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-HOA Weekly Round-up 31
31 March - 6 April 2001


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Fifteen officers dead in plane crash
SUDAN: Kenyan aid workers released	
SUDAN: Rebels want UN rights observer appointed
SUDAN: Nuba leader dies of cancer
SUDAN: Nile Basin ministers agree on development
SUDAN-KENYA: Moi calls for "acceptable" autonomy
SOMALIA: Released UN hostages arrive in Nairobi
SOMALIA: People flee tension in Bulo Hawa
SOMALIA: Editor released over women's death sentence
ETHIOPIA: Poor donor response to drought
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deployment of troops will continue
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military meeting to be held in Djibouti
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Special Representative visits operation area

SUDAN: Fifteen officers dead in plane crash

A Sudanese military aircraft carrying 31 senior army officers from the
capital Khartoum to Adar Yill, Upper Nile, crashed at the Adar Yill
airstrip on Wednesday. "The plane lost control on touchdown," a Sudanese
official at the Nairobi embassy told IRIN. The official said that 15
people had been killed, including Colonel Ibrahim Shams al-Din, the
minister of state for defence. Sixteen others were rescued from the
aircraft, including the deputy chief of staff of operations, General
Ja'far. According to the official, Shams al-Din was a member of the
Revolutionary Council that overthrew the civilian government in 1989, and
brought the current head of state, President Umar al-Bashir, to power. He
said Shams al-Din and the officers were on a "routine visit to a military
post".

In a report monitored by the BBC, Sudanese official television said the
general command of the Armed Forces had announced "the death of its
martyrs... [who] were on an inspection visit in the area". Names of the
(remaining)  dead released by the government were: Staff Lt-Gen Amir Qasim
Musa; Maj Dr Malik al-Aqib al-Hajj al-Khidr; Maj-Gen Bakri Umar Khalifah;
Maj-Gen Sayyid al-Ubayd Abd al-Halim; Maj-Gen Kamal al-Din Ali al-Amin;
Maj-Gen Ali Arik Kakuwan; Maj-Gen Yasin Arabi Muhammad; Maj Faysal Isa Abu
Fatimah; Brig-Gen Engineer Umar al-Amin Karrar; Staff-Brig Ahmad Yusuf
Mustafa; Staff-Brig Jimmy Apolo Modeh; Colonel Engineer Uthman Ahmad
al-Mustafa; Lt-Gen Umar Uthman Ali Jaramba; and Corporal Muhammad Ahmad
Muhammad Ya'qub.

The crash of the plane was caused by bad weather, a Sudanese official told
IRIN. A government spokesperson in Khartoum ruled out the possibility that
a rebel attack had brought the plane down, the BBC said.

SUDAN: Kenyan aid workers released

Two Kenyan nationals working with the US humanitarian agency Adventist
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) were handed over to the Kenyan
ambassador on 31 March, in Khartoum. The release followed a plea by the
visiting Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi to the Sudanese President Umar
al-Bashir, a government source told IRIN.

The Kenyans were among the four ADRA workers abducted by a militia group
loyal to Gordon Kong Chuol on 8 March. They were released by the militia
on 16 March, but were then held in government "safe house" until Saturday.  
According to official sources, the humanitarian workers were held for
being in the country "without proper visas".

SUDAN: Rebels want UN rights observer appointed

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said a UN Human Rights observer
should be appointed for Sudan, and should have access to both government
and rebel-held areas. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN that the
appointment of an observer was important, "because human rights are being
abused frequently". He pointed to the arrest of opposition leaders,
including Hasan al-Turabi, and the forced displacement of civilians around
the oilfields in south. Kwaje said there had also been a policy of
displacement in Bahr al-Ghazal, with the government deliberately settling
"non-indigenous" people from northern areas. "We believe the situation
needs to be watched very closely." According to Kwaje, the SPLA had held
talks with a representative from the UN Human Rights Commission and had
called for such an appointment to be made.

Last week, the Sudanese government rejected recommendations by the UN
Human Rights Commission for an observer to be appointed for Sudan. The
government said it would accept the input of an international human rights
expert, but that an observer was "not necessary".

SUDAN: Nuba leader dies of cancer

Yusuf Kuwah Makki, rebel regional governor of the Nuba mountains, died of
cancer on 31 March in London, UK. A senior member of the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), Kuwah had been replaced as regional governor by
Commander Abd al-Aziz Adam al-Hinu, a spokesman for the regional
secretariat office told IRIN. Spokesman Yunan Musa Kunda said Kuwah's
death had been announced in Nuba on the same day through the radio
network. His body would be flown back to "the liberated areas of [the]
Nuba mountains", but the time and place would not be announced because of
possible security problems, Kunda said. The spokesman described the
reaction in the Nuba Mountains as "quiet" as people had been aware of
Kuwah's state of health for some time; he had been diagnosed with cancer
in 1998.

