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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 69
22 - 28 Decmber 2001


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Mogadishu factions sign peace deal with TNG
SOMALIA: Mogadishu fighting follows peace deal in Kenya
SOMALIA: Refugee returns a strain on Somaliland - USCR
SOMALIA: Aid group warns of increased warlord power
SUDAN: Food insecurity facing Bahr al-Ghazal IDPs


SOMALIA: Mogadishu factions sign peace deal with TNG

After weeks of formal and informal talks between the Somali Transitional
National Government (TNG) and various factions opposed to it, a peace deal
was signed in the Kenyan town of Nakuru on Monday, with both sides
asserting that the talks had a been a success. A joint statement issued in
Nakuru, in the presence of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, who convened
the talks, said the sides had agreed to the establishment of "an
all-inclusive government" to ensure equitable power-sharing among all
Somali clans. The parties had also agreed to "to propose to parliament
[Transitional National Assembly] to increase the number of MPs and members
of the council of ministers", according to the statement. The Transitional
Charter currently limits the number of MPs to 245 and members of the
cabinet to 25.

The agreement also called for the establishment of a Nairobi-based
secretariat to oversee the implementation of the Somali peace process and
to solicit funds for it. The sides called on all those other political
groups which had remained outside the peace process to join it "with the
objective of widening and deepening the process of national
reconciliation", according to the statement. The agreement also calls for
the renunciation of violence as a means of settling political differences,
and for the government to "ensure cooperation with international community
in the eradication of terrorism".

The TNG prime minister, Hasan Abshir Farah, who led a high-ranking TNG
delegation to the talks, signed the agreement for the TNG, while the
secretary-general of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council
(SRRC), Mawlid Ma'ane, faction leader Usman Hasan Ali Ato and members of
other opposition factions, signed for the factions. The opposition
representatives included those of Husayn Aydid's Somali National Alliance
and Umar Finish, deputy to Muse Sudi Yalahow, who is leader of the United
Somali Congress/Somali Salvation Alliance (USC/SSA). However, Husayn
Aydid, one of Mogadishu's main faction leaders and a member of the SRRC,
has reportedly rejected the agreement. "We reject it completely," AFP
quoted him as saying.

The success of this latest agreement would depend on how fully it was
implemented, a regional expert told IRIN on Wednesday. "We have had a
number of agreements that never got off the ground because they were never
implemented," he said. However, diplomatic sources told IRIN that this
particular agreement "has a better chance of success than previous ones,
because it deals specifically with Mogadishu". Almost all the important
factions which signed the agreement are Mogadishu-based. [full report at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18192]

SOMALIA: Mogadishu fighting follows peace deal in Kenya

Heavy fighting erupted in Medina district, in the southwest of the Somali
capital, Mogadishu, early on Thursday morning, leaving a number of people
dead and wounded, local sources told IRIN. The fighting broke out at 4am
(01:00 GMT) when militia loyal to Mogadishu faction leader Muse Sudi
Yalahow attacked supporters of his former right-hand man and deputy, Umar
Mahmud Muhammad Finish, sources said. Both Yalahow and Finish belong to
the Da'ud subclan of the Abgal clan. Finish, who is currently in Nairobi,
confirmed to IRIN on Thursday morning that the fighting had started "and
is still going on as we speak". The fighting started at Jazira airstrip
when Yalahow's forces tried to capture it from supporters of Finish, Usman
Haji, a Mogadishu resident, told IRIN. According to Haji, Yalahow's forces
lost two technicals (pick-ups mounted with heavy weapons) and an
ammunition dump when a garage belonging to Yalahow was reportedly overrun
in the ensuing fighting.

On Friday a local source told IRIN that about 34 people had been killed
and nearly 60 wounded in the fighting. "These are the figures from the
three main hospitals in Mogadishu. Many people had buried their dead where
they died and have not reported to hospitals," a humanitarian source told
IRIN on Friday. Most of the dead and wounded are reported to be civilians.
The fighting reportedly died down on Thursday evening. "There were no
clashes last night", Ibrahim Yusuf, a Medina resident, told IRIN on
Friday. Ibrahim said on Friday that Medina was "calm but tense today",
with many people leaving the area for fear of renewed fighting.

