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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 95
22 - 28 June 2002


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Alcohol and drug abuse on the rise in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Kahin trip set to improve Somaliland-Djibouti relations
SOMALIA: TNG pledges to attend Nairobi reconciliation talks
SOMALIA: Baidoa uneasy as RRA leaders wrangle
ERITREA: More than 50,000 refugees repatriated
ERITREA: UN observer, Eritrean wounded in landmine explosion
ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm restored in Awasa
ETHIOPIA: Women's empowerment vital for development - government
ETHIOPIA: Afar region facing critical period
ETHIOPIA-SOMALIA: Addis backs Arab League attending Nairobi talks
KENYA-SUDAN: Khartoum continues to bomb south
SUDAN: EU concern at humanitarian dangers, IGAD talks
SUDAN: Church appeal for conflict IDPs in western Upper Nile

SEE ALSO:

ETHIOPIA: Focus on education in Borena:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28537

ETHIOPIA: Borena Special report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28512


SOMALIA: Alcohol and drug abuse on the rise in Mogadishu

Alcohol and drug abuse are rapidly increasing and claiming lives in the
Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to humanitarian and official sources.
The increase was related to the large number of unemployed youths and
freelance gunmen in the city, "who have nothing better to do", one aid
worker told IRIN on Tuesday.

Echoing that view, Mogadishu police chief Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdid told
IRIN he believed that "nearly 50 percent of all the crimes committed in
Mogadishu are either drug- or alcohol-related". "Recently we have noticed
an increase in the number of establishments selling alcohol," he added.
Qeybdid said two kinds of alcohol were being sold in the city - a locally
concocted brew, popularly known as alaq, and imported beers and spirits.
He noted that alaq, which contained dangerous chemicals, and was mostly
consumed by the poor and uneducated youths, constituted a major problem.
"We have had people die from it, and people who were made blind by it," he
said.  [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28487]

SOMALIA: Kahin trip set to improve Somaliland-Djibouti relations

Relations between Djibouti and the self-declared independent state of
Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, are set to improve following a three-day
visit to Djibouti by the Somaliland interim president, Dahir Riyale Kahin,
a Djibouti official told IRIN on Monday. The official said the two sides
had reached agreement to iron out any differences between "the two
brotherly peoples". The provisions of the agreement include ending hostile
propaganda by both sides, reopening the common border and "allowing
traders from both sides to freely conduct their businesses", according to
the official.

Somaliland authorities had confiscated a consignment of cigarettes worth
US $800,000, reportedly belonging to a Djibouti businessman, Abdulrahman
Bore, in April last year. Bore is reportedly close to Djibouti President
Ismael Omar Guelleh, sources told IRIN at the time.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28469]


SOMALIA: TNG pledges to attend Nairobi reconciliation talks

The Transitional National Government (TNG) in Somalia will attend the
proposed Nairobi Somali reconciliation conference, to be held under the
auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD), a senior TNG official told IRIN on Monday. Abdirahman Ibbi, the
TNG's Minister of Information, denied reports that the TNG was reluctant
to participate in the conference. "We are ready to attend the conference
whenever and wherever it is held," he said. IGAD was originally due to
hold the Somali reconciliation conference in Nairobi in April but
postponed it then, and is now expected to convene it in July. The Kenyan
government has been tasked by IGAD with arranging the conference, and a
technical committee, comprising Somalia's three neighbours - Ethiopia,
Kenya and Djibouti - has been set up to prepare for the talks. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28470]

SOMALIA: Baidoa uneasy as RRA leaders wrangle

Tension is rising in the town of Baidoa, 240 km northwest of Mogadishu,
due to a deepening split within the senior ranks of the Rahanweyn
Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions of
southwestern Somalia, according to local sources in Baidoa, capital of Bay
Region and headquarters of the RRA.