SUDAN: Nile Basin ministers agree on development

Meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nile Council of Ministers have agreed to
cooperate on development projects. The participating ministers approved a
number of Nile basin development projects, including projects for
irrigation, electricity and the environment, Suna said. Projects to
develop research, training and exchange of information on water resources
were also approved, Suna said. Nile basin countries include Sudan,
Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo. The decision was reached at the end of a
meeting held from 28 to 30 March.

The closing session of the meeting also approved the establishment of
projects for the eastern Nile group of countries. These are Sudan, Egypt
and Ethiopia, with Eritrea participating as an observer, said Suna. Among
the projects to be carried out in the eastern Nile area were the
establishment of early warning systems and preservation projects. The Nile
group scheduled the first meeting of the International Consortium for
Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) - a donor group led by the World Bank -
for 26 June in Geneva, local Sudanese and Ethiopian news agencies said.

SUDAN-KENYA: Moi calls for "acceptable" autonomy

At the end of the visit by the President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya to
Khartoum, Sudan, the two governments issued a joint communiqué, the
Sudanese News Agency (Suna) said on 30 March. The communiqué said talks
between Moi and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir had focused on ways to
"re-invigorate" the peace process for southern Sudan. The two sides agreed
to hold a summit of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) committee on southern Sudan as soon as possible, Suna
said. The two presidents said there was need for progress in the peace
initiative to achieve a "permanent and just peace".

During the talks, Moi suggested that the Sudanese government include
freedom of religion and worship in its constitution, the government-run
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) radio said. He also suggested that
southern Sudan be granted autonomy, within an "acceptable non-federal or
federal structure", KBC said.

Moi also visited the Petroleum Research Centre in Khartoum and the
refinery at Al-Jayli, north of Khartoum. He congratulated Sudan on
becoming a "leading petroleum producer", KBC radio said. Moi called for
the promotion of trade between Sudan and Kenya and within regional trade
bodies like the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

SOMALIA: Released UN hostages arrive in Nairobi

The two UN hostages held in Mogadishu, who were released on Wednesday by
their captors, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, at 1625 local time. A UN press
statement said Roger Carter and Bill Condie of the UN security office were
transferred to Jazira airstrip, where they were picked up by a UN plane.  
Jazira is an airstrip southwest of Mogadishu, jointly controlled by
faction leaders Usman Ato and Muse Sudi Yalahow. The two were kidnapped on
27 March by militia loyal to faction leader Muse Sudi. The released
hostages arrived in good health, and were met by a physician and a
psychologist, the UN said.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Randolph Kent told reporters at
the airport that the UN was pleased by the release, and had not been
directly involved in the negotiations. "The UN does not pay ransoms," Kent
told journalists. On Wednesday, the two security officers were brought
from their place of captivity in the north of the city to the house of
Umar Muhammad 'Finish', right hand man of Muse Sudi, a Mogadishu-based
correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

SOMALIA: People flee tension in Bulo Hawa

The southern Somali border town of Bulo Hawa, Gedo Region, is said to be
almost deserted after people fled heavy fighting on Friday. Humanitarian
sources told IRIN that most of the town's population of an estimated
25,000 had fled, after at least 30 people were killed in a battle between
two sub-clans. Over 30 casualties were admitted to a hospital in the
neighbouring border town of Mandera, Kenya, humanitarian sources told
IRIN. The NGO Trocaire said it had provided emergency medical supplies to
Mandera, and a Trocaire doctor was operating out of Mandera hospital with
surgical cases.
 
Most of the displaced were renting accommodation or staying with relatives
in Mandera, Kathleen Fahy of Trocaire said. The Kenya authorities have
opened the border to fleeing civilians. No organised assistance had been
provided for the refugees, but elders had discussed with Kenyan
authorities the possibility of opening a temporary camp, humanitarian
sources said. "It is very likely that the displaced will return to Bulo
Hawa as tension eases," she told IRIN. Trocaire said it was monitoring the
situation closely. Elders and religious leaders are trying to negotiate a
settlement between the sub-clans involved in the fighting.

Local sources said the fighting was sparked off after a prominent figure
from the Eldhere sub-clan was arrested by the local Rer Hasan-run
administration. He was charged with being a member of the Islamic
Al-Ittihad group. Eldhere militia attacked the police station and released
him, which triggered a surprise attack by Rer Hasan militia. Local sources
say that the Eldhere are pushing to regain control of Bulo Hawa, "which
they lost because of external support for the Rer Hasan". There had been
tension in the town since Ethiopian troops pulled out, the source said.  
The Rer Hasan administration has used a former Ethiopian base just outside
the town, which was described as a well-defended spot with deep trenches.

