from ReutersBy Aasa Christine StoltzOSLO - The Norwegian government, companies and a private investor have formed a $117 million microcredit fund aiming to help people in poor countries out of poverty, although critics have said its interest rates will be too high.It will be one of the world's biggest funds in the field of microfinance which involves lending small sums of cash to poor entrepreneurs who would otherwise not have access to traditional banking or credit facilities.Privately owned financial group and initiator Ferd has joined with banking group DnB NOR, insurance company Storebrand, life insurer KLP and the government to set up the 600 million Norwegian crowns ($117.1 million) fund.The state will contribute 50 percent of the fund, and the other partners the rest, the foreign...
from Monsters and CriticsDonor countries and international agencies Tuesday met with representatives of the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) to discuss new aid commitments to shore up a three-year old peace deal on Sudan.Norway, hosting the meeting that ends Wednesday, helped broker the 2005 peace deal that ended a two decade long civil war and Oslo also hosted a donor meeting in April 2005.'A lot has been done but more has to done,' Norway's Environmnent and International Development Minister Erik Solheim said, noting the need to integrate the former SPLA rebel forces with the Sudan army.Citing his experience as mediator in other conflicts, Solheim underlined the need for 'political will' to achieve progress.Solheim said Sudan was heading for a more...
Apee Ojulu editor of Gambela Today writes:
There has been a sort of unanimity among various advisors in Prime Minister Meles Zenawi government that in an all-out-war they will defeat the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) within few days. Zenawi’s Foreign Ministry warning to the UIC that his administration “will not tolerate an Islamist regime in neighboring Somalia” is an indication of that confidence (see MCT, /22, 2006). But hubris is not a military strategy to win a war. It is a risking scheme. Having mechanized forces, countless warplanes, weapons, backing of the international and capacities to destroy every house in Somalia do not prove to win the war. Recent war between Israeli mechanized army forces against a lesser tech wired Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah forces have...
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Islamic Courts Union spokesman Abdi-Rahiin Ali Mudey was quoted as saying:
Ethiopia has recently asked us to start talks with them so the deadline was basically meant to tell the Ethiopians to withdraw from Somalia, then talks they offered would be possible.
Does this mean that the threat of all out war is receding? I am not so sure but I hope that is case. We must give peace a chance.
Click here to view the full article on the BBC News....
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Cali Maxmed Geedi,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Norway
The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation reports:
An Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has reaffirmed support for the ongoing initiatives to promote dialogue for sustainable peace in Somalia. However the meeting at State House Nairobi today under the chairmanship of President Mwai Kibaki, the noted that the prevailing situation posed a threat to peace and gravely undermined the ability of the Transitional Federal Institutions in Somalia to consolidate the gains made so far to achieve long-term stability. The meeting, attended by President Abdulahi Yusuf of Somalia and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia re-affirmed support for the Transitional Federal Charter and Federal Transitional Institutions as an embodiment of the common will of the Somali people. In a communiqué...
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Norway
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway, as his new Special Humanitarian Envoy for the Horn of Africa, in response to recurrent drought and food insecurity devastating the region. More than 40 per cent of the population are currently undernourished in the Horn, one of the most food-insecure regions in the world. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that severe drought is threatening the lives of an estimated 11 million people across Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. This compounds what is already a dire humanitarian situation in countries beset by years of high rates of malnutrition and morbidity, chronic food insecurity and the effects of conflict.
Time permitting, I will write more about this...