Fistula is a condition caused by difficult, protracted labor in which the fetus' head presses against the mother's pelvis so hard that it cuts off the blood supply to the area and kills the surrounding tissue. The result is a small, abnormal pipe-like opening, or "fistula," usually between the bladder and the vagina, that causes the woman to leak urine and stool uncontrollably. Surgery to repair a fistula usually only takes about 15 minutes, but in parts of the world where poverty has limited or eliminated women's access to natal care, the fistula problem is dire.

Friday 13th August sees the opening of the official Festival Eritrea in Washington DC at the Renaissance Hotel. The event takes place over three days and for the first time the celebration will be held in three separate venues to encompass the three neighbourly Eritrean communities of Virginia, Maryland and Washington.

Hundreds of thousands of Eritrean children are living in extreme poverty due to prolonged drought, the aftermath of border conflict with neighbouring Ethiopia and its impact on the country's economy, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported. UNICEF said in a humanitarian update that an estimated 425,000 children under 14 years of age were affected, mostly in families that were largely dependent on and headed by women.

Members of the National Union of Eritrean Women in Washington DC are organising a seminar during Festival Eritrea 2004. The seminar aims to enhance the unity of Eritrean Women and will be held on Saturday August 14th. More information is available on the link provided.

The human rights situation in Eritrea has continued to deteriorate, according to a new report by Amnesty International. Torture, arbitrary detentions and political arrests are widespread, says the human rights organisation. Religious persecution and ill treatment of those trying to avoid military service are increasing, Amnesty adds. Next week Eritreans will come together to celebrate 13 years of independence from Ethiopia.

The UN has delivered an ultimatum to Eritrea after relations between the two sunk to a new low. The UN said Eritrea must cooperate with its peacekeeping force patrolling the border with Ethiopia, or else ask the UN to leave. The UN says its staff have been illegally detained, while Eritrea accuses the peacekeepers of serious crimes including paedophilia. Eritrea also claims the UN is destabilising the region.

As the blazing sun mercilessly beats down on her, Halima Abdi Adam squints and tries to find some shade under a shrivelled tree. She is one of over 3,200 Somali refugees who have ended up in the Emkulu refugee camp on the outskirts of the Eritrean port city of Massawa. Emkulu, administered by the Eritrean Office of Refugee Affairs (ORA), which in turn is funded by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), was originally intended as a transit centre for Eritrean returnees from Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have been applying for voluntary repatriation from camps in eastern Sudan which, for many of them, have been their homes for 30 years since they fled the fighting of Eritrea’s liberation war.

The Ministry of Health has established The Orotta School of Medicine in Asmara, the first medical school in Eritrea. The school admitted its first students on 16 February, 2004. As the first class entry, 32 (thirty two) students have been admitted to the program and of these 6 (six) are women.

After more than 30 years in exile, an estimated 1,700 Eritrean refugees left their camps in eastern Sudan to return home to Eritrea this week, in the biggest return convoy this year. On Wednesday, a convoy of 58 passenger buses and more than 30 luggage trucks carrying 1,770 refugees and their belongings crossed into Eritrea under the escort of officials from Sudan and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

The first thing one notices upon landing in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, is that the streets are clean. The people are friendly, dressed very smartly and there is no evidence of homelessness or beggars. This in a country of an annual per capita income of about $350. The streets of Asmara are safe to walk, even more so for "tilliano´s" or "sa´ada", white people, anywhere, anytime of day or night. Serious crime is rare, to the point of being non existent for most Eritreans. When you leave Asmara the first thing you notice is the reforestation and soil conservation efforts of Eritrea´s student summer national service program, along with the peacetime military. Imagine the highlands of the North African Rift mountains, 8,000 foot altitude, driving down towards the lowlands for hours, through some very rugged terrain, and every cliffside and mountain is layered with walls, and where possible, young trees. Many thousands of miles of walls and millions of trees, all done since independence in 1991.

Internally displaced Eritreans continue to suffer the consequences of war and drought, resulting in inadequate fulfilment of basic needs such as food, water, health care, shelter and education, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported. OCHA said the country still had 58,953 internally displaced persons (IDPs), living in and outside camps and unable to return to their places of origin. "Although much has been accomplished to assist these IDPs, many basic needs are not yet fully met. A continuous effort is required to avoid a deterioration of the situation," it said.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Eritrean government are carrying out their first-ever joint registration of around 4,000 refugees, some of whom have been in the country for up to 10 years.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers assured Eritrean President Isiais Afewerki on 14 November that the UNHCR would step up efforts to conclude its repatriation programme from neighbouring Sudan. However, he also called for more support for reintegration projects to ensure that the returns are sustainable.

UN officials have warned of a move towards a “silent humanitarian emergency” in Eritrea unless the level of international aid is sustained. Christian Balslev-Oleson, country representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), pointed out that malnutrition among women and children in the traditional breadbasket regions of Gash Barka and Anseba was rising rapidly.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was due to resume the repatriation of thousands of Eritrean refugees from Sudan on Wednesday. In a statement, it said some 36,000 Eritrean refugees would be assisted to go home.

PATH Kenya (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) is seeking to fill a Program Officer position to fill a minimum of a one-year position based in Asmara, Eritrea with 30% travel within Eritrea. The Program Officer will be involved in a variety of HIV and AIDS interventions and responsible for the development of a range of communication media including interpersonal, print, mass and folk media.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) marked the second anniversary of the Eritrean government's crackdown on the country's political opposition and the private press by calling for the release of 17 jailed journalists. With the journalists in prison and no domestic independent media, Eritrea has earned the dubious distinction of being Africa's leading jailer of journalists, as well as one of CPJ's "10 Worst Places to be a Journalist" two years in a row.

The Eritrean government should release political prisoners and allow for freedom of the press, Human Rights Watch said on the second anniversary of a major crackdown against civil society. Eritrea’s practice of arbitrary arrests and detentions continues to this day. "Eritreans, who struggled valiantly to become free and independent, deserve to have their human rights respected," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "Unfortunately, the government continues to deny them that opportunity."

Fifteen journalists are still languishing in Eritrean prisons nearly two years after a crackdown on the independent media, according to Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Association of Eritrean Journalists in Exile (AEJE). The two organisations have criticised the "arbitrary" way in which the authorities carry out arrests as well as the secrecy surrounding journalists arrested in Eritrea.

In the past decade, the Gash-Barka region in Eritrea's western lowlands on the borders of Sudan and Ethiopia has become a site of resettlement for refugees returning from Sudan and those displaced by border clashes with Ethiopia. What impact has their arrival had on an already fragile natural resource base? What lessons can be applied to other settlement schemes for displaced people?