The Ethiopian government has strongly denied that it had troops in Bulo
Hawa at any time. According to statements by the Ethiopian government, it
has, however, protected the mutual border against the threat posed to
Ethiopia by Al-Ittihad.

SOMALIA: Editor released over women's death sentence

An editor jailed for reporting that two women had been sentenced to death
has been released in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared
autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia. Abdishakur Yusuf
Ali was released on Sunday, 1 April, after spending 36 days in detention
on charges of publishing false information. He told IRIN in a telephone
interview that he had been released for lack of evidence. According to
Abdishakur, he was first brought before the court on 25 March, when the
police asked for more time to bring witnesses. He was brought back to
court on 1 April, but police failed produce any witnesses. Abdishakur told
IRIN the court dismissed the case and "gave me the right to sue the
authorities for unlawful detention".

He was arrested in late February when the Puntland administration accused
him of publishing "false assertions". He had reported that two women
living together had been sentenced to death for "unnatural behaviour".

ETHIOPIA: Poor donor response to drought

The UN has received only 2.4 percent of the funds requested from
international donors to tackle the effects of drought in the Horn of
Africa. Catherine Bertini, Special Envoy for Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, praised the response of the
donor community to last year's food crisis, but said more was needed.  
Speaking at the International Livestock Research Institute in the
Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, she asked: "Do we have to continue to
scream that the sky is falling in to be well funded?"

The appeal for funds was launched in January, aiming to provide clean
water, health care, seeds and tools, and to rebuild livestock populations
throughout the region.

Bertini, who is also Executive Director of the World Food Programme,
highlighted problems in the pastoralist areas of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya,
Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti. She said these had borne the major burden of
regional drought, and some had lost over 50 percent of their livestock.
She said up to 70 percent of pastoralist communities in Somalia had been
badly affected by the drought. Food insecurity in the region had been
exacerbated by the ban on animal exports to the Gulf, imposed in September
2000 when the first outbreaks of Rift Valley fever outside Africa appeared
in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Bertini emphasised that many pastoralists
relied on the livestock export market to survive, particularly in times of
drought in the Horn. [See also SOMALIA: IRIN Special - The Berbera
Lifeline, Part I and Part II].

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deployment of troops will continue

Eritrea will resume rearranging its armed forces on 5 April so that the
process of establishing a buffer zone on the contested Ethiopian-Eritrean
border can continue. The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE) said the Eritrean commissioner for coordination had made it clear
that the decision to rearrange forces was "unconditional and would be
completed shortly after 5 April". Eritrea suspended its rearrangement of
forces because of objections regarding the southern boundary of the
proposed Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The Eritrean Commissioner,
Amdeberhan Giorgis said that Eritrea nevertheless "expected UNMEE to make
adjustments regarding the southern boundary... to address Eritrean
objections and permit the return of Eritrean displaced persons".

An UNMEE statement on 30 March said the commissioner announced the
decision at a meeting in Asmara with UNMEE's Deputy Special Representative
of the Secretary-General, Ian Martin, and UNMEE's Force Commander Maj-Gen
Patrick Cammaert.

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military meeting to be held in Djibouti

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) will hold its
Military Coordination Committee (MCC) meeting on Friday in Djibouti, UNMEE
spokeswoman Angela Walker told IRIN. The meeting had earlier been
scheduled to take place on 28 March, but was postponed. Walker said the
force commander had decided to postpone the MCC meeting until 6 April "so
that talks with both parties on political and military levels could
continue". The MCC meeting is scheduled to bring together Eritrean and
Ethiopian senior military officers, under the chairmanship of UNMEE Force
Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert. The meeting comes after Eritrea
announced it would resume the withdrawal of its forces from the proposed
Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) on the border. UNMEE complained in March
that Ethiopian units were back inside the TSZ.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Special Representative visits operation area

Special Representative for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE) Legwaila Joseph Legwaila toured the western sector of
UNMEE's area of operations on Tuesday. Legwaila was briefed by UN
peacekeepers and local authorities in Barentu and Om Hajer, western
Eritrea, and in the Humera region, in northwestern Ethiopia [Humera was
incorrectly described as being situated in western Eritrea in IRIN's 5
April Update] and Badme (on the disputed border) on "military and
humanitarian priorities", an UNMEE statement said on 4 April. There are
approximately 900 Jordanian peacekeepers and 90 military observers
currently deployed in the western sector, which was the scene of heavy
fighting during the recent border conflict.
 
Legwaila, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG), was
accompanied by UNMEE Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert and other
senior UNMEE and UN officials. UNMEE personnel reported that they were
engaged in a de-mining operation in the area, and that a western sector
mobility study was under way. At a luncheon hosted by senior local
administrators in the Humera region, Legwaila said he hoped "people...
would soon be able to cross the Humera bridge that connects the two
countries and resume normal relations as neighbours", UNMEE said.

Nairobi, 6 April 2001


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