U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 email: irin@ocha.unon.orgCentral and Eastern Africa IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 13 25 - 31 March 2000
CONTENTS: HORN OF AFRICA: Over 12 million facing famine ETHIOPIA: War limits government's ability to cope - SCF ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: 'Proximity talks' postponed DJIBOUTI: Hardline FRUD leader returns from exile SOMALIA: UN operations in Kismayo suspended SUDAN: Rebels slam government disruption of Nuba vaccination campaign SUDAN: Rebels attack strategic Kassala airport DRC: Banyamulenge said surrounded by Mayi-Mayi DRC: Call for calm in Kisangani BURUNDI: Peace process resumes BURUNDI: No accord at this time - Buyoya BURUNDI: Delegates unimpressed by draft accord RWANDA: UN memorandum on 1994 plane crash found RWANDA: Court confirms Kagame as acting president UGANDA: Refugees return to Rwanda HORN OF AFRICA: Over 12 million facing famine Over 12 million people may require emergency food assistance due to drought in the Horn of Africa region, WFP warned on Thursday. In a press release, it said other factors were also affecting the humanitarian situation in the region such as ongoing armed conflicts and the presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people. WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini has been appointed the UN Secretary-General's special envoy on drought in the region, and will travel to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Eritrea next month. "This catastrophe can be averted with the right type of donor assistance," said UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie in New York. WFP said Ethiopia is the hardest-hit country, accounting for 80 percent of the overall food requirement. Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda are also affected. ETHIOPIA: War limits government's ability to cope - SCF Recurrent drought, shrinking farm sizes, reduced employment opportunities and the erosion of community coping strategies have left an increasing number of people vulnerable but certain structural problems worsen the situation considerably, Save the Children (SCF) said in a report. With most major food shipments not due until June, the drop in Ethiopia's Emergency Food Security Reserve to around 60,000 mt - substantially less than a single month's distribution - was a serious concern, the SCF report said. In addition, the war with Eritrea had had "a dramatic impact on food security" by diverting trucking capacity and increasing costs; denying access to the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab, thus establishing a dangerous over-reliance on Djibouti; and denying rural households their traditional supplementary income sources in Eritrea and western Tigray, SCF added. There was serious doubt about Ethiopia's capacity to move the 120,000 mt of food aid per month envisaged this year, particularly if the war - currently in a lull - flares up again, it said. ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: 'Proximity talks' postponed The 'proximity talks' on the subject of the technical arrangements for the OAU peace plan failed to transpire on Friday 24 March, delayed by Eritrea's insistence on clarification in advance of the format for discussions and specific issues to be addressed. In a statement issued by the cabinet, Eritrea expressed its willingness to cooperate in ongoing OAU efforts to establish peace but demanded, "in order to ensure the success of the new round of efforts," that "the specific issues for discussion as well as the format and modalities of the discussion must be fully clarified in advance." It also insisted that the OAU should officially announce that the technical arrangements, "which had been submitted as non-amendable," were now open for discussion by both sides. DJIBOUTI: Hardline FRUD leader returns from exile Ahmed Dini, president of the hardline, armed faction of the Afar Front pour la Restauration de l'Unite et la Democratie (FRUD) returned to Djibouti on Wednesday morning after nine years in exile, Agence France Presse reported. The return from Yemen of Dini follows a peace deal between the government and FRUD in February which provided for a cessation of hostilities, a general amnesty for all FRUD combatants in exile, and the liberation of prisoners held by both sides, it added. FRUD was launched as a rebel movement in 1991 by the Afars - the country's second largest community, living mainly in the northern half of the country. One faction made peace and a coalition with the government in 1994, while Dini's FRUD "combatant" remained committed to armed resistance. SOMALIA: UN operations in Kismayo suspended All UN air and ground operations in the Kismayo area have been suspended until further notice after a UN aircraft carrying a pilot and three international UNICEF workers came under fire as it was taking off from the airport. According to a UN news release, nobody was injured in the shooting but bullets passed through the plane. However, the aicraft was able to continue its flight and landed in Baidoa. The shooting came a day after the UNICEF representative for Somalia visited Kismayo to explore the possibility of resuming UN humanitarian work in the area, the news release said. SUDAN: Rebels slam government disruption of Nuba vaccination campaign The Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) on Tuesday accused the government of violating its own ceasefire by launching a four-pronged military offensive on Heiban, Buram, Western Jabal and Dalami in the Southern Kordofan area of the Nuba Mountains. SPLM spokesman Samson Kwaje said 8,000 people had been displaced in Buram alone, and needed urgent humanitarian assistance having had their crops and granaries looted or burned. He also condemned the government's refusal of flight authorisation for UN flights due to leave on Tuesday for the second phase of a polio vaccination campaign in the Nuba Mountains. Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) told IRIN on Thursday the second round of vaccinations in the Nuba region, set for this week, had been postponed because government agreement on the Days of Tranquillity required for the exercise had not been secured. Negotiations were continuing to secure dates on which the second round vaccination could go ahead. SUDAN: Rebels attack strategic Kassala airport SPLM commander John Garang on Thursday said his fighters had been responsible for attack on the airport in the northeastern city of Kassala in which, he claimed, an Antonov bomber, the airport's fuel depot and main ammunition stores had been destroyed. The Sudanese army admitted that the airport tower had been attacked but made no mention of any damage, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. Garang said the plane had been targeted because it was one of those which has been bombing civilians in south Sudan, and because it was being used to ferry troops from the southern bases of Juba and Wau for the government's eastern offensive. The attack was "very serious" because Kassala is on the main road from Khartoum to Port Sudan, along which all the country's imports and exports pass, the BBC added. