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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN Weekly Round-up 12
18 - 24 November 2000



CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Former prime minister home from exile
SUDAN: Rebel soldiers come home
SUDAN: 18 reported dead in Yei bombing
SOMALIA: President in Khartoum for IGAD summit
SOMALIA: Attack on government hotel
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Abdiqasim describes visit as "successful"
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN mission has "great promise" - Annan
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Assistance to UN mission
ETHIOPIA: DPPC launches new appeal for displaced

SUDAN: Former prime minister home from exile

Former prime minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi returned to Khartoum on Thursday. 
According to the BBC, he was met at Khartoum airport by hundreds of
thousands of people. Men in white robes and turbans danced and raised
traditional sticks in the air to welcome him home, the report said. "Many
of the crowd who turned out to greet him shouted: 'No democracy without
Sadiq.'" More huge crowds were expected to turn out when he led prayers on
Friday close to the tomb of his great-grandfather and religious leader,
the Mahdi, renowned for fighting the British in the late 19th century.
Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi's return marks the end of four years spent in exile. 

SUDAN: Rebel soldiers come home

Some 400 soldiers from Sudan's opposition Ummah Party (UP) have crossed
the border from Eritrea and returned to Sudan's eastern Kassala State. UP
spokesman Abd al-Rasul al-Nur told reporters in Kassala that the returning
soldiers would be moved to a camp in the Fao area west of Kassala,
Panafrican News Agency (PANA) said. The contingent constitutes the last
returning batch of UP soldiers, allied to former Prime Minister Al-Sadiq
al-Mahdi. They agreed to return under the terms of an accord for further
negotiations on a return to democratic rule in Sudan, signed towards the
end of 1999, PANA said. The "declaration of principles" between Mahdi and
the government was brokered by authorities in Djibouti. 

SUDAN: 18 reported dead in Yei bombing

Sudanese government planes again bombed the Western Equatoria market town
of Yei, southern Sudan, on Monday afternoon, according to humanitarian and
media reports. Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), a humanitarian organisation
working in the area, told the BBC that 18 people had died in the attack,
and more than 50 were injured. According to NPA spokesman Dan Eiffe, the
planes dropped 14 bombs in a market area. "Apparently the bombs landed
smack in the middle of a market place. It is carnage," he told the BBC. 

The attack on Yei comes after complaints by international organisations
and aid agencies that the Sudanese government was targeting civilian and
humanitarian sites in a bombing campaign in southern Sudan. Yei was
described by the BBC as one of the biggest strongholds of the Sudan
People's Liberation Army (SPLA). 

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice said the
government of Sudan should immediately halt the bombing of civilian
targets. She made the remarks after a two-day visit to southern Sudan. 
Rice also called on the government to "stop the heinous practice of
slavery", said a report by the US Department of State. Despite promises by
the government to reform its policies and improve its human rights record,
there was "precious little evidence" to support its claims, said Rice. She
said the US would continue its support for people in Sudan, and was the
country's foremost humanitarian donor, having contributed more than US
$1,000 million in the last 10 years.

The visit of Rice to southern Sudan resulted in the withdrawal of visas
for US diplomats by the government in protest that she made the visit
without a visa. 

SOMALIA: President in Khartoum for IGAD summit

Somalia has taken up its seat at the Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) summit for the first time after more than a decade of
civil strife. Interim President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan arrived in Khartoum
on Thursday in time for the ministerial levels talks due to open the same
day, sources close to the Somali government told IRIN.  Members of the
Somali cabinet travelled with the president, including Foreign Minister
Isma'il Mahmud Hurre 'Buba'. 

SOMALIA: Attack on government hotel

Gunmen launched a rocket-propelled grenade at the Lafweyn Hotel in the
small hours of Sunday, sources in Mogadishu told IRIN. The Lafweyn, in
north Mogadishu, is one of the hotels accommodating MPs elected in August
in the Djibouti-hosted peace process. The attack took place despite
security having been tightened following the assassination of an MP last
week. There were no casualties in the attack, according to IRIN's sources.
The new government still faces opposition from faction leaders in the
city, as well as from the self-declared administrations of Somaliland in
the northwest and Puntland in the northeast. 

