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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 22
27 January - 2 February 2001


CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA:  UN appeals for US $353 million
SUDAN: Oil wells "burning"
SUDAN: Oil attack "repulsed"
SUDAN: Referendum on south
SUDAN: Government calls for improved relations with US
SUDAN: Commission recommends tougher US sanctions
SOMALIA: Southern town seized by opposition
SOMALIA: New political grouping announced
SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: "No troops", Somali president told
SOMALIA: Anti-Ethiopian demonstrations in southern towns
ETHIOPIA: Workers protest against Chinese company
ETHIOPIA: Opposition parties dismiss peace agreement
ETHIOPIA-KENYA: Parliamentary committee investigates killings

HORN OF AFRICA:  UN appeals for US $353 million

The United Nations has appealed for US $353 million to help 13 million
drought victims still at risk from regional drought. The Horn of Africa
Appeal was launched on Tuesday in Geneva by the Secretary-General's
Special Envoy for the drought in the Greater Horn, Catherine Bertini.
Bertini said that international intervention last year had been
successful. "We averted a famine," she said. But she appealed to donors to
help alleviate the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people in the
Horn who are still at risk.  "Don't stop the flow of relief assistance to
the Horn," said the UN Special Envoy. Last year, donor governments gave US
$287 million, which was about 75 percent of the UN Horn Appeal 2000.

Although some forecasts indicate improvements in Ethiopia and Somalia,
there are significant parts of Kenya, Eritrea, Tanzania and Djibouti which
are still awaiting signs of first normal rains this year, a UN press
release said. Inadequate rains could have a devastating impact on the
already fragile living conditions, and lead to severe malnutrition,
disease and population displacement, it said.

"This year, it is critical that in addition to immediate relief, we also
put in place the mechanisms - such as seeds and tools, livestock services
and sanitation - that will help restore the livelihoods of the
drought-affected people," Kenzo Oshima, the Under-Secretary for
Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told journalists in
New York on Tuesday. 

See IRIN Webspecial: Surviving Disaster on regional drought
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/webspecials/ogaden/index.phtml

SUDAN: Oil wells "burning" 

The southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has said it has
captured three government stations and three oil wells near Bentiu, Wahdah
State. The SPLA spokesman in Nairobi, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN that the oil
wells were attacked last week and about 80 government soldiers killed, and
that heavy fighting continued in the area. According to the SPLA, the
clashes began on 26 January, near the oil city of Bentiu, some 800 km
south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The SPLA said the oil wells were
"burning".

A statement issued in Cairo by SPLA Commander Yasir Arman accused the
Khartoum government of "using oil revenues to suppress the Sudanese people
and extend the civil war". He warned foreign oil companies to leave the
country. The statement said the "SPLA renews its warning that
oil-extracting areas are legitimate military targets and that thousands of
poor people have been displaced and their villages burned down because of
the work of the oil companies", news agencies said.

The SPLA reiterated last year that government-run oil installations,
including those supported by foreign oil companies, were legitimate
targets in the civil war but this is the first reported such attack since
that announcement was made. Oil and the distribution of resources had
"always been one of the issues between north and south, but is now the
focus of the conflict militarily", a regional expert told IRIN.

SUDAN: Oil attack "repulsed" 

Official military spokesman General Muhammad Uthman Yasin said the
government had "repulsed" a rebel attack on oilfields near Bentiu, Wahdah
State. He told news agencies that there had been "some loss of life" of
government troops, but that oil production and exploration was continuing. 
Yasin denied that the oilfields had been destroyed, and said the attack
took place outside the production area. According to the military
spokesman, civilians fled in the face of the SPLA attack. 

Meanwhile, the government said on 25 January that production of oil would
increase to 400,000 barrels per day in the year 2005, compared to the
current production of 200,000 barrels daily. The secretary-general of the
Ministry of Energy and Mining, Hasan Ali al-Tawm, also said there were
indications that more oilfields existed, including Al-Mijlad basin,
western Sudan, which is 1,200 km long and 300 km wide, the Malut basin
between Barah, western Sudan, and Adariel, southwestern Sudan. He also
mentioned the area between Khartoum and Ad Dindar in central Sudan, the
Red Sea area in northeastern Sudan, and the northwestern Kordofan areas in
western Sudan. He made the remarks in a lecture at the University of
Khartoum, which were carried by the official Sudanese news agency SUNA.