The tension follows a split brought about by differences between the RRA
chairman, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, and his two deputies, Shaykh Adan
Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, they said. The problem affecting the
RRA arose over demands by the deputies that the RRA chairman, Shatigadud,
who had earlier announced the establishment of the self-declared South
West State (SWS) of Somalia, "should either dismantle the SWS and remain
chairman of the RRA or relinquish the RRA chairmanship", according to a
source involved in mediation efforts between the two sides. "The deputies
are arguing that inasmuch as the RRA chairman, Shatigadud, is now
president of the self-declared South West State of Somalia, Shaykh Aden,
the first vice-chairman, should become chairman of the RRA," the source
told IRIN on Thursday. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28534]

ERITREA: More than 50,000 refugees repatriated

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
reported on Tuesday that the number of Eritrean refugees repatriated from
Sudan has passed the 50,000 mark. The operation, which is now a year old,
reached this milestone when, on Sunday, its 91st convoy carried 960
Eritreans left the eastern Sudanese town of Kassala to Teseney in western
Eritrea, according to the UNHCR spokesman, Kris Janowski. This brought to
50,479 the total number of returnees to Eritrea since the beginning of the
voluntary return operation in May last year, he said. Janowski said the
agency hoped to help 3,000 more Eritreans go home before the heavy rains
season begins in late July. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28507]

ERITREA: UN observer, Eritrean wounded in landmine explosion

A United Nations military observer and an Eritrean interpreter were
injured on Sunday morning when their vehicle detonated a landmine on a
road 30 km east of Om Hajer. The road between Om Hajer and Antore is close
to Eritrea's southwestern border with Ethiopia and is frequently used by
UN military observers. It had previously been considered clear of
landmines by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

This is the latest in a series of recent landmine incidents close to the
border between the two countries. On 1 April, a farmer was killed when his
tractor struck a landmine close to Om Hajer. On 16 June, five Ethiopian
civilians were killed and seven injured when the truck they were
travelling in detonated an antitank mine just across the border in
Ethiopia.[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28493]

ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm restored in Awasa

Bekele Sakuma is now hoping for calm and peace. Just four weeks ago he
identified the body of his 17-year-old son, shot dead during clashes with
security forces in the southern Ethiopian town of Awasa. "The hardest
thing a father can do is pick his son out of a line of bodies," said
Bekele, a 55-year-old security guard who lives in the nearby village of
Loke. The village was where some 7,000 protesters gathered on 24 May
before marching towards Awasa to demonstrate against a change in the
town's status. Like many Sidamas - the ethnic group whose heartland
surrounds Awasa - he believed that he might lose his land with impending
political changes. Awasa is the regional capital of the Southern Nations,
Nationalities and Peoples' Regional State (SNNPRS), one of the country's
nine federal regions. The town, at present, also acts as the zonal capital
for the Sidama. But fears have circulated among the rural community that
their zonal capital was to be transferred to Aleta Wondo - some 80 km
away. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28497]

ETHIOPIA: Women's empowerment vital for development - government

Women must seize the opportunity of equality and fight for their rights,
the Ethiopian government urged on Monday. Without their full participation
in society the country could never attain rapid and sustained development,
the information ministry declared in a statement. It conceded, however,
that major hurdles would have to be overcome before women could achieve
equality. "The development and democratisation process under way in our
country cannot achieve its goals without the full participation of women,"
it said. It noted that "arduous efforts" were being made towards this
objective, citing both a new legal framework and a schools policy launched
with a view to helping women. The statement went on to say that women's
rights were upheld in the Ethiopian constitution. "The issue of women’s
equality is an issue of the whole society, and this view is becoming
widespread in the country. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28473]

ETHIOPIA-SOMALIA: Addis backs Arab League attending Nairobi talks

Ethiopia on Monday backed the Arab League in its move to attend the
forthcoming Somali peace talks. Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin
expressed support for the League's wish to participate in the
reconciliation conference, due to be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
This transpired after Amr Musa, Secretary-General of the Arab League,
called on Somali warlords to lay down their weapons and fight for peace
during a one-day visit to Ethiopia. For more than 10 years Somalia has
been ravaged by war, which has crippled the country. "The wellbeing and
stability of the Horn of Africa is an important element in the stability
and security of the rest of Africa and the Middle East, and the Arab world
in particular," Musa told a press conference in the Ethiopian capital,
Addis Ababa. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28488]