Meanwhile, Muse Sudi Yalahow, one of the main Mogadishu faction leaders
opposed to the new government, is reportedly mobilising his militia in
response to the police and army recruitment drive by the transitional
government. This move by Yalahow, whose main base is Madina, southwest
Mogadishu, came in reaction to the deployment of forces loyal to the
government in parts of Mogadishu, according to the Mogadishu daily,
'Xog-Ogaal'. Sources close to the government confirmed to IRIN that police
units, backed up by loyal militia, had been posted to most of Mogadishu's
police stations. 

In spite of this, there has been an increase in the level of insecurity in
Mogadishu. Radio Benaadir, based in north Mogadishu, reported a sharp
increase in cases of looting and roadblocks in the past few days. In a
report monitored by the BBC, the radio said on Tuesday that public
transport had been affected. Many bus owners had withdrawn their vehicles
from certain city routes, and higher fares had been charged by those
continuing service. 

SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: Abdiqasim describes visit as "successful" 

President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan has said his three-day official visit to
Ethiopia last week, when he held discussions with Ethiopian Prime Minster
Meles Zenawi, was "successful". In an interview with Djibouti state
television, monitored by the BBC, he said: "I do not expect any problems
to come from Ethiopia after this visit". He said he had discussed "all
issues" with Meles, and that the two governments had "agreed to
cooperate". 

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian foreign ministry has described the establishment
of the Somali transitional government as a "major achievement", but said
the process was incomplete. In a statement released on Monday, the
Ethiopian government said the peace process needed to be completed by
bringing in Somali parties that did not participate at the Djibouti-hosted
peace talks in August. The statement said during his talks with Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, the Somali president had given assurances that the
transitional government would do everything possible to remove "all
elements" that use Somali territory as a springboard to threaten regional
peace and stability. It said the president had also given assurances
during the talks that the new government would cooperate with neighbouring
states on security matters. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN mission has "great promise" - Annan

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 17 November briefed the Security
Council on the significance for the two countries of the peacekeeping
operations of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). "This new
operation holds great promise for the countries and people involved, for
Africa and for peacekeeping in general... We must get it right," Annan
said.

Ethiopia and Eritrea had agreed to open the first land access route for
UNMEE's use on Tuesday 28 November, though negotiations regarding air
access routes continued, he said. Such routes would be critical to UNMEE's
freedom of movement and early access to the planned Temporary Security
Zone, a 25 km area to be set up between the forces of the two countries,
Annan said. Both parties had also agreed to hold the first session of the
Military Coordination Commission (MCC) later in November, according to the
UN. The mission's military deployment had proceeded on schedule, with the
full strength of 4,200 troops, including up to 220 military observers,
expected to be in place early next year, the Security Council was told.

However, Annan expressed "serious concern" over the humanitarian situation
in both countries, reporting that more than 300,000 people were internally
displaced in Eritrea, and 350,000 more in Ethiopia. "The most critical
obstacle to their safe return and the resumption of normal life is the
presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance in areas along the border,"
he said. He called on the Security Council to support demining and
mine-awareness programmes by UNMEE and national commissions set up in each
of the countries. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Assistance to UN mission

Canada has announced it will deploy about 450 troops for six months to the
UNMEE to monitor the disputed border. The Canadian troops would join Dutch
troops and eight Canadian foreign staff members already there, the
'Montreal Gazette' said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the official Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, said two planes of
the Russian Ministry for Emergencies had left Moscow on Wednesday night
heading for Ethiopia and Eritrea. The planes would deliver 25 mt of canned
food, baby foods, 40 frame tents and 4,000 woollen blankets.  Another
plane would leave for Sudan next Monday to deliver canned milk and baby
food for Eritrean refugees in eastern Sudan, an official statement said.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Russia would continue
to contribute towards the Ethiopian-Eritrean peace settlement and take
part in the activities of the UN mission there, Itar-Tass said. 

ETHIOPIA: DPPC launches new appeal for displaced

The official Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission
(DPPC) has launched a new appeal internally displaced populations (IDPs) 
in the country. In the appeal, titled "Relief Assistance Requirements for
Internally Displaced and Deportees", the Commission said it had started
the process of rehabilitating IDPs and deportees (from Eritrea) with the
help of the World Bank.  According to the appeal, there are 363,901 IDPs
in Tigray and Afar states, and "33,000 people are expected to be deported
in the near future". The DPPC expected the rehabilitation process to take
two years and said it required US $112 million for non-food emergency
assistance. 

Nairobi, 24 November 2000

 
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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