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 59
13 - 19 October 2001


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: New cabinet named
ETHIOPIA: World Bank officials praise poverty reduction plan
ETHIOPIA: Newly elected president hospitalised
ERITREA: Economy will be hurt by crackdown on dissidents
ERITREA: US protests against government crackdown
SOMALIA: Over 450,000 people face food crisis in the south
SOMALIA: Clashes in Mogadishu result in deaths
SOMALIA: Southern town taken by opposition militia
SOMALIA: Puntland conference approves charter
SOMALIA: Zanzibari refugees want to stay
SUDAN: Army recaptures Raga

ETHIOPIA: New cabinet named

The new cabinet named by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Tuesday could help
ease regional tensions in Ethiopia, because it is characterised by
relative ethnic balance, a Western diplomat in the capital, Addis Ababa,
told IRIN. Unlike the previous cabinet, which was dominated by members of
the Tigrayan community, the new 18-member line-up includes the former
president of the Amhara Regional State and Meles's adviser, Adisu Legese
Kerekurat, as deputy prime minister and rural development minister. The
cabinet now includes five members of the Tigray community: Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi; Seyoum Mesfin, who retains the foreign affairs portfolio;
Bereket Simon Woldergerima, the minister of information and culture; Abay
Tsehaye (who has also been a senior adviser to Meles), the minister of
federal affairs; and Getachew Belay, the head of the inland revenue
authority. A former vice-president of the Oromiya Regional State, Sufyan
Bakr Ahmad (an ethnic Oromo), is minister of the merged finance and
economic development ministry. The former manager of Dire Dawa branch of
the Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway Corporation, Girma Biru (an ethnic Oromo),
is the minister of trade and industry, and retired army officer, Maj-Gen
Abadula Gemada (an ethnic Oromo, who, until August 2001, was the army
chief-of-staff), is named as defence minister.

Also named were a former deputy prime minister, Tefera Walwa (an ethnic
Amhara), as minister of the new ministry of capacity building; a former
ambassador to Kenya, Teshome Toga Chamka (an ethnic Welayita), as minister
for youth affairs; former Vice Minister for Economic Development, Mulatu
Teshome (an ethnic Oromo) as agriculture minister; Genet Zewde Biru (an
ethnic Amhara) who continues as education minister; the former minister in
the prime minister's office, Kebede Tadese (an ethnic Amhara and husband
of Genet), as health minister; Harka Haroye Oda (an ethnic Sidama) as
justice minister; Hasan Abdullah Ali (an ethnic Afar) as minister of
labour and social affairs; Mahmud Dirir (an ethnic Somali) as minister of
mines and energy; Shiferaw Jarso (an ethnic Oromo), who continues as
minister of water resources and development; and Kasu Ilala (an ethnic
Gurage) as minister of the new ministry of infrastructure development.

ETHIOPIA: World Bank officials praise poverty reduction plan

Describing Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's proposals to parliament last week
as "dynamic, comprehensive, and impressive", senior World Bank officials
have hailed Ethiopia for developing a programme with "good prospects for
sustained growth and poverty reduction", a statement from the Bank
released on Thursday said.

World Bank officials, including Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist
Nicholas Stern, Africa Region Chief Economist Alan Gelb and Director of
the Human Development Department for the Africa Region Oey Astra Meesok,
visited Ethiopia from 12 to 15 October. They discussed with government
officials, the cabinet and Meles proposals presented to parliament, which
contained strategies to strengthen rural development, capacity building,
provision of infrastructure, private-sector development, and further
decentralisation of decision-making to local governments.

"Mr Stern congratulated the government for its comprehensive and
impressive vision for reducing poverty in Ethiopia. [He] said the
government's programme constitutes a dynamic and comprehensive strategy,
with very good prospects of generating sustained long-term growth, and
empowering the poor to participate in this process," the statement said.
The Bank pledged to work with the government "on developing a strong and
sustained support, focusing on infrastructure (especially roads), capacity
building and rural development."

