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 87
27 April - 03 May 2002


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Addis Ababa closes border to UN, Asmara reacts
ETHIOPIA: UN says demining to be completed by April 2003
ETHIOPIA: $7 million awarded to tackle killer diseases
SOMALIA: UN staff member kidnapped in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Puntland meditation efforts fail
SOMALIA: Premier in Kuwait on first state visit
SOMALIA: Market fire claims 11 lives
SOMALIA: Cholera kills 32 in Puntland
SUDAN: New agreement with Uganda to re-establish full diplomatic ties
SUDAN: UN calls for full humanitarian access
HORN OF AFRICA-SUDAN: Food shortages persist in some parts

ALSO SEE:

ERITREA: Feature - Mixed feelings about demobilisation at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27491

ERITREA: Football victory "new beginning for peace" at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27517


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Addis Ababa closes border to UN, Asmara reacts

Ethiopia on Monday accused the UN peacekeeping mission of "grossly
violating" its mandate within the country, and banned it from crossing the
border with Eritrea. The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has
been told that all movements across the border are now forbidden. The
border was closed on the morning of 27 April, and according to Ethiopia's
state minister for information the ban is "indefinite".

The restriction comes just two weeks after a crucial ruling on the border
between the two countries, announced on 13 April by an independent
Boundary Commission. Both sides have claimed victory over the ruling, and
political tension has increased over the location of the contested and
symbolic village of Badme, where their border war began in 1998.

The minister, Netsanet Asfaw, told IRIN that UNMEE had violated a Status
of Force Agreement it signed with Ethiopia. "They also grossly violated
Ethiopia's rights by bringing journalists, not through Ethiopia, but
through Eritrea into Badme," she said. "This they shouldn't do. Therefore
until these things are sorted out they cannot move in air, cars, or by
foot into Eritrea or from Eritrea into Ethiopia." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27520]

On Tuesday, Eritrea responded to the closure, asking the UN to clarify
Ethiopia's move.
According to the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice website,
Shaebia, the government told UNMEE that "the matter in hand concerns
Eritrea". It asked UNMEE to provide "detailed and official information on
where the alleged border violation has taken place".

"UNMEE informed Eritrea on Monday that Ethiopia had closed its borders
with Eritrea to UNMEE personnel," Shaebia reported. "It further informed
Eritrea's Commission for Coordination with UNMEE that Ethiopia has said
'UNMEE took international journalists by air from Eritrea to Ethiopia
without Ethiopian permission and visas'". The Eritrean government informed
UNMEE that the new Eritrean-Ethiopian border "took immediate effect on the
basis of the 13 April decision" by the Boundary Commission. "Ethiopia's
non-compliance is a violation of the decision," the government stressed,
according to Shaebia. It said the move by Ethiopia was "obstructing the
[border] demarcation process". [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27551]

ETHIOPIA: UN says demining to be completed by April 2003

The UN said on 26 April that it expected demining for border demarcation
to be completed by April 2003 "at the latest". "The problem for us at the
moment is we don't know exactly how many pillars are going to be inside a
mined or an unexploded ordinance-contaminated area," said Phil Lewis, who
heads the demining team for the UNMEE. "Until we know that, we can't give
you a definite time of what it is going to take to clear all the sites,
because we don't know where they are, or how many there are," he told a
news conference in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. But, he said, "we
anticipate that the demining of those sites will be completed by latest,
end of April 2003, and maybe before that, depending on how many actual
sites end up in mined areas".

Aerial photography, which will be used in the border demarcation, ended on
Friday and the information will be sent to Sweden for quality assessment,
the UN said. The maps that will be made from the photographs should be
ready by August and will be used by the survey teams from the
Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

He said UNMEE estimated that the area to be cleared amounted to about 200
km, as much of the 1,000-km-long border was defined by rivers and areas
where there was no major contamination, as there had been no conflict. "We
think, based on what we know and what we've been planning on at the
moment, that we will have to demine in the vicinity of about 50 areas
where the pillars will go in mined areas," Lewis added. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27513]


ETHIOPIA: $7 million awarded to tackle killer diseases

Ethiopia has been awarded more than US $7 million as part of the Global
Fund to tackle diseases, backed by computer billionaire Bill Gates. The
award is part of a multi-million dollar package announced in New York
recently, and which gives a large proportion of the money to African
countries.

