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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 105
07 - 13 September 2002


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA: Two killed in Addis bomb blast
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Security Council approves UNMEE extension
SOMALIA: IDP camp gutted by fire in Puntland
SOMALIA: New date set for talks
SOMALIA: Somaliland "will not attend" talks
SOMALIA: RRA rivals meet in Ethiopia
SUDAN: Government aircraft bomb Torit
SUDAN: SPLA denies preparing to take Juba



ETHIOPIA: Two killed in Addis bomb blast

Two people were killed and 37 wounded in three successive bomb blasts at
an Addis Ababa hotel during celebrations to mark the Ethiopian New Year on
Wednesday. According to the pro-government Walta Information Centre, the
explosions occurred around 21:15 (local time) at the Tigray Hotel in the
Piazza area of the city. The blasts came "in quick succession", one at the
entrance to the hotel, another inside the building itself and the third on
the street in front of the hotel. Medical workers at the capital's Black
Lion hospital said one woman died on arrival at the hospital. She was one
of four seriously injured people. Police are investigating the incident,
and no-one has yet claimed responsibility. The same hotel was the target
of a grenade attack five years ago by the rebel Oromo Liberation Front.
[See first story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29846]


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Security Council approves UNMEE extension

The UN Security Council on 6 September adopted a resolution extending the
mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) by six months.
The move follows a recommendation to this effect by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan in his latest report on the situation in the two countries.
UNMEE's mandate will now go through to 15 March 2003 "at unchanged levels
of troops and military observers", the resolution said. The peacekeeping
force has 4,200 personnel, including 220 military observers. The
resolution also welcomed the recent release by Eritrea of 279
prisoners-of-war and urged Ethiopia to "follow through on its pledge
relating to the release and repatriation of its POWs and civilian
internees". Both countries agreed to release remaining POWs from their
two-year border war, registered by the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), during a recent visit to Asmara and Addis Ababa by the ICRC
president, Jakob Kellenberger.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29792]


SOMALIA: IDP camp gutted by fire in Puntland

A camp for internally displaced people in the self-declared autonomous
region of Puntland was razed to the ground when a fire broke out there
earlier this month, the UN reported. In a press release, the Office of the
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia said the fire swept
through the Boqolka Bush camp - on the outskirts of Bosaso - on 3
September, destroying the personal belongings and household items of about
400 families living there.The cause of the fire has not yet been
established and no casualties were reported. "Immediately following the
fire, the UN, aid agencies and Puntland administration came up with a
response, which included distribution of resettlement kits, plastic
sheets, jerry cans, blankets, cooking pots, and high-protein biscuits by
UNICEF [UN Children's Fund]," the statement said. It added that the UN and
other agencies had expressed concern over the lack of permanent
settlements for IDPs in and around Bosaso. Most of the 28,000 IDPs in the
Bosaso area come from southern regions of Somalia, fleeing insecurity at
home. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29849]


SOMALIA: New date set for talks

The much-postponed Somali reconciliation conference, brokered by the
regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been
rescheduled to convene on 15 October in the western Kenyan town of
Eldoret, a Kenyan foreign ministry official told IRIN on Wednesday. On 6
September, Kenyan Foreign Minister Marsden Madoka told an IGAD Council of
Ministers meeting in Nairobi that the conference should open on 30
September. "It is now agreed that the conference will take place no later
than 15 October," said the Kenyan official. Delegates were expected to
arrive on 12 October for registration. At least 300 delegates from the
various groups are expected to participate, an IGAD source told IRIN on
Wednesday. However, the number of delegates allocated to each group had
not yet been decided. "The [IGAD] technical committee will decide on that
when they meet next week, but the idea is to be flexible and to bring on
board as many stakeholders as possible," he said. He confirmed that an
invitation to attend the conference would be sent to the self-declared
republic of Somaliland, but "whether they will attend or not is a
different matter". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29821]