ETHIOPIA: Newly elected president hospitalised

Ethiopia's newly elected president, Girma Wolde-Giorgis, has been
hospitalised in Saudi Arabia, AFP reported on 14 October. He went there on
Saturday, according to the Ethiopian foreign ministry. Girma, 76, was
elected to the mostly ceremonial post six days ago and was reportedly
hospitalised after suffering minor health problems, said AFP.  He had been
a surprise choice for the presidency and was elected unopposed by
parliament. Girma has previously served as parliamentary Speaker during
the reign of the late Haile Selassie, the last Ethiopian emperor, said
AFP.

ERITREA: Economy will be hurt by crackdown on dissidents

Desperately in need of foreign aid for a vast variety of development
projects, Eritrea's recent crackdown on dissidents could hurt its economy,
the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) warned on Wednesday. In a worst-case
scenario, GDP growth would be highly unlikely to reach one to two percent.
According to the EIU, the crackdown, to which a large number of government
critics and journalists have fallen victim, largely reflects the kind of
domestic turmoil which had been expected to occur after the end of the
Eritrea-Ethiopia war in December 2000.

"With the Ethiopians more or less safely separated by 4,200 UN
peacekeepers, Eritrea's politicians have begun to turn to issues of
democracy and good governance within the country. The detention in
September of leading members of the ruling People's Front for Democracy
and Justice, after they signed an open letter criticising President Isayas
Aferwerki, and calling for improved transparency, has been followed by the
closure of all the country's private newspapers. Although these events
clearly do not bode well for democracy, the real damage may be to the
economy," the EIU's latest country briefing on Eritrea states.

Although World Bank funding and humanitarian projects under the European
Union are likely to continue, project funds dedicated to improving
infrastructure, rebuilding hospitals and schools, and providing technical
support for various government agencies could fail to materialise.
Remittances from Eritreans living abroad - which are the largest source of
current transfer inflows in the balance of payments - could also be
affected if Eritreans living abroad began to think their government was
becoming undemocratic, the EIU said.

ERITREA: US protests against government crackdown

The US has issued a strong protest against last month's detention of
Eritrean dissident leaders and the ban on the private press, AFP reported.
A US embassy statement issued in Asmara on 11 October urged the Eritrean
government to "restore the freedom of the press as soon as possible and to
treat detainees and all its citizens in accordance with its often-stated
commitment to democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law". It
said the ban on the private press was "leaving all the media now under the
control of the government". According to the US statement, the detained
dissidents "have called for the government to move faster to create a
multiparty system, implement the constitution and hold national
elections".

Also on 11 October, two US embassy locally recruited staff members were
arrested in the capital, Asmara. According to the government, they had
been translating "sensitive" government documents and reports in local
newspapers for the US government, and giving away too much information
from local sources, diplomats in Asmara told IRIN on Tuesday. The staff
members, Ali al-Amin and Kiflon Gebremikael, who worked in the embassy's
economic and political sections, are yet to be charged in a court of law.
The US embassy was denied access to them, but sent a diplomatic note to
President Isayas Aferwerki. The arrests appeared to be a continuation of
the government crackdown on its critics, AP reported on Monday.

Although the arrests occurred on the day the US government criticised
Eritrea for cracking down on opponents, the government spokesman, Yemane
Gebremeskel, told the BBC on 12 October that the arrests were unconnected
with the US criticism. "It has nothing to do with US policy. It is a local
matter relating to other activities," the BBC quoted Yemane saying.

SOMALIA: Over 450,000 people face food crisis in the south

The failure of the main Gu rainy season (May-July) in key food-producing
areas of southern Somalia has created a serious humanitarian crisis for
over 450,000 people. Urgent assistance is now needed to prevent major loss
of life, a press release issued on Tuesday by the Somali Aid Coordination
Body (SACB), which brings together UN agencies, NGOS and donor partners,
warns. The worst-affected area is Gedo Region, southwestern Somalia, where
NGOs are reporting "a shocking rise in the number of malnourished women,
children and displaced people". The situation is only marginally less
acute in Bay and Bakol regions of south-central Somalia, said the
statement. The chairman of SACB's food security and rural development
committee, Eddie Boyle, said. "Over 40,000 mt of food is urgently required
to prevent a major humanitarian crisis."

