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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 26
24 February - 2 March 2001


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: 600,000 people at immediate risk of starvation
SUDAN: UNICEF airlifts over 2,500 demobilised child soldiers
SUDAN: New cabinet list
SUDAN: WFP confirms displacement in oil drilling areas
SOMALIA: Puntland police say court case was "fictitious"
SOMALIA: Faction leader appointed to the cabinet
SOMALIA: UAE team to assess health of livestock
SOMALIA: Six killed in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Faction leaders reaffirm opposition to transitional government
SOMALIA: Second trade fair in a decade
ETHIOPIA: Meningitis outbreak spreads
ERITREA: Humanitarian appeals launched
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Fourth meeting of UNMEE military commission
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopian troop redeployment complete

SUDAN: 600,000 people at immediate risk of starvation

The United Nations has warned the international community of an impending
humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. The warning was given in a press
release issued by OCHA on 23 February. The UN Consolidated Inter-Agency
Appeal for Sudan, launched three months ago, was recently revised to take
account of the drought in central and western Sudan. The revised appeal
calls for US $244 million in food and other assistance to meet the
emergency needs of war and drought-affected communities. 

Of the total targeted population of more than three million people,
600,000 are said to be "at immediate risk". This requires urgent funding
of US $60 million, according to the press release.  The UN's
Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, has
expressed deep concern over the very poor response from the international
donor community to the critical humanitarian situation developing in
Sudan. To date, only about one percent of the necessary funding has been
pledged by international donors. 

The press release notes that unless money is urgently pledged, WFP will be
unable to feed people in need after March, with the critical hunger period
beginning in April and May. UNICEF is in a similar position. The agency
will be unable to continue with present levels of emergency intervention
in the water, sanitation and health sectors. A planned FAO vital seeds
distribution programme is also threatened.

SUDAN: New cabinet list

Sudanese President Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir announced a new cabinet on on 23
February, Sudanese radio, monitored by the BBC reported. 

The new 31-member Cabinet is as follows: Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir -
president; Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha - first vice-president; Moses Machar -
second vice-president; Maj-Gen Salah Ahmad Muhammad Salih - minister of
presidential affairs; General Al-Hadi Abdullah Muhammad al-Awad - minister
of cabinet affairs; Mustafa Uthman Isma'il - minister of external
relations;  Maj-Gen Bakri Hasan Salih - minister of defence; Maj-Gen Abd
al-Rahim Husayn - minister of interior; Abd al-Rahim Hamdi - minister of
finance and national economy; Awad Ahmad Al-Jaz - minister of energy and
mining; Ali Muhammad Uthman Yasin - minister of justice; Ghazi Salah
al-Din al-Atabani - minister of information and communications; Nafi Ali
Nafi - minister of federal government; Joseph Malwal - minister of
aviation; Majdhub al-Khalifah Ahmad - minister of agriculture and forests; 
Samiyah Ahmad Muhammad - minister of welfare and social development; Jalal
Yusuf Muhammad Duqayr - minister of national industry and investment; Riek
Gai - minister of animal resources; Abd al-Hamid Musa Kasha - minister of
external trade; and Zubayr Bashir Taha - minister of science and
technological research. 

Ali Tamim Fartak was appointed minister of general education and
instruction; Muhammad Tahir Aylah - minister of roads and
telecommunications; Kamal Ali Muhammad - minister of irrigation and water
resources; General (Retd) Alison Manani Magaya - minister of labour and
administrative reform; Ahmad Bilal Uthman - minister of health; 
Abdal-Basit Abd al-Majid - minister of culture and tourism; Lam Akol
Ajawin - minister of transport; Siddiq al-Sharif Ibrahim Yusuf Al-Hindi -
minister of international cooperation; General (Retd) Al-Tijani Adam
al-Tahir - minister of environment and urban planning; Mubarak Muhammaf
al-Majdhub - minister of higher education; Isam Ahmad al-Bashir - minister
of religious guidance and endowments; Abd al-Basit Sabdarat - minister of
parliamentary relations;  Hasan Uthman Rizq: minister of youth and sports; 
and Colonel Martin Malwal Arop - minister without portfolio at the council
of ministers. 
 
SUDAN: UNICEF airlifts over 2,500 demobilized child soldiers

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Tuesday that more
than 2,500 former child soldiers had been airlifted out of conflict zones
into safe areas."Rehabilitation and family tracing can begin," according
to a press release issued by the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). The
operation started on 23 February and continued through the weekend. The
former child soldiers were flown from the Bahr al-Ghazal combat zone in
southern Sudan, by two planes operated by WFP. 

The children were taken to reception centres, where local and
international NGOs provided them with medical check-ups and other basic
care. The children ranged in age from 8-18 years, and were demobilised
from military camps run by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA),
following a commitment made by an SPLA commander to UNICEF Executive
Director Carol Bellamy, in October last year.