The money will be used to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria -
three of the world's biggest killers. In Africa alone, a total of US $641
million was requested to help fight the diseases under the first grant
awards announced by the Global Fund. Gates, who founded the computer giant
Microsoft, has pledged US $100 million to the Global Fund for AIDS and
health.

The Fund was set up in June 2001 after a summit organised by the United
Nations, and specifically targets the three killer diseases. They are the
cause of almost six million deaths a year - 10 percent of global deaths.
Without the Global Fund, total expenditures to fight HIV/AIDS, TB, and
malaria in the developing world would be approximately US $1.6 billion in
2002. But the Fund has helped increase resources by US $700-800 million -
effectively increasing global spending on these epidemics by 50 percent in
its first year of operation. Around 58 countries have applied for funding
from the Global Fund, which is an independent, public-private partnership.

SOMALIA: UN staff member kidnapped in Mogadishu

A national officer working for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in
Mogadishu was kidnapped by gunmen in the city on 28 April, the UN
announced on Monday. In a statement, the office of the UN Humanitarian
Coordinator for Somalia confirmed that the employee, Prof Muhammad Ali
Abukar, was abducted by "persons unknown in the vicinity of K4 [in
southern Mogadishu]". The statement said the UN Country Team for Somalia
was working to establish contact with the kidnappers "in order to
ascertain his condition and whereabouts, and to ensure his safe release".

Humanitarian sources in Mogadishu told IRIN Abukar was travelling on a bus
on his way to his house in the Medina district of southwest Mogadishu,
"when gunmen who were riding in the same bus kidnapped him at around 4:30
p.m. local time". It is unclear why Abukar was kidnapped, where he is
being held and by whom. "We have no idea where he has been taken to," the
source said.

The Mogadishu police chief, Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdid, told IRIN the police
were investigating the case. Qeybdid said the police had some leads, but
declined further comment. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27519]

By Thursday, Abukar was still being held by his captors. However, A UN
statement said contact had been established with his abductors via
intermediaries. "Through a telephone contact, a meeting with the UN
country team has been requested" with a view to entering into negotiations
towards securing his release, the statement said. The statement said the
team had expressed concern to ensure speedy delivery of medication needed
by Abukar. He is known to be suffering from high blood pressure, according
to a source close to Abukar's family told IRIN on Thursday.

Abukar, who had initially been held in the vicinity of the K-7 area in
south Mogadishu, was reportedly moved to Medina district, the source said.
"Now that he is in Medina, we hope we will have better luck in effecting
his release," he added. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27570]

SOMALIA: Puntland meditation efforts fail

An effort by Ethiopia to mediate between the current and former leaders of
the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, has
failed, according to local sources. A local journalist in Bosaso,
Puntland's commercial capital, told IRIN on Wednesday that current
president, Jama Ali Jama, and former leader, Col Abdullahi Yusuf, had been
invited to Addis Ababa by the Ethiopian government. However, the two
rivals failed to meet in face-to-face talks.

Also speaking from Bosaso, Usman Mahmud, an adviser to Jama, said the
Puntland leader had returned home. "The president was disappointed that
nothing positive emerged from the mediation," he told IRIN. Mahmud blamed
what he described as "Abdullahi Yusuf's intransigence" for the failure of
the talks. He said Jama had been prepared to talk about anything "except
the constitution of Puntland". "That would have to be respected, but
Abdullahi Yusuf wanted to flout it," Mahmud said.

Abdullahi Yusuf meanwhile returned to his base, Galkayo, on Tuesday, a
local journalist in the town told IRIN. Dahir Aflow, of the Galkayo-based
weekly Bulsho, said that on arrival Abdullahi assured the public he would
"protect the safety and security" of the Puntland people. Aflow added that
Abdullahi had blamed the failure of the Addis talks on Jama's "refusal" to
meet him face to face. Informed sources in Puntland told IRIN the
Ethiopians had proposed that the two enter into a power-sharing
arrangement, with Abdullahi Yusuf as president and Jama as prime minister.
This was rejected by Jama as "unworkable", the sources said. [Full report
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27552]

SOMALIA: Premier in Kuwait on first state visit

The prime minister of Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG)
arrived in Kuwait on Monday on his first state visit since his appointment
last November. Hasan Abshir Farah, accompanied by a six-man delegation, is
in Kuwait on a four-day state visit at the invitation of the Kuwaiti
government. He was met on arrival by Shaykh Sabah Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah,
the foreign minister and acting prime minister.