Action contre la faim (ACF), which is running a feeding centre in Luuq
town, the only such centre in the region, had reported that attendance
levels had increased five-fold in the past two months, said the SACB
statement. According to ACF, 4,300 patients were now receiving
supplementary and therapeutic treatment, with 200 new people now being
screened for admission. The situation would deteriorate further if, as
forecast, the Deyr short rains (October-November) also failed, the
statement warned.

Due to the increase in the number of undernourished people in Gedo Region,
CARE is now increasing its programme to assist 240,000 people there. CARE
has appealed for 22,000 mt of food to meet humanitarian needs over the
next year. According to the statement the UN's World Food Programme (WFP)
issued an appeal for 20,000 mt of food in July, but has so far received
pledges of only 4,300 mt. The statement quoted the SACB partners as
"stressing the urgency of the situation" and "making an appeal for
immediate support to CARE and WFP food relief programmes". SACB was also
calling for the establishment of additional health and supplementary
feeding programmes in Gedo Region, including services in rural areas to
reduce "the dangerous concentration of vulnerable groups in urban areas",
said the statement.

SOMALIA: Clashes in Mogadishu result in deaths

Three days of heavy fighting in Mogadishu has left over a dozen people
dead, local sources told IRIN on Monday. The fighting started on the
afternoon of 12 October when militia loyal to the Mogadishu faction
leader, Muse Sudi Yalahow, attacked a training camp for new recruits to
the security forces of the Transitional National Government (TNG) located
in the southern outskirts of the city, humanitarian sources told IRIN.
Yalahow's forces reportedly overran the camp, most of the occupants being
away for their Friday furlough, and stole over a dozen small arms and two
vehicles, one of the them a battle wagon, Abdi Ahmad, a resident of
Mogadishu, said. On the night of 12 October, TNG security forces attacked
Yalahow's main camp in El-Irfid, some 10 km north of the city and captured
a "37" anti-aircraft guns and an assortment of small arms. "They also
arrested some of the militia in the camp", but later returned to their
base, said Ahmad.

The fighting subsided in the afternoon of 13 October, but resumed on the
14th, when Yalahow's forces started mortar-bombing the north Mogadishu
district of Huriwa, according to a TNG interior ministry official. "Many
people fled from Huriwa on Sunday", but returned after the bombardment
died down that day, he added. The Mogadishu police spokesman, Col Muhammad
Yusuf Madale, told IRIN "there was no clash on Monday, and the situation
was returning to normal". The colonel said police estimated the death toll
at "between 14 and 15, with at least 20 wounded". Reportedly talks were
now in progress between TNG representatives and Yalahow, sources said.
However, a TNG source contacted by IRIN on Monday declined to confirm or
deny that talks were under way. Attempts by IRIN to reach Yalahow were
unsuccessful.

SOMALIA: Southern town taken by opposition militia

The regional capital of the Middle Juba Region, Bu'aale, was reportedly
captured on Tuesday by forces loyal to the Somali Reconciliation and
Restoration Council (SRRC), sources in Kismayo, 500 km south of Mogadishu,
told IRIN. The SRRC is a grouping of southern factions opposed to the TNG.
Bu'aale, 250 km north of Kismayo, was captured in August by the pro-TNG
Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), which controls Kismayo and its environs, from
SRRC militia led by General Muhammad Sa'id Hirsi Morgan.