SOMALIA: Somaliland "will not attend" talks

The authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland will not
attend the upcoming Somali reconciliation talks, Somaliland's Information
Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale told IRIN on Monday. He said it was
well known that the government's policy was not to participate in such
conferences. On Friday, Kenyan Foreign Minister Marsden Madoka said
Somaliland would be invited to attend the talks, which are expected to be
held in Kenya at the end of September. He was speaking in Nairobi at a
ministerial meeting of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD), which discussed plans for the upcoming Somali
reconciliation conference. Du'ale said that IGAD - under whose auspices
the talks will be held - was aware of Somaliland's policy on this issue.
"We never attended past rounds of talks, we will not attend this one, and
we will not attend future talks, which I am certain will follow this one,"
he told IRIN. He stressed that Somaliland was a "sovereign state with de
facto recognition" and did not need talks about peace and reconciliation
"which the country already enjoys". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29772]


SOMALIA: RRA rivals meet in Ethiopia

The president of the self-declared South West State of Somalia, Col Hasan
Muhammad Nur Shatigadud - who is also the chairman of the Rahanweyn
Resistance Army (RRA)- has met one of his rival deputies in Ethiopia, an
RRA source confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday. On Sunday, Shatigadud went to
Dolo, Ethiopia with a six-member delegation, where he met Shaykh Adan
Madobe, the RRA first vice-chairman, the source said. Speaking from
Baidoa, Shatigadud's stronghold, the source added that the RRA chairman
also met Ethiopian officials. "This is another attempt by the Ethiopians
to end the conflict between the two sides before the Somali reconciliation
talks in Kenya," he said. Adan Madobe reportedly left for Dolo by road
from his current headquarters in Dhinsoor, 90 km south of Baidoa, with a
four-member delegation. Baidoa, which is the headquarters of the RRA, was
the scene of fierce factional fighting between the two RRA factions.
Clashes first broke out on 1 July between forces loyal to Shatigadud and
those of Madobe and the second RRA vice-chairman, Muhammad Ibrahim
Habsade, in an apparent power struggle. On 31 July, Shatigadud's forces
drove his deputies and their forces out of Baidoa and seized control of
the town.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29794]


SUDAN: Government aircraft bomb Torit

The southern Sudanese town of Torit on Tuesday remained calm but tense,
following Monday's heavy bombardment by government warplanes, the rebel
Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) said. Media organisations
reported on Monday that government planes and helicopters bombed Torit
town - which was seized by the SPLM/A from the government on 1 September -
causing heavy damage. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN there had been
no "significant" casualties in the town, although, he said, a total of 100
bombs had been dropped on it during Monday's raid. "They destroyed and
flattened buildings, but there were no significant casualties, even in the
civilian quarters." He said government troops were still being mobilised
from neighbouring Juba, southern Sudan's main town, currently controlled
by the government, to engage SPLA forces on the ground. "Government forces
are still being brought from Juba. We are prepared. We are just waiting
for them," he added. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, charge d'affaires at the
Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, confirmed the rebel seizure of Torit, and
told IRIN that government troops would continue to "fight back". "Southern
Sudan is now all smouldering. People are fighting everywhere, and
government troops are also fighting back," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29804]


SUDAN: SPLA denies preparing to take Juba

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has denied
recent media reports that it is intending to attack and seize Juba - the
largest city in southern Sudan's Equatoria region - from the government.
SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN on Monday his group had no plans to
attack Juba, and was instead concentrating on the defence of Torit, a
strategic southern town about 100 km southeast of Juba, which it captured
from government forces on 1 September. "We don't have plans for Juba," he
said. We are just maintaining defences around Torit. They [government
troops] have vowed to recapture it from us. We are waiting for them."
Kwaje also dismissed claims by the Khartoum government that the SPLA had
received support from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel
group which at one time was supported by the Sudanese government and
operated from bases in southern Sudan. "The LRA are our enemies," Kwaje
said. "They [Sudan government] just want to explain away their failure to
defend Torit. They are now linking us with LRA. But LRA are their
friends."
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29777]


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