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

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


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 70
29 December 2001 - 04 January 2002


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Isayas vows to end conflict with Ethiopia
ETHIOPIA: OAU chief says world has failed Africa
SOMALIA: Ethiopia denies military personnel in Somalia
SOMALIA: President accuses factions of rights abuses
SOMALIA: Over 500,000 in the south facing a "major crisis"
SUDAN: Khartoum calls on Washington not to fund NDA
SUDAN: Nuba humanitarian assessment under way
SUDAN: Rebel alarm at Khartoum's reported purchase of new MiGs

ERITREA: Isayas vows to end conflict with Ethiopia

Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki has pledged to end the conflict with
Ethiopia in 2002, following a year of "relative peace" in his country. In
a New Year message to the Eritrean people, he said Eritrea would work
"indefatigably" to make this year "the end of the unjustifiable war that
victimised the Eritrean and Ethiopian people". He said that although
relative peace had been achieved last year, the core of the peace
agreement was to find a lasting solution to the border issue based on
colonial treaties. The two countries signed a peace deal in December 2000,
after a protracted two-year border war.

Noting that the Boundary Commission at The Hague would rule definitively
on border demarcation next month, Isayas accused Ethiopia of making
"baseless allegations" regarding a planned Eritrean offensive. "It is
clear to everyone that this invention on the eve of the ruling is aimed at
influencing the process and, in a subtle way, the opinions of the
commission," he said. "To launch a war at this late stage of the Boundary
Commission's decision can come only from the mentally disturbed or from
sides that are not confident of their case."

Moving on to Eritrea's internal problems last year when 15 government
dissidents were arrested and the private press banned, Isayas said this
was due to "sabotage" which had been "externally instigated". According to
Isayas, the anti-government position had been adopted by the dissidents -
many of them his former comrades-in-arms - who "tried to cover up their
defeatism and other failures" and who were supported by the independent
media. The events, he said, had "put the existence of the Eritrean people
at stake", but valuable lessons had been learnt, and this would have a
positive impact on Eritrea's future political development. [Full report
at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18332&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ERITREA

ETHIOPIA: OAU chief says world has failed Africa

The head of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has accused the
international community of failing the continent. Amara Essy said the
refusal to alleviate Africa's huge debt burden "continues to compromise"
its development. In a key-note speech marking the New Year, he said that
calls for financial help to relieve the spiralling debt of many countries
had fallen on deaf ears. Essy also spoke of the "litany" of disasters that
blighted Africa last year and warned of the difficulties faced by the
continent in the future.

"The debt burden unfortunately, continues to compromise seriously the
development prospects of the continent," he said. "Although commendable
initiatives have been taken for the alleviation and cancellation of the
debt of some African countries, the international community in general has
turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the continent...The past year has not
made it possible to make significant progress in the area of food security
and in general the reduction of poverty."

Essy, who was appointed OAU Secretary-General in September last year,
painted his bleak picture at the headquarters of the OAU which are based
in Addis Ababa. "The mobilisation for the building of the African Union is
all the more imperative as the challenges facing our continent are both
many and complicated," he added. "The year 2001 has been another difficult
year for our continent with its litany of conflicts, tragedies, natural
disasters and other hardships linked to poverty and pandemics, which
persist on our continent." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18331&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ETHIOPIA

SOMALIA: Ethiopia denies military personnel in Somalia

The Ethiopian government has denied media reports that it has sent
military personnel to Baidoa, 240 km northwest of the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, an Ethiopian diplomat told IRIN on Wednesday. "There are no
Ethiopian forces in Baidoa," he said, adding: "Ethiopia has no reason to
be involved in or training any forces in Somalia." The diplomat was
reacting to media reports alleging the presence of Ethiopian military
personnel in Baidoa, the headquarters of the Somali Reconciliation and
Restoration Council (SRRC), a grouping of southern factions opposed to the
Transitional National Government (TNG).

