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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 32
7 - 13 April 2001


CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Urgent need to support recovery process
SUDAN: Food diverted for emergency use
SUDAN: Clashes over church services
SUDAN: Oil company defends its reputation
SUDAN: Embassy in US "to reopen"
ETHIOPIA: 50 students injured on campus
ETHIOPIA: Meningitis epidemic spreading
ETHIOPIA: Western donors cancel debt
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: No deadline for Eritrean withdrawal
SOMALIA: Ban on chilled meat officially lifted
SOMALIA: More fake currency hits Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Efforts to "launder" money
DJIBOUTI: Five men found guilty of grenade attack

HORN OF AFRICA: Urgent need to support recovery process

Donors have proved reluctant to respond to an appeal launched in January
for US $353 million for populations recovering from drought in the Horn of
Africa. The UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator, Bronek Szynalski, said
in an interview with IRIN that the response to the appeal had been
"extremely disappointing". The response to Kenya, one of the worst-
affected countries last year, was only 3 percent in early April - until
food aid contributions given by World Food Programme (WFP) last week
increased it to 13 percent. Szynalski said that food aid alone was not
sufficient: "For the recovery process, cash is needed for things like
seeds, tools, health services, water supply and shelter."

He warned that although rains had come in most of the affected countries,
people were still living a very precarious existence after nearly three
years of drought. "We managed to avoid famine... but if people are not
helped now to get their livelihoods together somehow, they may die within
the next six months." He said particular attention needed to be paid to
enabling pastoralist communities to rebuild their livestock and market
their products. The Rift Valley fever export ban imposed on the Horn of
Africa last year had affected Somalia in particular, he said. [For IRIN
interview see
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/cea/countrystories/other/20010410.phtml]

SUDAN: Food diverted for emergency use

The United Nations has diverted food to Sudan to help bridge the flow of
emergency food aid needed for more than three million people. WFP
spokeswoman Lindsey Davis, told IRIN that food destined for Ethiopia had
been diverted to Sudan when the consignment arrived in Port Sudan on the
Red Sea coast. She said 23,200 tonnes of maize had been diverted to help
2.4 million war-affected victims in Sudan. "It is really only enough for
one month, and it doesn't solve the problem," Davis said.

Earlier this year, WFP made an urgent appeal for US $135 million for war-
and drought-affected people in northern and southern Sudan. According to
Davis, the donor response has been very poor, and recent donations from
Japan, Switzerland and the Netherlands will provide only 10,000 tonnes of
food aid. "This diversion is an emergency measure, and we have a long way
to go," Davis said. The northern states of Darfur and Kordofan had been
hit hard by drought, while in the south, northern Bahr al-Ghazal, eastern
Equatoria and Jonglei (north of eastern Equatoria), fighting had
exacerbated drought conditions, the agency said.

SUDAN: Clashes over church services

Sudanese Christians were arrested and others injured on Wednesday in
clashes between police and protesting Christians in the capital, Khartoum.  
The Christians were protesting against a government order to transfer
Easter services from central Khartoum to the suburbs, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) said.

Thousands of Christians - almost all from the predominantly Christian
south - gathered in front of the All Saints Church in Khartoum and began
stoning cars. The protest came after about 40 Christians were detained on
Tuesday, when the order was issued, AFP said. The secretary-general of the
Sudan Council of Churches, Enock Tombe Stethen, said the church had
refused to transfer the celebration because of short notice, and because
the proposed venue was "unsuitable". A number of journalists were also
detained on Wednesday when they attempted to attend a press conference by
church representatives, news agencies said.

Muhammad Dirdiery, Deputy Head of Mission in the Sudanese Embassy,
Nairobi, told IRIN that the service had been transferred for security
reasons "to avoid a confrontation between Muslims and Christians". He
blamed hardline Christian groups in the west of fomenting trouble in
Sudan, and said the demonstrations had been inspired by "religious
right-wingers". Dirdiery said it was part of a campaign by western
evangelist groups to portray the war in Sudan as a religious war, which,
he said, was an "oversimplification" of the conflict. "Sudan respects the
right of all people to practise their religion, but the government has a
duty to maintain law an order," he told IRIN.

Spokesman for the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in
Nairobi, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN that the government had "ruthlessly
suppressed" the Christian meeting, which was an inter-denominational
service led by a visiting German evangelical preacher, Reinhard Bonnke.  
Kwaje condemned the action by police and said tear gas canisters had been
used against church members. He it was "clear intolerance" by the
government and an attack on religion. "It shows us that we can never go
anywhere with the question of separation of religion and state."

Church leaders had called for an investigation into the clashes and a
meeting between Christian leaders and President Umar al-Bashir, AFP
reported.

