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Integrated Regional Information Network for the Horn of Africa

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN Weekly Round-up 1
4 - 8 September 2000



CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Faction leaders condemn new interim authority
SOMALIA: New premier to be named after UN summit
SOMALIA: UN summit marks end to diplomatic isolation
SOMALIA: Egypt pledges support for interim authority
SOMALIA: Hopes for improved humanitarian access
SOMALIA: Somaliland detains newly elected MP
SOMALIA: Puntland officers refuse to detain returning delegates
SOMALIA: Over 23 killed in clashes
SOMALIA: Grenade explodes in Mogadishu
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: UNHCR says voluntary repatriation of refugees continuing
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Somaliland in trade and transport agreement with Ethiopia
SUDAN: Rebel leader Garang explains stalling of peace talks
SUDAN: Government to attend peace talks
SUDAN: Ummah to participate in opposition umbrella group meeting
SUDAN-EITREA: Troops move to eastern Sudan border
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: ICRC visits Ethiopian POWs
ETHIOPIA: Newspapers to shut down
ETHIOPIA: Donor humanitarian contributions sought
ERITREA: WFP assistance to war victims
ERITREA: President departs for UN summit
HORN OF AFRICA: New humanitarian reports

SOMALIA: Faction leaders condemn new interim authority

Faction leaders in Somalia opposed to the newly elected interim authority
have called for new peace talks in which they should lead the process, the
independent daily 'Xog Ogaal' reported on Monday. It said the faction
leaders, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad, Husayn Aydid, Uthman Ato, Husayn Haji Bod,
Adan Gabiyow and Mawlid Ma'ni Mahmud, had issued a four-point statement
after meeting on Sunday in Garowe, capital of Puntland in northeastern
Somalia. 

In a separate statement carried by the independent Banaadir Radio, Husayn
Aydid, reportedly called on the international community not to recognise
the newly elected president. In a broadcast monitored by the BBC, he said
such recognition could lead to renewed faction fighting in Somalia which
has been without a central government during a decade of civil war and
anarchy. 

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmad, the leader of Puntland in northeast Somalia, and
the Mogadishu faction leader Husayn Muhammad Aydid were reported
subsequently to have reached an agreement during a meeting in Nairobi to
oppose the new interim government, according to Wednesday's independent
daily, 'Xog-Ogaal'. 

SOMALIA: New premier to be named after UN summit

In his first official visit to a foreign country since his inauguration in
Djibouti and a visit to Somalia, interim President Abdulqasim Salad Hasan
of Somalia visited the Egyptian capital, Cairo, at the weekend, news
reports said on Monday.

At a news conference on Sunday, he was quoted by the MENA Egyptian news
agency as saying he would appoint a new prime minister once he had
returned from the UN Millennium Summit, which opened in New York on
Wednesday.  Reacting to the stance of the faction leaders, he urged them
"to join him during this crucial stage, assuring that the Somali people
were the party ruling the country". 

He also said that the Somali people needed Arab support in such difficult
circumstances. The Egyptian agency, MENA, said Abdiqasim Salad had also
called on Arab countries to deal with the new interim leadership elected
in Djibouti "as this was a request of the Somali people. The Somali people
want to live in peace," he said, adding that he would announce a detailed
plan to reconstruct war-ravaged Somalia. 

SOMALIA: UN summit marks end to diplomatic isolation

Ending nearly a decade of diplomatic isolation, Somalia's newly elected
president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, gathered with world leaders in New York
on Wednesday for the opening of the UN Millennium Summit. "I am so happy
that we are back here after over 10 years of absence from the
international scene," he told Reuters. "The message we bring is one of
peace for Somalia, peace for the Horn of Africa and for Africa as a whole.
Let bygones be bygones and let us start a new relationship between
ourselves, with our neighbours and the international community."
 
The reports said the Somali flag was raised at the UN headquarters for the
first time in 10 years as Abdiqasim Salad prepared for his speech before
the summit on Friday.
 
Abdiqasim Salad, also apologised to the UN for the bloody clashes between
UN peacekeepers and Somalis in the 1990s. "Mistakes were made on both
sides but I would like to apologise to the United Nations and the world
for the errors committed by Somalis," he said. 

SOMALIA: Egypt pledges support for interim authority

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa has pledged Egyptian support to help
rebuild Somalia following the election of a new transitional government,
the MUSA Egyptian news agency reported on Tuesday. It said the pledge was
made on Monday when visiting Somali President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan was
received by Amr Musa at the 114th ministerial session of the Arab League. 

Amr Musa also said the Arab League would issue resolutions on Somalia that
would promote Abdiqasim Salad and pave the way for Arab participation in
the reconstruction of the capital, Mogadishu, much of which is in ruins
following a decade of war and anarchy. 

SOMALIA: Hopes for improved humanitarian access

Randolph Kent, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, UNDP Resident
Representative and Designated Official for Somalia, has said he hoped that
humanitarian access in Somalia would improve now that a new president and
an interim parliament, the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) had been
elected. In an interview published by IRIN on Monday, Kent cited at least
three levels at which he saw hope for improvement. 