The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, monitored by the BBC, on 31
December reported that "around 70 Ethiopian officers arrived in the city
with about 10 military vehicles late on Sunday-Monday night" to train SRRC
militia. Al-Hayat said over 8,000 SRRC militias were involved and were
being kept in two camps near Baidoa. It quoted an SRRC official as saying
the militias comprised 4,000 from the Digil and Mirifle clans, 3,000 from
the Harti sub-clan of the main Darod clan, 750 from the Marehan sub-clan
of the Darod, and some 530 from the Dir clan. According to Al-Hayat, the
training of the SRRC militias is under the command of Hasan Muhammad
Shatigadud of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), Abdullahi Shaykh
Isma'il and Adan Abdallah Nur Gabyow, all members of the SRRC's rotating
chairmanship.

The second deputy chairman of the RRA, Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, confirmed
to the BBC in a radio interview on 31 December the presence of Ethiopian
military personnel in Baidoa, but said they comprised just 20 instructors,
who were there to help in demobilising 4,000 militias, and not to train
them. Habsade said that the RRA, which controls the Bay and Bakol regions,
had earlier requested help with demobilisation from the UN, but without
success. [Full report at:
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18288

SOMALIA: President accuses factions of rights abuses

The president of the TNG, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, on Wednesday accused
Somali faction leaders opposed to the TNG of human rights abuses, saying
they would be brought before a court of law, a senior official told IRIN.
The president told a women's group that the TNG had since its inception
been reluctant to bring charges against these faction leaders, hoping that
they "would participate in the reconciliation process in good faith", but
their rejection of the reconciliation conference convened by Kenyan
President Daniel arap Moi had made it very clear that they were not
interested in peace, according to Abdirahman Dinari, the TNG's director of
information. The president told his audience that that the TNG was losing
patience with the faction leaders, because they "are not interested in
peace and reconciliation", said Dinari.

Abdiqassim said the TNG would compile a list of faction leaders who were
"causing insecurity and committing human rights abuses against the Somali
people" and forward them "to proper international bodies", Dinari told
IRIN. [Full report at: Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18289]


SOMALIA: Over 500,000 in the south facing a "major crisis"

Hundreds of thousands of people in southern Somalia are at risk of
starvation due to drought and economic turmoil, a press statement by the
UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday, 28 December. "The
situation is particularly acute in Gedo Region [in the southwest], and
parts of Bay and Bakol [in south-central Somalia]", where the almost
complete failure of the main Gu harvest in August greatly reduced the
amount of food available to people, said the statement. According to the
UN agency, no significant improvement is expected with the upcoming Deyr
harvest, due to start in January, as rains in much of the worst-hit areas
have been patchy and well below normal.

"For months now we have been warning about a major crisis developing in
Somalia," said WFP's country director for Somalia, Kevin Farrell. "I now
strongly fear that the situation will deteriorate even further unless the
level of humanitarian assistance increases substantially." Farrell said
malnutrition rates among children under the age of five in Gedo Region had
reached very alarming levels, reflecting the extent of the food shortages
faced by Somali families, and their limited ability to cope. According to
Farrell, over recent weeks the difficulties faced by families have been
exacerbated by the reduction of overseas remittances resulting from the
closure in November of Al-Barakaat, the main money transfer company in
Somalia, on charges of acting as a conduit for the transfer of funds to
terrorists.

Another factor contributing to the deteriorating situation was the
continuing ban on the export of Somali livestock imposed by Saudi Arabia.
"The current drought, the very low level of humanitarian assistance, the
prevailing climate of insecurity and the fears of further disruption could
push an already very precarious situation over the edge," said Farrell.
[Full report at: Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18289]

SUDAN: Khartoum calls on Washington not to fund NDA

The Sudanese government has asked the US to cancel financial assistance
earmarked for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the
name of maintaining its neutrality on the war in the country, Sudanese
media and international news agencies reported this week. The US State
Department reached agreement on a proposal to deliver some US $3 million
in logistical support for the NDA (a coalition of northern political
parties and southern groups, including the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army, SPLM/A), opposed to the government) back in May, the
Washington Post newspaper reported on 25 May.