SUDAN: Referendum on south

Minister of State at the Ministry of External Relations Gabriel Rorech Jur
has said there will be a referendum on the status of the south. He told
Radio France Internationale, in a broadcast monitored by the BBC on 27
January, that a referendum would improve relations between north and
south, whatever the outcome. The unity of the country and a federal system
were "a must", said Jur - but if separation was the result of the
referendum it was important to have good neighbourliness. He said the
government had already signed an agreement with a breakaway faction of the
SPLA, then led by Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon from Upper Nile. According to
Jur, the agreement included the option of self-determination for the
south, but there had been no positive response from the mainstream
SPLAleader, John Garang.

The issue of self-detirmination for the south, along with the separation
of religion and state, remains one of the main stumbling blocks for
regionally brokered peace talks between the government and the SPLA,
humanitarian sources told IRIN. 

SUDAN: Government calls for improved relations with US

Minister of External Relations Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il has said he hopes
relations between Sudan and the US will improve under the new US
administration.  He said the Sudanese government attached great importance
to Sudanese-American relations, as well as to "removing the chill and
tension in the bilateral relations which occurred during the epoch of the
former American administration", the official news agency, SUNA, quoted
him as saying, in a report on 26 January. In his statement to SUNA, the
minister said Sudan was keen to cooperate with the new administration and
to know how it defined its policy towards Sudan. 

SUDAN: Commission recommends tougher US sanctions

A federal advisory panel on religious freedom overseas has urged the new
US administration to impose tougher sanctions on Sudan. In its first
recommendations to the new administration of US President George W. Bush,
the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said tougher
sanctions were needed because of atrocities allegedly committed against
the Christian minority by the Muslim majority, Associated Press (AP)
reported. The commission advocates imposing a military no-fly zone over
Sudan and wants to provide humanitarian aid to opposition forces.

Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs,
denounced the Sudan government during the hearing for making "cheerful
proclamations of change" while continuing repression. Rice recently
visited southern Sudan and alleged a slave trade continued with the
knowledge of the Sudanese government. Observers said the panel may succeed
in gaining the attention of President Bush, who has had a steady dialogue
with church officials as he works to expand the role of religious groups
in social programmes, AP said. 

SOMALIA: Southern town seized by opposition

The regional capital of Gedo Region, Garbahaarrey, southwestern Somalia,
has been captured by militia opposed to the interim government in
Mogadishu.  Abdirahman Nur Dinari, director of information of the interim
government in Mogadishu, confirmed to IRIN that the town had been taken,
and said one person was killed amd three wounded in the attack.

Garbahaarrey, 400 km southwest of Mogadishu, changed hands on Monday when
militia attacked, and the forces defending it withdrew, Dinari told IRIN. 
He accused the Ethiopian government of providing support for the faction
that led the attack. The Ethiopian government has consistently denied any
military involvement in Somalia. But Dinari insisted that "as far as we
are concerned Garbahaarrey is in the hands of the Ethiopian military". The
minister of transport, Abdi Guled, and MPs from the area were visiting and
holding consultations with elders when the attack took place. The official
said the government representatives had fled to safety. "All our people
are accounted for, including the minister and the members of parliament -
they are in Eil Ad town," he told IRIN. Eil Ad is 60 km south of
Garbahaarrey.

Dinari said the attacking militia were led by Colonel Abdirazzaq Isaq
Bihi, who heads a faction of the Somali National Front (SNF), which
operates in the south. The SNF is an established Marehan-based faction,
but has recently split into pro-government and anti-government groups,
Somali political sources said. It operates in Gedo Region in southwestern
Somalia, and in the northwestern districts of Abuud Waaq and Balanballe,
Galgaduud Region, central Somalia. The SNF splinter group in Gedo has
declared itself opposed to the interim government. 

SOMALIA: New political grouping announced

Groups meeting in the town of El Berde, Bakool Region in southwestern
Somalia, said they would establish a National Restoration Council (NRC),
which would work on bringing together all Somali groups. The El Berde
declaration was issued on 24 January by a meeting that included the
Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), the Somali Patriotic Front (SPM), the
Somali National Front (SNF), and the Southern Somali National Movement
(SSNM), as well as representatives from the administration of the
self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia. The NRC
would convene a general conference in 45 days in Baidoa, to implement the
objectives and would invite all political movements to participate, said
the declaration.