Husayn Ibrahim Ahmad Ilal, the Bu'aale district commissioner, who is
currently in Kismayo, confirmed to IRIN that the town had fallen to the
SRRC forces. "We lost radio contact with the town early this morning, and
believe that it is in the hands of pro-Morgan forces," he told IRIN on
Wednesday. Ilal said there had been no fighting in the town and that the
SRRC forces had simply walked in. Other sources told IRIN that the militia
claiming to have taken the town were locals. "Those who came in on Monday
were Ogadeni militia, and not from outside," said the source on Wednesday.
Ogadenis are the dominant clan in Bu'aale. The SRRC and the JVA fought for
the control of the port city of Kismayo in late July and early August,
until the JVA expelled the Morgan-led SRRC force on 7 August.

SOMALIA: Puntland conference approves charter

The conference of the representatives of the constituent regions of the
self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, has
approved the Puntland charter, and is now drawing to a close, Puntland's
"acting president", Yusuf Haji Nur, has told IRIN. The Puntland general
congress, which opened on 26 August in Garowe, the regional capital, was
due to have ended on 1 October, but was suspended several times for
various reasons. The conference had been struggling in the past few days
to resolve differences within one of the sub-clans participating, a local
journalist told IRIN. Some of the delegates of the Dulbahante sub-clans of
the main Harti clan had been questioning the legal status of 15 of their
members, he said. "It looks likely that the problem will be resolved
today," he said on Thursday. According to this source, inasmuch as the
charter had been approved, "only the election of the president,
vice-president and parliament remains", which should not take very long.
"I expect the conference to wind up by next week" and a new Puntland
administration to be in place by then, said Yusuf Haji.

SOMALIA: Zanzibari refugees want to stay

The 103 refugees from Zanzibar who have been in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, since 6 October do not want to return to Zanzibar, one of them
told IRIN on Thursday. The refugees had come from Dadaab refugee camp in
northeastern Kenya. Kassim Abubakar, a spokesman for the refugees, told
IRIN that the group had no plans to return to Zanzibar for the time being.
Abubakar said their lives were still in danger if they returned now. He
said the refugees felt safer in Mogadishu than they had in Dadaab. "We
have had no security problems up to now, and we feel safer here than in
the camp."

The refugees, who are temporarily accommodated in a school compound in
south Mogadishu, were living in the open, Hasan Bashi, the school
administrator, told IRIN. "We have identified a more permanent place to
settle them, but we don't have tents" he said. Kassim Abubakar told IRIN
they had enough food, but lacked health services. "We eat enough, but many
people are complaining of stomach problems." Food was being supplied
through individual donations by individuals, and some by the Transitional
National Government, Bashi said. Bashi appealed to aid agencies to provide
the refugees with tents and medical services.

SUDAN: Army recaptures Raga

The Sudanese armed forces claimed on 14 October to have recaptured the
strategic town of Raga, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, news agencies reported. An
army statement said that troops loyal to Khartoum had forced the rebel
SPLM/A (Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army) out of the town on Sunday
morning, inflicting "huge losses in men and equipment". The acting armed
forces spokesman, Lt-Gen Faruq Hasan Muhammad Nur, was quoted by Sudan TV
as saying government forces were now pursuing the SPLM/A as they fled the
town. "After they [government forces] succeeded to capture Raga, they are
still pursuing the remnants of the rebels to further the victory outside
Raga town and to enlarge the circle to secure the town," he said.

The SPLM/A on Monday admitted to the loss of Raga to government forces. In
a statement, the rebel movement said its forces had made a "tactical
withdrawal" from Raga on Sunday, and had now redeployed in the surrounding
area with the aim of "flushing out the enemy once more". The SPLM/A seized
control of Raga and the nearby town of Daym Zubayr during a major
offensive in the region in early June. According to WFP, some 20,000
people have fled fighting around Raga since late September, taking refuge
in the village of Mangayath. The WFP on 7 October criticised Khartoum for
allowing bomb attacks on Mangayath as emergency relief food was being
distributed to IDPs in the area.

Nairobi, 19 October 2001


IRIN-CEA
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

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


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Horn of Africa                   www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica