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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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 114
09 - 15 November 2002


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Peace talks "on course" says Kenyan envoy
SOMALIA: Leaders call for unfreezing Al-Barakaat assets
SOMALIA: Parties sign landmine ban agreement
ERITREA: Government calls up graduates for national service
ERITREA-SUDAN: Asmara says Arab League resolution "unnecessary"
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia told to comply with border decision
ETHIOPIA: Government denies border encroachment
ETHIOPIA: WFP short of food aid as famine looms
ETHIOPIA: Drought stimulates outbreaks of violence
ETHIOPIA: Eritrean ethnic Kunamas may retain refugee status
SUDAN: Displaced caught in the crossfire
SUDAN: Sharp rise in kala azar cases


SOMALIA: Peace talks "on course" says Kenyan envoy

The Somali peace talks, under way in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, "are on
course", a statement issued on Tuesday by the office of Elijah Mwangale,
the Kenyan special envoy and chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority
on Development's technical committee, has said. According to the
statement, phase one of the talks was successfully concluded last week,
with the endorsement of a number of very important issues. In the second
phase, following sustained consultations, it had been agreed thatthe
number of delegates attending the conference would to be reduced. Also in
this phase, six committees are being constituted to deliberate, among
other things, on establishing federal government structures and agreeing
on practical ways to address the issues of economic recovery,
reconciliation, human rights and ethics. The statement noted, however,
that "there persists rivalry and suspicions among factional leaders
attending the peace talks. These are issues that are being addressed.
Serious negotiations are ongoing as we enter this most important phase."


SOMALIA: Leaders call for unfreezing Al-Barakaat assets

Somalia's various political factions and the Transitional National
Government (TNG), attending reconciliation talks in Eldoret, have issued a
joint statement calling on the international community to lift the freeze
on the assets of the Al-Barakaat bank. The Al-Barakaat group was one of
the organisations and individuals the US authorities accused of having
links with terrorism following last year's 11 September attacks and
subsequently closed down. Abdirahman Ibbi, the TNG information minister,
told IRIN that the closure of Al-Barakaat had affected every Somali. "This
is why we are all speaking with one voice on this issue," he said. "We are
appealing to the countries involved to lift the freeze and allow people to
withdraw their meagre savings."


SOMALIA: Parties sign landmine ban agreement

Somalia's various political factions and the TNG in Eldoret have signed a
commitment to ban use of landmines in areas under their control, a Somali
source told IRIN. The leaders signed the agreement with the Geneva-based
humanitarian organisation Geneva Call, and committed themselves to
"destroy and clear landmines in areas under their control", said Awad
Ahmad Asharo, the justice minister of the self-declared autonomous region
of Puntland, northeastern Somalia. The leaders also committed themselves
"not to use antipersonnel mines for combat purposes" in the future. Asharo
told IRIN that the Puntland authorities would not only ban the use of
landmines but "will make sure that no new mines are brought in". He said
the Somali leaders who signed the agreement requested the international
community to help landmine victims in the country.


ERITREA: Government calls up graduates for national service

The Eritrean government has called up more than 350 recent graduates of
the University of Asmara to report this Friday, 15 November, for
compulsory national service. The call-up notice for the graduates of 2002
was carried by the state-run Hadas Eritrea newspaper on Tuesday. It was
the first time that students who had not reported for national service
were specifically named, listing them by gender and the courses of studies
they had completed. The notice also pointed out that by not reporting, the
students had failed to perform their national duty and were accordingly in
violation of the law. Since the end of the war with Ethiopia, the Eritrean
government has repeatedly pledged to demobilise tens of thousands of its
soldiers. But as recently as mid-October, the president announced in an
interview on state-controlled Eritrean Television that anyone who had not
performed national service would be called up soon.


ERITREA-SUDAN: Asmara says Arab League resolution "unnecessary"

The Eritrean foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a resolution adopted by
the Arab League warning Eritrea against interfering in Sudan's internal
affairs was "unnecessary", and did not reflect Eritrea's positive
contributions towards the Sudanese peace process, according to Eritrean
state radio. On Sunday, the Arab foreign ministers called on Eritrea not
to interfere in the internal affairs of Sudan and expressed concern over
US policy towards Khartoum. In the resolution, the council of the Arab
League asked Eritrea to "respect the sovereignty and security of Sudanese
territory and regional security". All the ministers of the 22
member-states signed the resolution. Relations between Eritrea and Sudan
deteriorated swiftly after the Sudanese government accused Eritrea of
being behind a major offensive in Kassala State in northeastern Sudan in
early October, in the course of which rebels of the Sudan People's
Liberation Army took several key towns and a number of government
garrisons.


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia told to comply with border decision

Ethiopia was criticised on 8 November for ignoring an order by the
international boundary commission to remove resettled Ethiopians from
Eritrean territory. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), which
met the two sides in London last week, said the Ethiopian government had
"not complied with its obligations". The commission, which was set up to
resolve the long-standing border dispute between both countries, had
called on Ethiopia to stop the resettlements in July. At the time, it gave
details of a new Ethiopian settlement in a place called Dembe Mengul, some
400 metres inside Eritrean territory, close to the controversial village
of Badme.

The area was the flashpoint that sparked a bitter two-year border war
which claimed tens of thousands of lives and was the scene of some of the
heaviest fighting. In a statement released after the London meeting, the
EEBC said: "Having regard to the commission^Òs order of 17th July 2002,
Ethiopia, in failing to remove from Eritrean territory persons of
Ethiopian origin who have moved into that territory subsequent to the date
of the delimitation decision, has not complied with its obligations."


ETHIOPIA: Government denies border encroachment

The Ethiopian government has rejected claims that it has failed to comply
with a binding ruling by the EEBC. The government said on Wednesday that
Ethiopia had not sent any of its nationals into Eritrea as part of a
resettlement programme. "Ethiopia has not sent anybody onto Eritrean
territory. I think the boundary commission are muddled on this one. We
just don^Òt know why they are saying this," Netsannet Asfaw, the minister
of state for information, told IRIN.


ETHIOPIA: WFP short of food aid as famine looms

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it faces massive shortages
to feed millions facing starvation Ethiopia. It called on the
international community to come forward with aid to help avert the crisis.
"Donor contributions have covered the most acute needs over recent months,
but by early next year the number of drought-affected Ethiopians will rise
dramatically. The food aid pledges received so far are nowhere near
enough," said Georgia Shaver, the WFP representative in Ethiopia. "In the
worst-case scenario, up to 14 million people will require around two
million tonnes of food aid, costing US $700 million. If donors respond
quickly, we can still help avoid immense human suffering in Ethiopia," she
added. WFP alone needs $80 million worth of food for the first quarter of
2003, and a similar sum is needed in bilateral contributions to the
government and NGOs.


ETHIOPIA: Drought stimulates outbreaks of violence

At least 20 women have been shot dead in northeastern Ethiopia,
humanitarian sources told IRIN on 8 November. The women, all ethnic Afars,
were killed as they were on their way home from a market, the sources
confirmed. The shooting, which took place in late October, is believed to
be part of increasing tensions in the Afar Regional State sparked by a
severe drought affecting many parts of the country. In a separate
incident, at least 11 ethnic Ittus were killed in a shoot-out on Tuesday
in Fentale, Oromiya Regional State, also hit by the drought. Fierce
clashes have occurred in Afar, particularly in Zone Five, between ethnic
Afars and Issas competing for scare water resources. The zone is currently
off-limits to UN staff. Skirmishes between Afars and Issas have been
gradually escalating over the years with the Afars accusing the Issas of
persistently encroaching on their territory from the southeast. "If the
[current] conditions continue, tensions will only increase," one source
told IRIN. "Depending on the drought and the rains, if you can^Òt move
freely it^Òs going to heat up. There is a drought and there is a lot of
fighting."


ETHIOPIA: Eritrean ethnic Kunamas may retain refugee status

Several thousand Eritrean ethnic Kunamas who sought refuge in Ethiopia
during the 1998-2000 border war may be exempted from a UN ruling ending
refugee status for Eritreans living in exile, UN sources have told IRIN.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
will on 31 December 2002 officially end the refugee status of Eritreans
then still outside their country of origin. There are some 4,400 Kunama
refugees in Ethiopia, currently housed in Wa^Òala Nihibi camp in Tigray
Regional State, northern Ethiopia, close to the border with Eritrea. The
UNHCR is assessing their situation, and is expected to make an
announcement in this regard before the end of the year. The UNHCR decided
to withdraw refugee status for Eritreans, because, it said, they were no
longer at risk from the state war which had blighted their country for
more than 30 years. Despite cancelling refugee status for Eritreans, the
UNHCR has made it clear that it will continue to assess the claims of
individuals coming forward to seek continued asylum beyond 2002.


SUDAN: Displaced caught in the crossfire

After suffering decades of civil war, recurrent drought and widespread
inter-ethnic conflict, Sudan now hosts the largest number of internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in the world - some 4 million people. The main
cause of this unparalleled level of displacement has been, and continues
to be, the civil war which has been fought since 1983 between the Khartoum
government and southern rebels, including the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Not only are civilians caught in the crossfire
between warring parties, but in more recent years "the military strategies
embraced by both the government and the SPLA have often placed civilians
directly in the firing line," the think-tank, International Crisis Group
(ICG), said in a recent report.

Government forces and their allied militias have frequently attacked
civilian targets as part of an effort to weaken support for the SPLA,
while the SPLA relies on guerrilla tactics against the government,
according to ICG.


SUDAN: Sharp rise in kala azar cases

A dramatic increase in the potentially fatal liver disease, kala azar, is
threatening southern communites already weakened by the country's 19-year
civil war, the international organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
warned. "The state of these patients is appalling. They are being carried
on stretchers for days to make it to the clinic. They look pale and thin
and are extremely anaemic," Jose Antonio Bastos, MSF Operational Director,
said in a statement on 8 November. Although the disease is endemic in
parts of Sudan and usually peaks at this time of year, the current
outbreak was at an "exceptional" level, and showed a dramatic increase
compared to previous years, the statement said.


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