ETHIOPIA: Afar region facing critical period

Poor rains have hit one of the remotest parts of Ethiopia, threatening
severe food shortages, according to the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID). It said impending rains were "critical"
in arid Afar region in terms of addressing the food security needs of the
population. Afar is one of the driest places on earth and highly dependent
on three annual rainy seasons - the sugum, karma and dada. According to
the USAID food security report, warnings have already started to emerge of
"serious shortages of pasture and water". Although the region received
near average rains from March to May (sugum), they did not suffice to
replenish water supplies depleted by poor previous seasons. "This has
resulted in poor physical condition of livestock and a shortage of milk, a
main part of the pastoral diet," USAID's Food Early Warning System (FEWS)
report said. "Current sources of food, including milk, are the few camels
and sheep and goats that remained near villages," added the report,
released on Monday. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28538]

KENYA-SUDAN: Khartoum continues to bomb south

Four Kenyan construction workers were among those injured this week when a
Sudanese government aircraft bombed the Catholic bishop's compound in
Ikotos town, Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, the Sudan Catholic Bishops
Regional Conference (SCBRC) said on Thursday. In a statement it released
from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, SCBC said the attack occurred on Tuesday
night, when an Antonov aircraft bombed the residence of Bishop Johnson
Akio Mutek, the auxiliary bishop of Torit Diocese.  The statement, signed
by John Tanza Mabusu, the SCBRC's communications coordinator, said the
aircraft had dropped four bombs directly into the compound, damaging the
priests' quarters, offices and a newly constructed youth centre.
"Everything has been destroyed," Mutek said in the statement. "The bombs
destroyed my residence to the ground, damaging 10 solar panels, radio
communications equipment, one truck and other important diocesan
properties." SCRBC said the same aircraft had also dropped 12 bombs on
Isoke, a mission 48 km east of Ikotos, diocese of Torit primary and
secondary schools in Isoke with the capacity of over 500 children, but
said it could not confirm the details. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28541]

SUDAN: EU concern at humanitarian dangers, IGAD talks

The EU on Tuesday expressed grave concern about the humanitarian situation
in many parts of Sudan, particularly in western Upper Nile (Unity/Wahdah
State), Eastern Equatoria and Bahr al-Ghazal - all in the south and
affected by serious fighting. Noting the universal humanitarian principle
that "civilian populations must be protected from the consequences of
military operations", the EU called for "unrestricted, immediate and
unlimited access by international humanitarian agencies" to assist these
populations, whether directly or indirectly affected by the conflict. For
the past three months, western Upper Nile has been one of the areas most
affected by flight denials to aid agencies, while access has also been
denied in wide areas of Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria and Bahr al-Jabal,
according to aid workers. Humanitarian actors working in Sudan estimate
that between 150,000 and 300,000 people were displaced in western Upper
Nile alone between January and April.

Humanitarian agencies - currently engaged in a five-day "stop-gap
intervention" in western Upper Nile - warn that a serious humanitarian
crisis is in the offing in this region if fighting continues and the aid
community cannot secure access. A joint meeting of donors to Sudan and aid
agencies in early June strongly suggested that access to such key
locations should be maintained for long enough to allow "meaningful
interventions", and not just hit-and-run activities, but agencies are
stuck for the moment with what access they can secure, according to
humanitarian sources. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28508]

SUDAN: Church appeal for conflict IDPs in western Upper Nile

Church World Service (CWS), an umbrella group of Christian organisations
in the US, has appealed for urgent support for relief efforts to assist
thousands of families displaced in Rubkona County, southern Sudan, by
government military action in the oil-rich area. CWS said in a statement
on Monday that it was helping partner organisations in the area to assist
some 4,000 families (comprising 3,000 internally displaced and 1,000 host
families) around Chotchar and Touc. The flat scrub of the Upper Nile
region offered no protection from the government's aerial bombardments or
attacks by helicopters, it said, and people had crossed many small rivers
and swamps in search of whatever limited security they could find.

The government has launched "a massive dry-season offensive in the
oilfields [including western Upper Nile]... aided by thousands of its
forces, redeployed as a result of the Nuba Mountains ceasefire [in
Southern Kordofan]," John Prendergast, co-director for Africa of the
International Crisis Group, told a US Congressional hearing on 5 June.
Khartoum has consistently denied that it is targeting civilian populations
in oil areas, saying that it aims to make the areas safe for oil
operations, and has accused the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) of escalating military operations and causing the
deterioration of humanitarian conditions in Unity State/western Upper
Nile. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28494]


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