Yalahow had rejected the Nakuru peace deal, which was signed by his
deputy, Finish, and this reportedly led to a split between the two, Somali
sources told IRIN on Friday. [full report at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18195]

SOMALIA: Refugee returns a strain on Somaliland - USCR

Somali refugees are returning from Ethiopia to the self-declared republic
of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, with little international help, the
US Committee for Refugees (USCR) stated in a report on Wednesday, 26
December. "With negligible help from the international community,
Somaliland continues to absorb tens of thousands of refugees repatriating
from eastern Ethiopia," according to USCR. Such a massive return of
refugees, albeit welcome, was "placing additional stress on Somaliland's
fragile, war-torn infrastructure," it added.

Some 4,000 Somali refugees - many from the Burao area, in the Toghdeer
Region of northwestern Somalia - returned to Somalia on 22 and 23
December, according to the UN refugee agency. The Somali refugee
population in Daror, eastern Ethiopia, now stands at just 2,437, and the
office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hopes to be able
to close the camp before the end of the month. Since the process of
voluntary repatriation of refugees to northwestern Somalia started in
1997, over 181,000 had left camps in eastern Ethiopia, it added. [full
story at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18196]

SOMALIA: Aid group warns of increased warlord power

A British nongovernmental organisation has called on the British
government to pressurise the US to lift the economic and military threat
hanging over the Somali people. ActionAid noted that the US freeze on the
assets of Al-Barakaat - the main banking and telecommunications system in
the region - had severed financial aid to many Somali families who rely on
remittances from relatives abroad. The organisation also condemned
suggestions of a US-led military intervention in Somalia.

"Targeting Somalia because it is alleged that some unnamed individuals may
support al-Qaida [terrorist network] is not going to resolve the wider
issue of terrorism," said Robin Le Mare, ActionAid's policy officer for
Somalia. "The US 1992 'Operation Restore Hope' effectively strengthened
the positions of warlords in southern Somalia and further entrenched the
clan-based system of self-governing territories. That action was a fiasco
and this is no time to attempt anything similar," he added. ActionAid
warned that such actions would only strengthen the position of those in
Somalia "who claim legitimacy through military might". [full report at
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18145]

SUDAN: Food insecurity facing Bahr al-Ghazal IDPs

Food availability and access are good in most secure locations of southern
Sudan after recent harvests but insecurity and its consequences are
limiting access to most of the available food options in parts of Bahr
al-Ghazal Region, according to the latest update from the Famine Early
Warning System Network. Continued insecurity and intensified bombing by
the government was "precluding or limiting access to the various local
markets and other food sources in parts of Bahr al-Ghazal," FEWS Net
reported. [http://www.fews.net/]

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that, by mid-November, there were
16,000 new internally-displaced people (IDPs) in Awoda, Raga County,
Western Bahr al-Ghazal. This was as a result of the government's recapture
of Raga town in mid-October, and of all other towns along the road from
Raga to Wau [including Mangayat, Sop, Deim Zubeir, Yabulu and Boro], it
said. The IDPs would remain food insecure and to need food and non-food
assistance, according to FEWS Net.

WFP staff managed to get food relief to some 20,000 beneficiaries,
including 10,000 newly-arrived IDPs [joining 6,000 who had previously fled
Raga], in a "hit-and-run intervention" after a rapid assessment on 21
November, it said. The agency also continued its efforts to serve IDPs
from Raga in Numatina [7.14 N 27.37 E], it added.

Relief needs would continue to be required through 2002 for the displaced
populations in Bahr al-Ghazal, Upper Nile and Lakes Regions, and also for
populations affected by insecurity in Eastern Equatoria, FEWS Net
reported.


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


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