SOMALIA: Somaliland detains newly elected MP

The authorities in the self-ruled northwestern territory of Somaliland
have reportedly arrested a newly elected MP serving with Somalia's new
Transitional National Assembly (TNA) and charged him with treason.
According to a broadcast on Monday by Hargeysa Radio, monitored by the
BBC, the TNA member, Garaad Abshir Salah, is a traditional leader, who
travelled to the Somali peace talks in neighbouring Djibouti.He was said
"to have undermined the sovereignty of the Republic of Somaliland. Mr
Salah will be arraigned in court and charged with treason for the crime he
committed against his country," the radio said, quoting a statement issued
by the Somaliland Ministry of Interior. 

SOMALIA: Puntland officers refuse to detain returning delegates

Meanwhile, in the neighbouring northeast territory of Puntland, a local
weekly, 'Yool', reported on Monday that 11 senior security officers had
been dismissed following an incident in which security officers refused to
arrest delegates returning from the Djibouti conference. 

SOMALIA: Over 23 killed in clashes killed in clashes

Clashes between heavily armed rival militias on Monday near the town of
Jowhar about 90 km north of the capital Mogadishu have resulted in at
least 23 deaths and 18 wounded, news agencies reported. They said the
fighting between gunmen of the Galje'l and Hawadle sub-clans of the major
Hawiye clan and erupted after the Galje'l alleged attacked the Hawadle
village of Dai'f. 

SOMALIA: Grenade explodes in Mogadishu

At least two people were killed and others were wounded on Tuesday night
when a grenade exploded at the Bakaaraha Market in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, sources told IRIN on Wednesday. The sources said they did not
have details of incident or who was responsible for the detonation. 

SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: UNHCR says voluntary repatriation of Somalis continuing

UNHCR has said that the number of Somali refugees repatriated from
Ethiopia this year has now reached 30,000, following the voluntary
repatriation of 1,539 people from the Hartisheik camp on 18 August. In a
statement on Friday, it said that it had helped a total of 111,877
refugees return to Somalia since 1997 when the repatriation programme
started. 

"As of today, there are some 136,000 Somalis left in eight camps in
eastern Ethiopia," the UNHCR statement said. Citing the repatriation of
Somali refugees from Kenya, which started this year, it said that so far
some 800 people had returned home from the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee
camps: "We are waiting for conditions to improve in southern Somalia
before facilitating the return of another 140,000 Somalis still in Kenyan
camps." 

SOMALIA: Somaliland in trade and transport agreements with Ethiopia

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia has signed an agreement on the transfer of
business letters of credit with the Bank of Somaliland, according to a
report on Wednesday by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). 

It said that the infrastructure needed to develop Somaliland's trade with
Ethiopia had received a boost when the offices of the new Somaliland Roads
Authority (SRA), a joint venture between the government and private
sector, and supported by the European Union (EU), officially opened in
Hargeysa on 23 May. 

The SRA had already begun maintenance work on more than 150 km of road
between Berber and Kalabeit along the road corridor to Ethiopia. It said a
second US $4 million road rehabilitation project by the EU and Denmark had
also been signed. The project would upgrade the road network between
Dila-Hargeisa-Berbera and Burao. 

SUDAN: Rebel leader Garang explains stalling of peace talks

John Garang, leaderof the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) has
said some items on the agenda and a two-track peace initiative were the
main reasons for the stalling of the peace efforts in Sudan. An SPLA
spokesman in Nairobi also told IRIN on Monday that the Sudanese government
had changed the timetable for peace talks three times. 

SUDAN: Government to attend peace talks

The government of Sudan said on Monday it would attend scheduled peace
talks on 21 September in Nairobi, Kenya, with the rebel Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM), state news media reported. Ahmad Ibrahim
al-Tahir, presidential adviser on peace issues, told Omdurman radio that
talks would go ahead as planned. The talks are to be held under the
auspices of the regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD). 

SUDAN: Ummah to participate in opposition umbrella group meetings

The Ummah party has decided to participate in meetings of the opposition
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Asmara by virtue of its membership
of the domestic NDA, a senior official of the party was on Monday quoted
by a Khartoum newspaper as saying. News reports said Ummah Party
Vice-Chairman Umar Nur al-Da'im had decided the party would be represented
in a 21-member delegation of the domestic NDA which would proceed on
Wednesday to seek to take part in the NDA general conference opening in
the Eritrean capital on Friday. 

SUDAN-ERITREA: Troops move to eastern Sudanese border

Eritrean troops and Eritrean-based Sudanese opposition forces have moved
into positions along the border with eastern Sudan, according to news
reports on Wednesday quoting the independent Sudanese daily, 'Al-Sahafi
Al-Dawli'. The reports, which were not independently confirmed, said the
Eritrean soldiers and opposition forces of the Sudan People's Liberation
Army (SPLA) had moved from the Eritrean interior to points just across the
border from Shelalub, Awad and Haferet in Sudan's eastern Kassala state. 
 