SUDAN: WFP confirms displacement in oil drilling areas

Responding to a recent report by Reuters entitled "Sudan says oil drilling
causes no mass displacement", WFP in Sudan on 22 February denied that it
was unaware of forced displacements, as stated in the article. In a letter
to Reuters, WFP Deputy Country Director Nicholas Siwingwa said that no
comment had ever been made to that effect. Siwingwa added that WFP had
witnessed an increasing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) 
requiring food assistance in oilfields in the southern Unity State. He put
the current number of IDPs in the region at over 36,000, and added that
oil interests in the area had exacerbated the uprooting of people from
their homes. 

Roger Winter of the US Committee for Refugees (USCR), an NGO, said in a
press release that ethnic cleansing linked to oil development in southern
Sudan was causing massive civilian displacement. "Tens of thousands of
Sudanese civilians have fled from the region during the past year as the
government seeks to expand its oil operations," he said.

SOMALIA: Puntland police say court case was "fictitious" 

Authorities in the self-declared autonomous northeastern region of
Puntland, have denied news reports that two women were sentenced to death
by stoning. A Puntland police statement described the reports as "baseless
and fictitious". The statement, signed by Puntland police chief Colonel
Hirsi Sa'id Farah, said, that "the police, the courts and all concerned
are surprised and astonished by these reports". The police statement
attributes what it calls "false assertions and published statements" to
Abdishakur Yusuf Ali, editor of the weekly 'War-Gal' in Bosaso.

SOMALIA: Faction leader appointed to the cabinet

Former faction leader Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, who recently declared his
support for the Transitional National Government (TNG), was appointed to
the cabinet on 25 February. In a minor reshuffle of his government, Prime
Minister Ali Khalif Galayr named Qanyare as fisheries and marine resources
minister, Abdirahman Dinari, director of information of the TNG, told IRIN
on on 25 February. Qanyare, who was the chairman of the United Somali
Congress (USC) before he joined the government, was one of the most
powerful faction leaders in Mogadishu. 

Meanwhile, the government has also announced the appointment of the
attorney-general and military chiefs, according to Dinari.  The
appointment of the service chiefs is an indication that the TNG wants to
reconstitute the national army as soon as possible, Dinari told IRIN. 

SOMALIA: UAE team to assess health of livestock

A four-man team of veterinarians and animal health doctors from the United
Arab Emirates arrived in Somalia on Tuesday to assess the health of
livestock, UNDP's Somalia office reported. This is the third leg of the
team's tour of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia, according to a UNDP press
release. The objective of the team's visit is to examine the health
situation of animals and the condition of processed meat in Somalia, and
to ascertain whether Somali livestock are free from Rift Valley fever.The
team will visit Hargeysa in the northwestern self-declared independent
state of Somaliland, Bosaso in Puntland, and Mogadishu, the capital of
Somalia. 

"We are prepared to intervene at the highest level concerning this issue," 
the release quotes UNDP Senior Deputy Resident Representative Andrea
Tamagnini as saying. According to Tamagnini, the livestock mission is one
part of UNDP's efforts to "find out what technically has to be done to
facilitate the reopening of this market". 

The Arab Gulf States imposed a ban on imports of livestock from Horn of
Africa countries in September 2000, following outbreaks of Rift Valley
fever in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Some 70 percent of Somalia's GDP depends
on livestock production and trade. Since the ban, "serious concerns have
developed for the food security and livelihood of poor households in
northern and central Somalia", said the UNDP release.

SOMALIA: President leaves for OAU summit

For the first time in 10 years Somalia will be represented at an
Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit. The summit opened in Tripoli,
Libya, on Thursday. The director of information for the TNG, Abdirahman
Dinari, told IRIN that President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan left for Tripoli
on Wednesday morning. The president's delegation includes Foreign Minister
Isma'il Mahmud Hurre Buba and Fisheries Minister Muhammad Qanyare Afrah. 
"Somalia will be taking its rightful place among our African brothers,"
Deputy Prime Minister Usman Jama Kalun told IRIN.

Since the setting up of the TNG in August 2000, in Arta, Djibouti, it has
participated in a number of international conferences, including the
United Nations Millennium conference in September and the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in November in
Khartoum. "This is just another confirmation that this government has
attained international acceptance, and the only thing remaining is to
complete the reconciliation process at home, and we will do that," he
said.

SOMALIA: Six killed in Mogadishu

Six people were killed and at least 10 wounded when a gun battle erupted
in the southern part of the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday night. 
According to witnesses, fighting erupted along Wadnaha Avenue between two
groups of militiamen in heavily guarded vehicles. "Two technicals
[pick-ups mounted with heavy weapons] passed each other, and before we
knew it they were firing at each other," Nasra Waheliye, a local resident,
told IRIN on Wednesday. Four of the dead were civilians hit by stray
bullets, while the other two were guards in a third vehicle, according to
Waheliye.

SOMALIA: Faction leaders reaffirm opposition to transitional government

In a press statement issued in Nairobi on Tuesday, Mogadishu's three main
faction leaders said they had resolved their differences and called for a
new and more broadly based national reconciliation process. Dismissing the
National Reconciliation Conference (NRC) in Arta, Djibouti, which led to
the formation of the TNG in Somalia, as having comprised merely "remnants
of the Siyad Barre regime, religious extremists and Somali exiles", the
three leaders said they wanted fresh talks inside Somalia. The press
statement criticised the TNG, accusing it of fomenting civil war and
stealing from the Somali people by printing billions of shillings of
counterfeit currency. All three leaders - Husayn Muhammad Aydid, Muse Sudi
Yalahow and Usman Hasan Ali Ato - had been invited to participate in the
Arta conference, but had refused. 

The faction leaders said earlier in the week that they had come to Nairobi
for talks with Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi. Moi is currently in
Libya. 

SOMALIA: Second trade fair in a decade

Somalia's second trade fair since the overthrow of Siyad Barre a decade
ago will be held in Hargeysa, capital of the self-declared state of
Somaliland, this coming weekend. "It's a very exciting development," Jerry
McCarthy of Progressive Interventions, an NGO promoting the trade fair,
told IRIN on Thursday. "The aim of the fair is to stimulate economic
diversification in a region overly reliant on traditional trade channels," 
he added. The event will serve as a showcase for Somaliland businesses and
enterprises, and potential buyers and investors have been invited. 

"There's a lot happening economically in Somaliland, and we want to
present a different face to the world through this fair," McCarthy said. 
Body Shop International has recently launched a new range of four Somali
henna-based products. Enterprises dealing in frankincense - the base for
all perfumes, bee products, gem mining and micro-financing will be amongst
those represented at the fair.

ETHIOPIA: Meningitis outbreak spreads

The Ethiopian government on Tuesday appealed to aid organisations for
drugs to vaccinate nearly six million people against meningitis, the
German news agency DPA reported. The Ethiopian Ministry of Health is
quoted as saying that there has been an upsurge of the disease in five of
the nine regional states. But a United Nations World Health Organisation
officer in Addis Ababa, responsible for communicative disease control,
Eyov Tsegaye, told IRIN on Wednesday that the disease had taken hold in
seven provinces and was continuing to spread. "Along with other agencies,
we're working to get additional vaccine made available," he said.

According to figures supplied by the health ministry, an average of eight
new cases were being reported daily. Tsegaye told IRIN he was confident
that the outbreak could be controlled if enough resources were made
available.

ERITREA: Humanitarian appeals launched

The Eritrean Refugee and Relief Commission (ERREC) and the UN have
launched appeals to the international donor community to support
humanitarian activities in 2001. According to an OCHA press release, the
ERREC appeal is for more than US $223 million. The UN Consolidated
Inter-Agency Appeal, which includes project proposals from nine UN
agencies, totals over US $157 million. 

The appeals have been made in the light of ongoing humanitarian needs in
Eritrea, related to the cumulative effects of conflict with neighbouring
Ethiopia and drought. Over 200,000 IDPs are still accommodated in camps
and require assistance, while up to 150,000 additional IDPs are living
outside the camps, the release said. Agriculture was severely disrupted
last year, and the conflict has left large tracts of land inaccessible due
to land mines. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Fourth meeting of UNMEE military commission

The fourth meeting of the Military Coordination Commission (MCC) of the
United Nations Mission In Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was successfully
conducted on Wednesday, according to a press release of the same day. For
the first time, the meeting was held on the border between the two
countries in the proposed Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) - a 25km-wide
buffer zone to be established between the two country's forces. 

At the meeting, the Eritrean delegation registered its objections to
adjustments made by UNMEE to the border map agreed at the last MCC meeting
in Nairobi. The Eritrean delegation said it would rearrange its forces in
accordance with the original map. For its part, the Ethiopian delegation
demanded that Eritrean forces "remain 25km from the redeployed Ethiopian
positions", as called for in the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement of 18
June 2000,according to the statement. 

Despite these issues, MCC Chairman and UNMEE forces Commander Maj-Gen
Patrick Cammaert noted the Ethiopian announcement that their troop
redeployment to the southern boundary was ahead of schedule, and
verification had started on 26 February. He also noted that the Eritrean
rearrangement of forces on the northern border was progressing on
schedule. 

The MCC also discussed how UNMEE would go about verification in the TSZ,
the restoration of Eritrean civil authority in the TSZ, and the
composition and presence of Eritrean police and militia in the TSZ. The
meeting also discussed the need for more information on land mines within
the TSZ and surrounding areas, and the need for a temporary pass system in
the Zone, said the statement. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopian troop re-deployment complete

The UNMEE public information office said on 23 February that it had been
informed by the Ethiopian government that redeployment of Ethiopian troops
was completed on 22 February. UNMEE began verifying this information on
Monday. According to the agreement reached by both parties in Nairobi on 6
February, Eritrean troops will withdraw from their positions by 3 March. 
UNMEE will monitor a 25 km-wide TSZ to be established when both sides have
withdrawn completely. UNMEE added that the establishment of the TSZ was a
critical first step in allowing both governments to arrange for the return
of IDPs, re-establishing local economies and facilitating aid agencies in
reaching the needy. 

Nairobi, 2 March 2001


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


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