The US administration of George W. Bush (which regards Sudan as "a
military dictatorship with pro-government parliament") would provide
funding for office space, radios, staff and training to strengthen the
NDA's ability to engage in peace negotiations with the government, it
said, citing government sources. The $3 million support, initially
approved by the Clinton administration, was separate from the $10 million
in assistance the US Congress approved in 2000 for the SPLM/A, the report
added. "This [proposed] financial assistance casts doubt on the neutrality
of the US administration towards the parties in dispute in Sudan," AFP
news agency (citing the Sudanese daily Al-Ra'y al-Amm) quoted presidential
peace adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani as saying. "The assistance
would possibly increase the factors of war and confrontation" in the
country, where an estimated two million people had died from war-related
events since 1983, the Associated Press agency quoted Atabani as saying.
[Full report at: Http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18297]

SUDAN: Nuba humanitarian assessment under way

The Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the US Agency
for International Development (USAID) and "national and foreign
organisations" on Wednesday began an assessment of the humanitarian
requirements of the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan State,
south-central Sudan, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. The
parties involved also started a humanitarian assessment in the Lagawa, or
Al-Lagowa, area (11.24 N 29.08 E), which is on the border of West and
Southern Kordofan, west of the Nuba Mountains, it quoted HAC's Director of
Emergency Administration, Khalid Faraj, as saying.

That assessment, which got under way on Wednesday, is due to cover the
fields of agriculture, animal resources, health, education, water, roads
and food needs, prior to the preparation of rehabilitation and development
plans for the areas involved, according to Faraj. Five technical teams
started their missions on Wednesday in Kadugli (11.01 N 29.43 E); Dilling
(12.03 N 29.39 E); Hayban (11.13 N 30.31 E); Rashad (11.51 N 31.04 E);
Abu-Jebaiha, or Abu Jubayhah (11.27 N 31.14 E); and Talodi or Talawdi
(10.38 N 30.23 E), he said. These are all government-held areas in the
Nuba Mountains region. The United Nations was also due to started
surveying rebel-held areas of the Nuba region, SUNA quoted Faraj as
saying.

That multi-agency and multi-sectoral effort, which is also to include
nongovernmental organisations, is due to start on 8 January and run until
15 January, UN sources told IRIN on Thursday. Assessment team members
would be analysing health and nutritional needs, water and environmental
sanitation, education and social structures protection, as well as food
security, they said. There are an estimated 158,000 people in need of
emergency food assistance in the Nuba Mountains, according to the USAID.
[Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18338&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN]

SUDAN: Rebel alarm at Khartoum's reported purchase of new MiGs

The SPLM/A on Saturday expressed its "deep concern" over reports that a
Russian firm was selling MiG-29 jet fighters to the government of Sudan,
saying it was obvious that Khartoum was using oil revenues to purchase
these advanced combat aircraft to escalate the war in Sudan. Agreement on
a deal between the government of Sudan and the Russian Aircraft
Corporation MiG (RSKMiG) was sealed on 25 December, according to the
Sudanese rebel movement, which cited the Centre for Analysis of Strategies
and Technologies in the Russian capital, Moscow, as its source.

"Reliable sources" in Khartoum revealed that some of those aircraft had
already been delivered, and were in El-Obeid (Al-Ubayyid), Northern
Kordofan State (in central Sudan), close to the oilfields in southern
Sudan, according to the SPLM/A spokesman, Samson Kwaje. He claimed that
the new MiGs would "undoubtedly be used to attack with impunity civilian
targets, including markets, hospitals, schools, churches, internally
displaced camps, cattle camps, villages and humanitarian facilities on the
pretext that these are military targets".

The rebel spokesman strongly condemned Russia "not only for selling these
sophisticated fighter aircraft to a government that is committed to
killing its people but also for participating in oil exploration and
exploitation in Sudan". [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18260&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN]


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