SUDAN: Oil company defends its reputation

A report released by the Canadian oil company, Talisman, operating in
Sudan, said its executives had engaged the Sudanese government in a
dialogue over human rights abuses in the south of the country, site of the
oil project. But Talisman said, in the first of a series of reports
responding to criticism regarding its role in Sudan, that the company had
limited influence over how a sovereign government spent its money, Reuters
news agency said. This was in response to charges by international human
rights organisations and aid agencies that the Khartoum government has
been using newly acquired funds from the Hajlij oil development in
southern Sudan to fuel its war effort against the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south. Talisman, which has a 25 percent
stake in the consortium developing the oil, also pointed out that the
consortium's code of ethnics proposed that the Sudan government should not
use its oil equipment for any military activity.

The SPLA spokesman in Nairobi, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN that he was
"surprised" by Talisman's defence, as the company had previously stated
that it was working closely with the government to ensure that profits
were used for development and rehabilitation purposes. Kwaje said this
demonstrated that Talisman did have influence over how the government
spent its money. The SPLA spokesman qualified that oil installations were
considered a "legitimate target" in the conflict, but that the SPLA was
not "primarily targeting the oil workers themselves". He said he hoped
that oil companies would be "judicious enough not to bring foreign workers
into a war zone".

The Sudanese government has strenuously denied that oil exploration is
being used to fund the war-effort.

SUDAN: Embassy in US "to reopen"

The Sudanese government has accepted a United States proposal to postpone
the debate on the lifting of sanctions imposed on Sudan, a Sudanese
official has confirmed to IRIN. The Sudanese government accepted the US
proposal to allow for more coordination between the US and the non-aligned
countries in the Security Council. Sudan was keen to avoid confrontation
with the new US administration, as "there are encouraging signals"  
regarding the relations between the two countries, the official said.  
Sudan would also like to secure the adoption of a unanimous vote in the
Security Council on the lifting of sanctions. Last week, Egyptian
President Husni Mubarak held successful discussions with the US
administration on Sudan-US relations, the official said.

As a sign of the thawing relations between the two countries, Sudan had
dispatched Ambassador Al-Khidr Harun, from Tokyo, to Washington, where he
had been instructed to reopen the Sudanese Embassy at the "charge
d'affaires" level, said the official. The embassy was closed in 1998 after
the US bombing of a pharmaceuticals factory in Khartoum, allegedly
connected to Usama bin Ladin.

ETHIOPIA: 50 students injured on campus

Fifty students were injured as riot police broke up a protest over
academic and political rights at Addis Ababa University, news agencies
reported on Wednesday. Riot police reportedly forced their way into the
university campus after two plain-clothes officers who had infiltrated the
4,000 striking students were discovered.

Local sources said that the incident was an embarrassment to the
government, and "no solid information" had been released about injuries or
rumoured deaths. Students and eyewitnesses reported gunshots at the
campus, but there has been no information about whether injuries included
gunshot wounds. It was not known where the injured students were taken for
treatment, local sources told IRIN.

The students had refused to attend classes since Monday, demanding the
reinstatement of the student council. The council had not been able to
operate since last December, or publish its newspaper since last
September, students told Associated Press (AP). Local sources told IRIN
that one of the issues taken up by the protesting students had been the
presence of a police station on campus. Education Minister Genet Zewde -
also president of the university senate - met student leaders later on
Wednesday and said their demands would be met. She also reportedly said
there would be an investigation into the riot police's actions, AP said.

ETHIOPIA: Meningitis epidemic spreading

Ethiopia faces a major meningitis epidemic unless international donors
meet the current shortfall in vaccines, the UN Country Team for Ethiopia
has warned. In a special alert message on 6 April, the country team called
on the donor community to provide the 3.7 million doses still required to
stop the spread of the disease. According to the team, only 30 percent of
the target population has so far been vaccinated against the potentially
fatal illness.

The message said this year's outbreak was "particularly alarming" due to
its spread outside the traditional meningitis belt. The newly affected
regions had little experience of meningitis and were poorly equipped to
manage the disease, the team said. The current outbreak surfaced in the
Amhara region in October 2000, and has since spread to the Southern
Nations', Nationalities' and Peoples' State, the Gambela region in the
west, Tigray in the north, and to Dire Dawa and the Somali region in the
east, the alert warned. [For full report see IRIN World Health Day
WebSpecial
www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/webspecials/health/emerging_diseases.phtml#meningitis]

ETHIOPIA: Western donors cancel debt

The Paris Club of western creditor nations has agreed to cancel a large
part of Ethiopia's foreign debt, the official Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)  
reported on 6 April. The Ethiopian embassy in Paris said the agreement
would "cancel or reschedule" 67 percent of the US $430 million debt
Ethiopia was due to pay by 31 March, 2004. The agreement followed a recent
decision by the International Monetary Fund to back Ethiopia's poverty
reduction programme.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in the French capital on 5 April,
Ethiopian Finance Minister Sufyan Ahmad said the Ethiopian government
would "redirect the funds which would have gone into debt repayment to
accelerate the country's economic development and social progress",
according to ENA.