Ahmad Ise Awad, the chief of staff in Abshir's office, told IRIN on
Wednesday that the prime minister had held talks with the head of the
Kuwaiti Fund for Arab development. According to Awad, the discussions on
Tuesday centred on Somalia's debt to the Fund, and renewed aid for the
country. The premier requested Kuwaiti funding for water projects and the
rehabilitation of health services in Somalia. Later on Tuesday, Abshir
attended a working lunch hosted in his honour by Shaykh Sabah Ahmad
al-Sabah. The prime minister had taken the opportunity "to brief his hosts
on the situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa", said Awad.

He told IRIN that the two sides had reached agreement "on all issues
discussed". The prime minister was also scheduled to meet the Somali
community in Kuwait, he said.

Abshir, who suffers from diabetes, was flown to the United Arab Emirates
on 4 April, where he spent nearly three weeks undergoing treatment. "The
prime minister is now in excellent health, and will probably proceed to
visit other Arab states," Awad said.

SOMALIA: Market fire claims 11 lives

Three days after a fire swept through parts of it, the Bakara market,
Mogadishu's main market, reopened for business on Thursday, a local source
has told IRIN. The fire, which broke out in the household goods section at
around 10:00 p.m. on Monday, quickly spread to other areas of the market
causing serious damage to parts of the structure. The cause of the fire
had not yet been established, a police source told IRIN on Thursday.  The
conflagration killed 11 people, injured another 40, and completely
destroyed the clothing and electronics sections, the Mogadishu police
chief, Abdi Qeybdid, said. He added that police were investigating to
determine the cause of the fire.

A committee comprising business people and officials from the trade
ministry of the TNG had been set up to establish the extent of the losses
incurred as a result of the fire, Abdirahman Nur Dinari, the TNG trade
minister, told IRIN. "There has been a lot of speculation as to how much
was lost in the fire," he said. "We still do not have an accurate figure."

The chairman of the Mogadishu business community, Mahmud Abdikarim
Gabayre, told IRIN that the business community believed the losses
amounted to between US $16 million and $18 million. Dinari said: "There is
no question that the damage is great, but it is premature to come up with
a figure. We should all wait for the committee's report." Gabayre said his
group was setting up a fund to help those who had lost their livelihoods
in the fire. "We appeal to Somalis, wherever they may be, to contribute to
this fund", Gabayre said. He said the fund would be set up in one of the
money transfer companies in Mogadishu soon.

Meanwhile, the Bakara market business community has started acquiring
firefighting equipment. "We are starting with two old fire engines, which
we are repairing. We intend to acquire up to 10 of them," said Abdikarim
Gabayre. He said that they would order eight fire engines from abroad.
[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27572; also
see: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27529]

SOMALIA: Cholera kills 32 in Puntland

At least 32 people have been killed in an outbreak of cholera in Bosaso,
the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland,
an official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday. Cholera
is endemic in Somalia, and the current outbreak - which began on 16 April
- was caused by contaminated water wells due to flooding after heavy rains
in the area. A cholera treatment centre was set up at Bosaso's general
hospital "immediately after the first reported cases", the official told
IRIN. A regional cholera task force was activated by the local authorities
in collaboration with WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund, Action
Africa Hilfe and Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27516]


SUDAN: New agreement with Uganda to re-establish full diplomatic ties

Uganda and Sudan have agreed to re-establish full diplomatic ties, which
were severed in 1995 as each country accused the other of backing rebel
groups, and to appoint full ambassadors to each other's countries,
according to a joint government statement on 27 April. Ugandan Foreign
Minister James Wapakhabulo and Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman
Isma'il agreed in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on 26 April to "upgrade
the level of diplomatic representation between their countries to the
level of ambassadors, and to establish a joint ministerial committee" to
supervise bilateral relations, the joint communique stated.

The Ugandan government agreed, according to Saturday's joint declaration
in Kampala, "to expedite and maximise the Ugandan factor in the
realisation of a sustainable peace in southern Sudan under the umbrella of
IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development]." In the statement,
Khartoum and Kampala also announced their agreement "to extend their
cooperation and coordinate with each other in the multilateral sphere, and
to discuss in advance their respective positions with each other, in case
of difference, before taking any action."