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Banyamulenge said surrounded by Mayi-Mayi Mayi-Mayi militia forces have reportedly surrounded the Moyen Plateau area of South Kivu and have launched attacks against the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge population there, independent humanitarian sources told IRIN on Thursday. The Mayi-Mayi are said to be under Zimbabwe's command, and Banyamulenge sources have reported a large loss of life. There has been no independent confirmation of the deaths, but the Banyamulenge community in South Kivu on 19 February issued a statement warning that a "campaign to exterminate" them was being planned. Anti-Banyamulenge leaflets have been distributed in Bukavu and the anti-Tutsi hate station Radio Patriote has resumed its broadcasts. The humanitarian sources told IRIN that 700 Banyamulenge have fled to the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, since the beginning of the year. DRC: Call for calm in Kisangani Both Uganda and Rwanda say they have no interest in fomenting a crisis that may result in their troops clashing in the DRC town of Kisangani, eight months after a fierce battle there that led to the deaths of hundreds of troops and civilians. "We have called on the Ugandans to manage their side," Major Emmanuel Ndahiro, spokesman for the acting Rwandan president and defence minister Paul Kagame told IRIN on Wednesday. His comments follow a statement issued on Sunday by the Rwanda-backed rebel RCD- Goma accusing Uganda of building up troops in Kisangani "in a manner reminiscent of what preceded the fighting of August 1999" between Ugandan and Rwandan forces. Uganda denied there was any tension in Kisangani. "There is nothing that can be described as tension in Kisangani, we are in regular contact with our people on the ground and life is going on normally," Lieutenant-Colonel Noble Mayombo, the deputy head of Ugandan military intelligence told IRIN. "As far as the Uganda People's Defence Force is concerned there is no cause for alarm." BURUNDI: Peace process resumes The Burundi peace process resumed in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha on Monday, attended by several heads of state and the facilitator, Nelson Mandela. African leaders - including Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and a Libyan cabinet minister - met in closed door session ahead of the meeting, Kenyan radio reported. Regional analysts point out the Arusha peace process has been given new momentum with the inclusion of armed rebel groups - the FDD and FNL - although they were not present at this round of talks. BURUNDI: No accord at this time - Buyoya President Pierre Buyoya, speaking at Bujumbura airport on Sunday before leaving for Arusha, said that while the peace talks were at an advanced stage, there was not yet sufficient progress for a peace accord. "There will be no peace agreement at the meeting that starts tomorrow [Monday]...it is not possible," he said, according to Radio Umwizero, which broadcasts from Bujumbura. Buyoya noted that talks had not yet started on the issue of a ceasefire which had to precede the signing of a peace accord. BURUNDI: Delegates unimpressed by draft accord Some delegates to the Arusha peace process have said they are not happy with a 200-page draft accord delivered to them by the mediators at the end of the negotiations, saying it contains nothing new. "We don't regard this as a draft agreement but as a compilation of different positions stated by the different delegations negotiating here," Godefroid Hakizimana , president of the pro-Tutsi Social Democratic party (PSD) told AFP. CNDD spokesman Jean- Marie Sindayigaya agreed. "This draft is nothing new compared with the documents that were distributed at the end of February," he told the news agency. "It's a compilation ... of the work we have already done." Issues still under discussion include army reform, the future electoral system and transitional arrangements. RWANDA: UN memorandum on 1994 plane crash found UN spokesman Fred Eckhard says the organisation has found a "three-page internal memorandum" on the shooting down of a plane in 1994 in which the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were both killed. He told a news briefing there was no report as such, as alleged in an article by the Canadian 'National Post' newspaper. The article, issued earlier this month, said the UN document contained allegations of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) complicity in the downing of the plane. "That memo was drafted by Michael Hourigan, who had been an investigative team leader for the Tribunal Prosecutor's Office in Rwanda that was investigating the 1994 genocide in that country," Eckhard said. "He subsequently was engaged on a short-term contract with the [Office for] Internal Oversight Services here in New York, at which time he drafted this internal memo." The memorandum has been transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) which will determine whether or not to make it available to lawyers for clients facing prosecution. Eckhard stressed that the memo was the product of an individual who "committed to paper his thoughts, as well as information conveyed to him", and which subsequently "got buried in a file". RWANDA: Court confirms Kagame as acting president The Supreme Court ruled at the weekend that Vice-President Paul Kagame should assume the duties of President of Rwanda until a successor was found to former President Pasteur Bizimungu, who resigned last Thursday. The court issued a statement on Saturday stating that "the protocol of agreement among political forces signed on 24 November 1994, which creates the post of vice-presidency, prevails over the Arusha peace accords signed in 1993 when the two are in conflict," Radio Rwanda reported. A press release from the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) said its political bureau would reconvene on 1 April to nominate its two presidential candidates to succeed Bizimungu. A joint session of parliament and the cabinet will then choose between the two. UGANDA: Refugees return to Rwanda Fifty-one refugees were repatriated to Rwanda from camps in southwest Uganda on Tuesday, a UNHCR official told IRIN. A convoy with the 18 returnee families went through Miroma Hill in Ntungamo district and reached Rwanda safely, the official said on Thursday. No further repatriations from the camps were currently planned, she added. 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