The two main guerilla organizations in eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden region—the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)—say their forces have killed more than 150 government troops in joint operations this month. Ethiopian officials deny the claim. The OLF seeks autonomy for region's majority Oromo peoples, while the ONLF wants an independent state for ethnic Somalis in the region. Last month, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil installation, killing 65 Ethiopian and nine Chinese workers. (BBC, May 21)

Hundreds of Somalis who have fled violence in Mogadishu for the separatist enclave of Somaliland are unable to obtain aid from the UN as refugees or internally displaced persons (IDPs), because the UN does not recognize the breakaway republic as independent, while the government of Somaliland is unwilling to compromise claims of independence by recognizing Somalis as IDPs. (AlJazeera, May 21)

From the Global Information Network, May 21:

New York, NY — Mauritanian exiles living in New York filed a class action lawsuit today against Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, for the crimes committed during a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Black Mauritanians from 1989 to 1991. The lawsuit was filed in United States Federal Court by attorneys from the Refugee Defense Alliance.

A ship carrying tons of UN aid has refused to leave Kenya for Somalia following the May 19 pirate attack on an aid ship. The pirates failed to seize the ship, but one crew member was killed. It was the eighth priate attack of the year off Somalia's coast. The US Navy warned vessels to stay clear of Somalia's coast. The UN World Food Program has appealed for international action to secure the waters off the coast.

Fidelity Investments of Boston is denying that a sharp reduction in holdings of oil companies doing business in Sudan is a result of activist pressure over Darfur. Anne Crowley, a spokeswoman for the mutual-fund giant, said the sales were decided by the managers of individual Fidelity funds. "Fidelity doesn't tell fund managers how or when to buy or sell any given stock," she said. Fidelity documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week show its ownership of PetroChina Co. shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange declined from about 4.5 million earlier this year to 420,916 as of the end of March—a decrease of more than 90%. (Boston Globe, May 17)

Two radio reporters covering a provincial governor in south-central Somalia were gunned down May 16 when the official's motorcade was ambushed by clan militia. News editor Abshir Ali Gabre and reporter Ahmed Hassan Mahad of Radio Jowhar were killed when the motorcade of Mohammed Omar Deele, governor of the Middle Shabelle province, came under attack from gunmen of a rival sub-clan. Deele was unharmed, but at least six people were killed and several injured in the ensuing gun battle.

An African Union convoy was struck by a road-side bomb in the Somali capital of Mogadishu [May 16], killing an unknown number of Ugandan peacekeepers. [AlJazeera, May 16] A pair of aid workers—a Kenyan and a Briton—remain in the custody of their kidnappers in northern Somalia. The kidnappers are demanding "minor" political concessions from the authorities of Puntland, the semi-autonomous and relatively stable northern region of the country. [Reuters, May 15] Two South Korean fishing boats have been seized by pirates off Somalia's increasingly unprotected coast. [BBC, May 16]

John Holmes, the United Nations (UN) emergency humanitarian co-ordinator, has said that the UN will investigate accusations that human rights were violated during recent fighting in Mogadishu. Somalia has agreed to the inquiry. [AlJazeera, May 14] Aid workers are said to only be reaching one third of those civilians affected by the violence in Mogadishu. [Reuters, May 14]