This meant that the two countries had effectively "buried the hatchet"
over differences that emerged following Uganda's decision to back a recent
UN Human Rights Commission resolution urging Sudan to respect human rights
and fundamental freedoms, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at
the Sudanese embassy in Kenya, told IRIN on Monday. "That issue has been
completely sorted out. We really have buried the hatchet," Dirdiery said.
"It was made very clear in the communique we issued that the two countries
will coordinate and cooperate on multilateral affairs. This means we have
revised the earlier position," he added. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27522]

SUDAN: UN calls for full humanitarian access

Senior UN humanitarian officials on 25 April called on both parties to the
conflict in Sudan to lift all bans on humanitarian aid flights and to
grant full access to people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
"We are appealing to both sides to give us access so we can get food and
non-food items to people who need it," Ambassador Tom Vraalsen, Special
Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, told
reporters in New York today. Over a million people dependent on relief
assistance for survival were affected, the statement said.

The Sudanese government has denied access to more than 40 locations since
late March, double the usual number of denials, effectively cutting off
humanitarian supply lines into parts of Eastern Equatoria, Bahr al-Ghazal,
and western Upper Nile (Wahdah/Unity State), according to a statement
issued by the UN's Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA).
Over a million people dependent on relief assistance for survival were
affected, the statement said.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), for its part, has
restricted flights to the strategic town of Wau in Bahr al-Ghazal,
according to ECHA. {Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27483]

Meanwhile, in a new report released on Monday, the international medical
organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said warring parties in the
oil-rich western Upper Nile region were responsible for "appalling"
civilian mortality from infectious diseases. "Thousands of people have
died from diseases that can be treated, even during conflict. It is the
way the war is waged that limits access to medical services," Arjan
Hehenkamp, Operational Director of MSF, said in a statement launching the
report, "Violence, Health, and Access to Aid in Unity State/western Upper
Nile, Sudan".

As a result of both government and rebel attacks, many health workers had
fled the region, while others had found work in government-held areas such
as Bentiu, or in Khartoum. "However, for the civilians remaining in
western Upper Nile this is scant comfort, as most communities are bereft
of trained health staff and access to essential medicines," the report
said. MSF urged the government of Sudan, the SPLM/A, and associated
militia groups to provide medical personnel and medical facilities with
protection "in accordance with humanitarian law". "Health services are
essential for the survival of the civilian population, and must be
protected," MSF said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27539]

HORN OF AFRICA-SUDAN: Food shortages persist in some parts

In Eritrea, despite a strong recovery in grain production during the main
crop season last year, the food situation of large numbers of people
affected by drought and the recent war with neighbouring Ethiopia remains
precarious, according to the FAO's Global Information and Early Warning
System first-quarter report on the food supply situation, cereal import
and food aid requirements for sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, nearly 1.3
million people in Eritrea continued to depend on emergency food
assistance, while continuing drought conditions in parts of Anseba, Debub,
Northern Red Sea and Southern Red Sea zones gave cause for concern, it
added.

In Ethiopia, a bumper main season grain harvest late last year had
significantly improved the food supply outlook for 2002, but an estimated
5.2 million people still faced severe food shortages and needed food aid,
it said. Though food supply was generally adequate in Sudan, following a
good 2001 main season cereal crop in both southern and northern parts of
the country, several zones in southern Sudan - especially in Western and
Eastern Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal - faced severe food shortages, mainly
due to population displacement and insecurity, the FAO reported.

"In southern Sudan, where insecurity is a major cause of food aid needs,
the overall needs are estimated at 52,000 mt," it said. In addition, food
needs in the Nuba Mountains area of Southern Kordofan, south-central
Sudan, amounted to about 25,000 mt, it added. Parts of Darfur and Kordofan
regions in western Sudan had suffered crop failures due to erratic
rainfall, and "large numbers of people in these areas are expected to
depend on emergency food assistance until the next harvest", the report
said.

In Somalia, despite the recently harvested better than expected secondary
"Deyr" season cereal crop, up to 500,000 people - whose coping mechanisms
have been diminished by a poor 2001 main season "Gu" harvest, successive
droughts and insecurity - are still threatened by severe food shortages,
according to the FAO report. "The continuing ban on livestock imports from
eastern Africa by countries along the Arabian Peninsula has sharply
reduced foreign exchange earnings and severely curtailed the country's
import capacity," it said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=27557]


IRIN-CEA
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Fax: +254 2 622129
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