KENYA

A building collapsed in central Nairobi on Monday while more than 280 workers were inside, leaving at least eight people dead, witnesses and construction workers said. More than 50 seriously injured people were rushed to hospitals, medics said. At the weekend, two buildings collapsed in Nigeria, killing at least 15 people.

Aid agencies warned on Tuesday that they do not have money to feed millions of Kenyans suffering from food shortages. The warning came a day after Information and Communications Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced that the number of Kenyans at risk from the food crisis has increased to 3,5-million from 2,5-million.

Scores of river-dwelling hippos are dying in Kenya’s famed Maasai Mara National Reserve due to a searing drought that threatens the country’s renowned wildlife and has put millions of people across East Africa at risk of famine, officials and witnesses said on Monday.

Kenyan authorities on Friday ordered police to be ruthless with an outlawed cult blamed for murders and violent robberies and held by officials to be attempting to win legitimacy by transforming itself into a political party. "Despite the sect having been banned, there are obvious indications that it is still alive," said National Security Minister John Michuki.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Horn of Africa where millions of people in four countries are facing severe food and water shortages and potential famine.

Eritrea on Thursday said it doubted the ”legality and political relevance” of a United States diplomatic mission being sent by Washington to ease simmering border tensions between it and Ethiopia. In recent months, tensions have soared along the border with the United Nations reporting troop movements on both sides.

A searing drought that has put millions of people across East Africa at risk of famine is threatening Kenya’s famed wildlife herds as they stray from protected areas to forage for scarce food and water. Officials said elephants had killed at least two people in the past two weeks around Tsavo, which is home to the largest number of the animals.

Kenya on Tuesday lamented its absence from the list of the world’s poorest nations whose debts were cancelled last year by the Group of Eight (G8) rich industrialised countries, saying it was being punished for good financial performance.

Eritrea stepped up criticism of the United Nations in its bitter border row with Ethiopia late on Monday, even as the United States moved to ease soaring tensions between the arch-rival neighbours. In a statement, Eritrea accused the world body of showing ”ingrained bias” against it.

Kenya’s government on Friday ordered the immediate purchase of ”all available maize in the country” in an emergency bid to stave off deaths from a searing drought that has killed dozens and placed millions at risk of famine across East Africa. The Cabinet described the situation as ”very severe”.

International aid agencies on Thursday stepped up appeals for urgent intervention in drought-hit northern Kenya, warning of mass starvation in the region where at least 40 people have already died of hunger and related illness amid fears of a major famine.

The United States on Tuesday renewed its terrorism warning for US citizens in or thinking of travelling to Kenya in a step likely to anger the Kenyan government which has long fought for the alert to be lifted. In a travel warning the State Department urged ”American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to Kenya at this time due to ongoing safety and security concerns”.

Somalis said prayers in mosques along their Indian Ocean coastline for more than 30 000 survivors left homeless and without livelihoods by the tsunami that traversed the sea from Asia, with many wondering what had happened to promised aid, presidential spokesperson Yusuf Ismail said on Monday.

The world’s major powers and the United Nations must move urgently to prevent a new border war between arch-rival Horn of Africa neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea that could further destabilise the volatile region, a leading international policy institute warned on Thursday.

Civil unrest, a recent wave of assassinations and piracy in Somalia are hampering humanitarian access to more than one million vulnerable people in the war-ravaged nation, said members of the aid community at the presentation of the 2006 humanitarian appeal for Somalia on Wednesday.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday urged the East African nation to shun heated political debates and focus on development amid an outcry over his new Cabinet that has sparked a revolt among ministers and deputies. He delivered an address marking the 42nd anniversary of Kenya’s independence from Britain.

Sudan’s top leadership, including President Omar el-Beshir, bears responsibility for widespread atrocities committed in the troubled western Darfur region, a leading human rights watchdog said on Monday. ”The Sudanese government at the highest levels is responsible for widespread and systematic abuses in Darfur,” Human Rights Watch said.

Ethiopia said on Friday it is prepared to withdraw from its disputed border with Eritrea in compliance with a United Nations order aimed at reducing tension between the two countries. ”This move is in the interests of peace,” said Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, according to the Ethiopian News Agency.