Al-Wahdawi [Archives:2007/1116/Press Review]
Tuesday, December 25
Top Stories
– JMP Spokesman: Corrupt officials will forcibly flee the country, authority will fall
– Neither President Saleh nor his party are entitled to amend the constitution, says JMP leadership
– Sa'ada tribes hold authority responsible for government complex incident
– Traffic accidents kill 48 Yemeni people, injure 413 others within five days
– Saudi nationals face charges of supporting Al-Qaeda operations in Yemen
– UN warns refugees against traveling to Yemen
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has begun a campaign in the Horn of Africa to warn the would-be migrants to Yemen about the hazards of crossing illegally to the Arab country, located in the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the weekly reported in a front page story. It quoted BBC News as saying that the UNHCR has published leaflets in Somali and Ethiopian languages in addition to radio cautions of the excessive risks of the journey.
Somali refugees are not the only persons who are risking the crossing but also Ethiopians trying to raise themselves from poverty by seeking work and a better life in the Middle East, or Europe, aid agencies say. The agency says more than 1,400 have died – killed by smugglers or drowned at sea – including some 58 last week.
Sheikh Abdulqader, chief of the elders in Bossasso told UNHCR that without the international community support, the Somali government can not prevent these desperate people from crossing, according to the BBC. A Somali diplomat in Yemen said he feared that 180 people had drowned in the past week. Somalia has not had a functioning national government for 16 years. The UN says some one million people are living rough, including 60% of the population of Mogadishu, following recent fighting.
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