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

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN Weekly Round-up 8
21 - 27 October 2000



CONTENTS:

SUDAN: SPLM accuses army of breaking polio ceasefire
SUDAN: Monitors to check incursions into and from Uganda
KENYA-SUDAN: UNICEF chief says conflict biggest obstacle to aid
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Talks in Algiers
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN representative at talks
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: More observers deployed to front
ERITREA: Authorities detain journalists
ETHIOPIA: World Bank set to offer debt relief
SOMALIA: Security Council welcome efforts to promote reconciliation
SOMALIA: Factions adopt common strategy
SOMALIA: President Hasan courts Arab leaders

SUDAN: SPLM accuses army of breaking polio ceasefire

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility'
in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now under way,
and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang Deng
stated on Monday. This was the second timethe government had bombed
civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from
Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in
Tali and around Terakeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said. 
Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly
fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an
unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services
(JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLM/A and the
government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in
southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request
of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still
committed to observing the 10-day truce. [see separate IRIN report of 24
October on the Polio Immunisation Campaign]

SUDAN: Monitors to check incursions into and from Uganda

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing
contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to
prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan
newspaper, 'The New Vision' reported on Tuesday. The monitors were
expected to ensure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to
help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the
Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted the Sudanese minister
of state for external affairs, Ali Abd al-Rahman Numayri, as saying. The
deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital,
Khartoum, from 6 to 7 October and, although a meeting of a technical
committee to implement the plan was postponed on 20 October, contacts
between the two governments were continuing with a view to deploying the
monitors at an early date, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) -
was on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and
refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian
sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a
report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were
probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said. 

KENYA-SUDAN: UNICEF chief says conflict biggest obstacle to aid

Conflict, more than any other issue, posed the biggest problem to relief
projects such as the anti-polio campaign launched in Kenya and Sudan at
the end of last week, the executive director of the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, said on Tuesday. Speaking in Nairobi at the end
of a four-day visit to the two countries, Bellamy said the obstacles were
man-made rather than problems associated with logistics or equipment. She
expressed anger over ceasefire violations in Sudan, describing them as
"extremely unfortunate". Both the government and rebel sides had pledged
to abide by a "period of tranquillity" requested by UNICEF, but government
aircraft bombed the town of Nimule in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday as the
immunisations were in progress. 

While in Sudan, Bellamy secured a guarantee from the deputy chairman of
the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Salva Kiir Mayardit,
that children under 18 would be demobilised from rebel ranks. "This
promise is recognition that the military is not in any way a suitable
environment for a child," she said, according to a UNICEF press release.
UNICEF said there were about 9,000 child soldiers in southern Sudan. 

Bellamy's visit to Kenya focused on drought-relief activities in the
northwestern Turkana area, where she drew attention to particularly
vulnerable groups such as women and children. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Talks in Algiers

Delegations from Ethiopia and Eritrea led by their respective foreign
ministers were due to meet in Algiers on Monday. The two sides are holding
indirect talks brokered by Algeria, the US and the EU. According to the
BBC, the aim of the talks would be to turn the cessation of hostilities
signed by both sides on 18 June into a "final peace accord". The main
focus of the talks would be the demarcation of the disputed border, and
international arbitration. Eritrea wants the UN to demarcate the border
first, while Ethiopia insists on arbitration first. 

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has deputed Yogesh Saksena to
represent him at the talks. Saksena, who is Officer-in-Charge of the UN
Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), left Asmara on Saturday to travel
to Algiers.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: More observers deployed to front

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has deployed its second
batch of military observers. With the deployment on Monday, the operation
completed its second phase of the three-phase operation, and had up to 100
observers deployed. The second batch were sent "into forward positions
between the two countries", said a UNMEE statement.

The new observers were being deployed from Addis Ababa and Asmara to
supplement existing observer team sites and open up new ones, said the
statement. From Asmara, they were being sent to reinforce teams in Assab,
Adi Keyih, Adi Kwala and Barentu, and to open up a new team in Shambiko. 
>From Addis Ababa, observers were deploying to bolster teams in Inda
Silase, Zela Anbesa, Adigrat, and Manda, and open new sites in Rama and
Shiraro. 

On Tuesday, UNMEE took delivery of four MI-8 helicopters at Asmara airport
to support UN peacekeepers, according to an UNMEE press release. The
helicopters would be used to provide transport and medical and logistical
support for the UNMEE peacekeeping force. 