The newspaper, reporting from Kassala, said the Eritrean and SPLA forces
had taken up the new positions to thwart Sudanese government army plans to
retake Hameshkoreb town, which the SPLA occupied last year.

SUDAN: New US envoy appointed

A new US charge d'affaires, Raymond Brown, has been appointed to Sudan,
official media reports said on Thursday. Brown will replace Donald
Teitelbaum, who has been posted to Uganda. The reports said he would be
based in Nairobi, Kenya, and travel regularly to Sudan. 

Sudanese deputy Foreign Minister Gebriel Rorec, who met with the two
envoys Wednesday, told them of Khartoum's readiness for "continued"
negotiations with the US to "remove obstacles that hinder the
normalisation of ties with Washington." 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: ICRC visits Ethiopian POWs

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said it had been
able visit Ethiopian POWs held at various locations in Eritrea. In a
statement on Friday, it said ICRC delegates between 29 August and 1
September had visited Ethiopian POWs held at Nakfa camp, as well as
Ethiopian inmates at a prison and two other internment camps, where its
staff had been registering civilian internees.

ETHIOPIA: Newspapers to shut down

Private newspapers in Ethiopia have said they will stop publishing for one
week when the country celebrates its new year on 11 September in protest
at the rising costs of printing, news reports said on Tuesday. The reports
said the decision had been taken at an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa on
Saturday attended by more than 40 representatives of the Amharic language
press and distributors of independent newspapers. 

ETHIOPIA: Donor humanitarian contributions sought

Following a UN appeal on 24 August for drought victims in Ethiopia, WFP
said contributions were being sought from donors for US $30.5 million, for
the period September to January. Some US $15.1 million was required for
food needs and related costs and US $15.4 million for the agriculture,
health, nutrition, water and sanitation, emergency education, humanitarian
mine action, and HIV/AIDS sectors. 

[For details see: 
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/1c292ebb
87392c278525694d00655c1e?OpenDocument]

ERITREA: WFP assistance to war victims

WFP has said it has distributed 9,357 mt of food to 388,737 war victims in
Debub, Gash Barka and Mekete camps in Northern Red Sea Region and 50,780
drought victims in Anseba in August.

In its latest monthly emergency report, it said a crop performance
assessment and post-distribution monitoring project had been conducted in
Afabet, Kamchewa, Felket and Northern Red Sea. It found that late rainfall
had delayed cultivation and planting and that the majority of farmers had
no seeds. It also found that 10 percent of arable land had not been
cultivated.

[For details see: 
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/1c292ebb
87392c278525694d00655c1e?OpenDocument]

HORN OF AFRICA: New humanitarian reports

UNICEF, in its latest series of situation reports, said it had dispatched
over nine relief flights into Horn of Africa countries since April. These
included four to Eritrea, three to Ethiopia, and one each to Kenya and
Djibouti. Each flight carried up to 40 mt of relief supplies, including
therapeutic milk and biscuits for malnourished children, medical
equipment, and water purification supplies. It said the bulk was being
procured locally within each country, speeding delivery and supporting the
local economy. 

Manuel Aranda da Silva, the United Nations Regional Humanitarian
Coordinator for the Horn of Africa, said: "Generous donor support is
absolutely essential if we are to avert the current crisis from
degenerating into widespread famine." 

Somalia

UNICEF said a decade of conflict had left villages, schools, and health
facilities looted and destroyed. Crop production and livestock trade had
suffered as families had been forced to abandon their home communites for
security reasons. Nationwide, Somalia's infrastructure was in need of
major repairs. The current state of the infrastructure, it said, made the
distribution of humanitarian assistance even more difficult. 

Sudan

Sudan, it said, was one of the six countries most at risk in the Horn of
Africa facing a potential famine. The UN estimated that 1.7 million people
in Sudan would need food aid this year, with 75,000 at immediate risk. 
UNICEF, for its part, was concentrating its emergency efforts on
supplementary and therapeutic feeding, providing essential drugs and
vaccinations, and ensuring access to clean water supplies. 

Ethiopia

The UNICEF report said more than half of the Ethiopian population - over
10 million people - were at risk of starvation. It said 1.4 million of
them were children under five. Aid workers reported that dozens of
children in regions of southern Ethiopia were dying each day from
malnutrition and diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. "While food is
necessary, it is by no means alone," UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy said after a recent five-nation tour of the Horn of Africa.
"Malnourished children need supplemental feeding and special attention.
Immunisations are required against disease. Sanitation and clean water
prevent the spread of disease to begin with." 

UNICEF said its response to the situation in Ethiopia was therefore
multi-faceted, and included nutrition, health, water and environmental
sanitation, shelter and agriculural needs, as well as education, landmine
awareness, and women and children in need of special protection. 

Eritrea

The report said that out of a population of 3.1 million, 1.5 million
people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance because of the
border conflict with Ethiopia and severe drought conditions which had hit
the country. Ninety percent of those in urgent need were women and
children, the report said. 

[For the full report, see: 
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Horn+of+Africa+Drought?OpenDocument&
StartKey=Horn+of+Africa+Drought&Expandview]


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e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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