The meeting last week brought together some of the opposition leaders of
factions based in the south, and the Puntland leader, Abdullahi Yusuf
Ahmad.  The declaration said the objective was to initiate a new peace and
reconciliation process; to restore and safeguard national unity and
territorial integrity; and to represent Somalia internationally. It said
it would promote the "building block" approach for establishing
self-governing regional states within a federal system of government. The
opposition leaders condemned "all destabilisation and renewed conflicts
waged by the unholy alliance of the Arta faction [a reference to the
interim government] and extremist groups". 

SOMALIA: Anti-Ethiopian demonstrations in southern towns

Public demonstrations protesting against the alleged presence of Ethiopian
troops were held in Kismaayo, Lower Juba Region, and Garbahaarrey, Gedo
Region, on 26 January.  The demonstrations have been reported in local
Somali newspapers, and were confirmed to IRIN by interim government
sources. According 'Ayaamaha', a Mogadishu-based daily, protesters in
Kismaayo were addressed by General Ahmad Warsame, who heads an alliance
controlling the southern port since June 1999, when General Muhammad Sa'id
Hirsi Morgan was chased out. The Garbahaarrey protesters were addressed by
the minister of transport of the transitional government, Abdi Guled, who
is from Gedo Region, and Ugas Umar Ugas Hirsi, the highest traditional
leader of the Marehan clan.

SOMALIA-ETHIOPIA: "No troops", Somali president told

Interim Somali President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan has recently raised the
issue of the relationship between Ethiopia and Somalia with the Ethiopian
government. Sources close to the president told IRIN that Abdiqassim this
month met senior Ethiopian government officials and discussed a number of
issues, including allegations that Ethiopian troops were inside southern
Somalia. Senior Ethiopia officials "denied any presence of troops in
Somalia" and told the interim president that their government was
supportive of the peace process and had the interests of the Somali people
at heart, said the source. 

ETHIOPIA: Workers protest against Chinese company

About 900 Ethiopian employed by a Chinese construction company have gone
on strike, complaining of mistreatment. They accused some of the Chinese
staff of beating, harassing, raping and unfairly sacking some Ethiopian
workers, the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information Centre (WIC) web
site said on 28 January. A half-day strike was staged by employees of the
China Road and Bridge Construction Corporation, contractors of the Addis
Ababa ring road project. A truck driver interviewed by the WIC said
workers were not being paid overtime for working on Sundays and holidays,
and that the corporation did not provide medical treatment for those
injured while on duty. The corporation's general manager, Lu Zhian Zhang,
dismissed the accusations and said the management would provide support
for the formation of a labour union, the WIC said.

ETHIOPIA: Opposition parties dismiss peace agreement

Eight Ethiopian opposition parties held a demonstration on Sunday in the
centre of Addis Ababa to denounce the Ethio-Eritrean peace accord signed
in Algiers. The eight parties issued a joint statement questioning the
"legality" of the peace accord signed on 12 December, local media said.
They said the peace accord denied Ethiopia's right to a maritime outlet
and "did not have the blessing of the Ethiopian people", the WIC on 28
January quoted the statement as saying. The parties said the peace accord
had "no legality", because it was based on colonial treaties concluded
between Ethiopia and Italy that were "not binding", according to the WIC.

The rally in Meskel Square was called by the Ethiopian Democratic Union,
the National Democratic Union, the All Amhara People's Organisation, the
Oromo National Congress, the Joint Political Forum and the Ethiopian
Democratic Party. During the rally, the parties also called on the
government to ensure district and council elections were conducted without
the harassment they said had characterised general elections last May. 

ETHIOPIA-KENYA: Parliamentary committee investigates killings

A Kenyan parliamentary committee has summoned two cabinet ministers to
explain the slaying of 10 Kenyans, including eight policemen, by Ethiopian
militia. The minister of state for defence, Marsden Madoka, and the
foreign minister, Bonaya Godana, were called to appear before the House
Defence and Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the circumstances of the
killings, and the abduction of a security officer in Moyale, on the
Ethiopian border. The decision is the first of its kind.

Representatives from the Kenyan foreign ministry and the Ethiopian Embassy
in Nairobi met soon after the incident this month, while public
demonstrations were held near the border protesting against the killings.
"It is normal practice for a government to allay fears by isuing a protest
note or making a public statement on cross-border incidents, but in the
absence of either, the House was compelled to react on the silence by
summoning the ministers responsible," David Musila, the committee chairman
told journalists. He said that parliament was obliged to question
relations between Kenya and its neighbours, as invasions were violations
of territorial sovereignty. Musila told IRIN it was time Kenya took
matters of security seriously if it expected to attract foreign investors
and tourists, and enjoy confidence of development partners.

Nairobi, 2 February 2001


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