ERITREA: Authorities detain journalists

In a press release on Friday, Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) quoted a
letter addressed to the Eritrean information minister, Beraki
Gebreselasie, in which its general secretary, Robert Menard, protested
against the arrest of eight journalists in Asmara. "We ask you to do
everything in your power to ensure that the two journalists who are still
detained are released immediately," he told the minister in the letter.
The press release said that according to information collected by RSF,
eight journalists from private newspapers were arrested in Asmara on 14
October. Six of them were released on 18 October. However, Milkias
Mihretab, editor of the Tigrigna-language 'Keste Debene' and Yusuf
Muhammad Ali from the 'Tsigenay' weekly remained in a prison near Asmara.
They were officially in jail for "national service reasons", but sources
in Asmara were quoted as saying the eight had been arrested "because of
articles they published regularly criticising the government". 

ETHIOPIA: World Bank set to offer debt relief

A senior official of the World Bank on Monday told government
representatives, diplomats and NGO representatives in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa, that Ethiopia would be one of the countries to
benefit from the Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief
initiative, the New China News Agency, Xinhua, reported on Monday. HIPC
programme manager Jacob Kolster said Ethiopia had a strong commitment to
poverty reduction over the past decade - notwithstanding the
Ethio-Eritrean war having had a negative impact of poverty reduction in
the past two years - and would be admitted to the debt relief initiative
once the World Bank's governing board had accepted its poverty reduction
strategy, currently being revised. Ethiopia was working on a second draft
of its poverty strategy and the purpose of Kolster's mission was to
discuss the provisions of the paper with the Ethiopian government, he
said. Ethiopia currently has a debt of US $2.4 billion and alleviation of
its debt burden would free up significant sums to be used for poverty
reduction activities. 
 
SOMALIA: Security Council welcomes efforts to promote reconciliation

Members of the Security Council have welcomed the efforts of the
transitional government of Somalia to promote national reconciliation. In
a press statement issued on Wednesday after closed-door consultations on
the situation in Somalia, Council members "encouraged the participation of
all parties with the new transitional government towards this end". 

SOMALIA: Factions adopt common strategy

Mogadishu faction leaders have attempted to draw up a common strategy
towards the new government. According to 'Qaran', a south Mogadishu daily,
faction leaders Husayn Aydid, Husayn Haji Bod, Muse Sudi Yalahow, Uthman
Hasan Ali Ato and Muhammad Qanyare Afrah issued a signed statement calling
for a dialogue "at national level to avert anything that may bring about
confrontation". Somali political sources said the common strategy approach
may be a signal to the new government to negotiate with them, and reach
some sort of a compromise. The statement went on to urge the international
community "to help the country achieve sustainable peace and stability". 

SOMALIA: President Hasan courts Arab leaders

President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan has had several meetings in Egypt with key
members of the Arab League, and appealed to them to assist in the task of
rebuilding Somalia after years of war, Somali media reported on Monday.
Hasan met Presidents Husni Mubarak of Egypt, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of
Algeria, Ali Abdallah Salih of Yemen and Umar al-Bashir of Sudan, among
others, in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, they said. Mubarak praised the
manner in which the Djibouti peace process seemed to have resolved the
apparently intractable Somali conflict, and said Egypt would respect its
outcome. The Arab leaders promised in bilateral and multilateral talks
with the new Somali president that their countries would offer moral and
material assistance for Somalia's rehabilitation, the Mogadishu newspaper
'Xog-Ogaal' reported. 

Meanwhile, Somaliland leader Muhammad Ibrahim Egal has said he would never
hold talks with President Hassan as long as he disregarded Somaliland's
secession and independent existence, according to press reports monitored
by the BBC. Egal's reiteration of his position came after a recent visit
by diplomatic envoys from Italy, Ethiopia and Somalia to Hargeysa, capital
of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, to mediate and try to effect
a reconciliation between the two leaders, the reports said. 

SOMALIA: Two killed in grenade attack

Two people were killed and five others seriously wounded in a grenade
attack in Bosaaso in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in
northeastern Somalia, the BBC reported on Thursday. Police said the
attackers threw the grenade into a temporary shelter for people intending
to travel to Yemen. The police said the violence was probably related to a
dispute between boat owners involved in smuggling illegal immigrants to
Yemen. The victims are believed to be Ethiopians who had come to Bosaaso
to make the crossing. 

Earlier, on Monday, fighting between different clans with rival claims to
land left at least 10 dead and 15 injured in Qoroley, 75 km south of the
Somali capital Mogadishu, the Associated Press agency (AP) reported. The
fighting, which began on Sunday, pitted members of the Jiddu sub-clan,
which claims to own all the land around Qoroley, and farmers from other
clans who it claims have occupied its land, the report said. 

Nairobi, 27 October 2000


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