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: No deadline for Eritrean withdrawal

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Legwaila Joseph
Legwaila, has told journalists that the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia
and Eritrea (UNMEE) is moving towards creating a buffer zone on the
disputed border. He said there had been progress during the
Djibouti-hosted 6 April military meeting, and that UNMEE was "on course
towards the creation of the Temporary Security Zone [TSZ]".

However, Legwaila said that Eritrea had given no deadline for the
withdrawal of its forces from the buffer zone: "They have not told us how
they are going to let us know that they have completed the arrangement of
their forces." He said he did not know how long the Eritrean withdrawal
would take. Legwaila said UNMEE would make adjustments to the operational
map, but that it had not been withdrawn, despite complaints by the
Eritreans. He said: "As we go along, we will be adjusting and correcting,
where it is possible." He said there had been no progress in negotiating a
direct flight access route between the two countries. Ethiopia had
informed UNMEE that access required a deviation on the border in the
north, and Eritrea had still to respond.

SOMALIA: Ban on chilled meat officially lifted

The ban on Somali chilled meat exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)  
has been officially lifted. Humanitarian sources confirmed that the
Technical Committee of the General Secretariat of UAE Municipalities had
officially lifted the ban, which was imposed on all livestock products
after an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Saudi Arabia and Yemen last
September.

Since the ban was lifted last week, about 32 tonne s of chilled meat had
been exported from Galkayo in the self-declared autonomous region of
Puntland, northeastern Somalia, and from abattoirs in Mogadishu,
humanitarian sources said.

SOMALIA: More fake currency hits Mogadishu

Two plane-loads of new Somali shillings arrived in the capital, Mogadishu,
on Saturday, local sources and news agencies said. Local sources told IRIN
that the new currency was valued at approximately US $4 million, or Somali
shillings 60 billion. The arrival of the currency meant that traders at
the currency market in Mogadishu were "changing the rates every hour",
said a local economist. Although the currency has not yet appeared, the
main market, Bakaara, was said to be very quiet on Monday as a result.

On Sunday, there were demonstrations against the Transitional National
Government (TNG) for failing to stop the continued importation of fake
currency. Demonstrators accused the TNG of being weak, and failing to live
up to promises to stop currency arriving from abroad. Local sources said
the money had been brought in through Isaley airstrip, north Mogadishu, by
two prominent businessmen.

SOMALIA: Efforts to "launder" money

The value of the Somali shilling in Mogadishu has continued to fall since
the beginning of the year, with a sharp increase in food prices. A local
economist told IRIN that the continuing devaluation of the Somali shilling
had an overall "disastrous impact on the already impoverished population"  
of Mogadishu. Prices of all imported food items have increased sharply,
with sugar from Somali shillings 3,500 per kg in December to Somali
shillings 6,000 - an increase of more than 70 percent.

However, the economist told IRIN that the construction sector was
"booming". He said the new investment in buildings was partly attributable
to people "laundering" the newly issued Somali shillings flown into
Mogadishu this year. In the south of the city, the daily wage of an
ordinary construction worker has increased from Somali shillings 15,000 to
between 40,000 to 50,000. Prices of local construction materials have
dramatically increased, local sources said, with a bag of cement almost
twice the price it was in February. There is also a nervousness that the
government may print new currency to replace the old shillings, and people
are looking for "safe" projects to invest in, said the economist.  
Moreover, availability of foreign exchange in Mogadishu has become
limited, local sources said.

DJIBOUTI: Five men found guilty of grenade attack

Five men received sentences ranging from life to a suspended six-year term
for a deadly attack on a Djibouti cafe in 1990. Fifteen people were
injured, and a six year-old French child killed when six people threw four
grenades onto the terrace of Djibouti's Cafe de Paris in September 1990,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

A suspended six-year sentence was given to National Democratic Party
leader Aden Robleh Awalleh, who was found guilty of complicity to murder,
attempted murder and destruction of public property. Police and pro-Robleh
demonstrators clashed outside the court house on Monday while the one-day
trial was being held. "This has nothing to do with justice, it is purely
political," Robleh said in a statement. Prosecutors said Robleh was the
mastermind behind the grenade attack, AFP reported. During the trial, no
witnesses were called to the stand, and lawyers on both sides expressed
surprise that the defence had been given only eight days to prepare its
case, AFP said. A fifth man, Awalleh Guelleh, was given a life sentence in
absentia, as he had managed to escape from Gabode prison, where he had
been held along with Robleh's co-accused.

Nairobi, 13 April 2001


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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