 40 people have died and more than 430 taken ill with highly infectious meningococcal meningitis in Ethiopia over the past five months, the country’s health ministry said on Wednesday. An official with the World Health Organisation said vaccines have been distributed to the ”infected regions”.

African Union officials discussed sending troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to forcibly disarm thousands of Rwandans linked to their country’s 1994 genocide. At a meeting, officials said they were considering three options for disarming an estimated 10 000 to 14 000 Rwandan rebels in the DRC.

Governments could allow up to 89-million HIV/Aids infections to develop virtually unchallenged in Africa over the next 20 years by failing to take effective measures and boost funding, a United Nations study issued on Friday warned. Half of these could be averted if leaders take the right steps and significant foreign aid is forthcoming, said the report.

Togo’s military-installed president was expected on Friday to announce he is stepping down following fierce regional and international opposition to his rule, a diplomat at the African Union said. Faure Gnassingbe was expected to make the announcement in a speech to the congress of Togo’s ruling party, the diplomat told The Associated Press.

Wealthy countries ”deliberately” enlist doctors and nurses from poor nations, costing developing states -million a year in lost training, a top United Nations official said on Wednesday. Ndioro Ndiaye, deputy director general of the International Organisation for Migration, said the loss ”severely affects” Africa’s health sector.

The decision on whether to rebury reggae legend Bob Marley in Ethiopia is private and depends on his family, an official of the Bob Marley Foundation said on Friday. On Wednesday, Marley’s widow, Rita, said she is working on taking her late husband’s remains from Jamaica to his ”spiritual resting place,” Ethiopia.

The African Union has agreed in principle to deploy a peace support mission in the troubled Horn of Africa state of Somalia, which is trying to emerge from 13 years of anarchy, the AU said in a statement on Thursday. The mission will be the first multinational force in Somalia since the end of a failed, United Nations-mandated intervention in 1995.

The United Nations on Thursday appealed for relief supplies worth -million to support more than 7,2-million Ethiopians affected by drought in the Horn of Africa country. A total of 387 482 tonnes of food worth -million and non-food assistance worth -million is needed for 2005.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal on Wednesday for ,2-million in food aid for 118 000 refugees in Ethiopia over the next six months. An additional 8 500 tonnes of cereals, vegetable oil, pulses, salt and blended foods were urgently needed to feed the refugees.

The African Union agreed on Tuesday on a -million budget for 2005, a fourfold increase, in order to finance a series of ambitious projects. In the budget, -million is earmarked for peace and security — less than half the -million sought for this by the AU Commission.

A hasty imposition or deployment of a peacekeeping force to war-ravaged Somalia could ignite renewed conflict, Alejandro Bendana, team leader of the European Union-backed Somalia Strategic Demilitarisation Unit, warned on Thursday. "This is not Iraq," Bendana told journalists at the start of a two-day Somalia planning meeting.

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.

Somalia’s newly elected president said on Monday his administration will not remain in exile, but will return to the war-ravaged country before security is completely restored. President Abdullahi Yusuf said once his Cabinet is selected it will return — although it will initially establish itself outside the capital, Mogadishu.

Newly elected Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed on Monday asked the African Union to deploy up to 20 000 troops in his country to help disarm tens of thousands of factional fighters and restore stability to a state devastated by more than a decade of lawlessness.

Panic is beginning to set in among drought-hit families in Ethiopia’s Somali region, where poor rains have exacerbated water shortages, the government and aid organisations said on Wednesday. More than four million people live in the dry, remote region, which is made up of nine zones and has a 1 600-km border with Somalia.

Africans gave their governments poor marks in a landmark scorecard on the way officials run 28 of the continent’s nations, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. Corruption, poor tax systems and dilapidated public services were the main complaints of about 50 000 African families and 2 000 experts polled.