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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 100
03 - 09 August 2002


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: RRA chairman offers to reinstate his deputies
SOMALIA: Life returning to normal in Baidoa
SOMALIA: UN employee abducted
SOMALIA: Up to 120 killed in renewed Puntland fighting
ERITREA: Another journalist detained
ERITREA: University student leader escapes from detention
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN preparing demining support for border demarcation
ETHIOPIA: UN appeals for help for drought-hit pastoralists
ETHIOPIA: Two million face serious food shortage
SUDAN: Militia sets free remaining hostages

SOMALIA: Life returning to normal in Baidoa

Life in Baidoa, in southwestern Somalia and site of the headquarters of
the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), is returning to normal, a week after
falling to forces loyal to the RRA chairman, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur
Shatigadud, a local business source told IRIN on Tuesday. Baidoa has been
the scene of fierce fighting between two RRA factions over the past month.
"Shatigadud, is now in full control of the town", a local source told IRIN
at the time. "There has been no gunfire for the past six days," said
Abdullahi Haji. The town was now quiet, he said. "Many businesses have
reopened, but others have not, waiting to see how the situation develops."
Another source in Baidoa told IRIN that many people who had fled to
neighbouring towns "are still not convinced that it is all over. There is
still this fear that Shatigadud's opponents will mount a counterattack
against the town," he said. "With the pounding the town took, you cannot
blame them for being a bit cautious." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29186]

SOMALIA: UN employee abducted

A UN national project staff member working for the UN Food and
Agricultural Organisation's Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) in the
Somali capital, Mogadishu, has been abducted, the UN has confirmed. Sonya
Green, the spokeswoman for the office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator
for Somalia, said the employee, Abdiqadir Muhammad Abikar, had been
abducted on Monday.  He was taken by gunmen at around 08:30 local time
while walking to his office in the Medina district of southwestern
Mogadishu, a local journalist told IRIN. Abikar, a former lecturer at the
college of agriculture of the Somali National University, is the FSAU's
officer-in-charge in Mogadishu, said Green. "The UN is working to secure
the unconditional release of Mr Abikar" Green told IRIN on Tuesday. It is
unclear why Abikar was abducted, where he is being held and by whom.
"There has been no contact with the abductors," Green said. [Full report
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29201]

SOMALIA: Up to 120 killed in renewed Puntland fighting

Heavy fighting has again broken out around the villages of Qayadsame and
Al-Hamdulillah, near the town of Qardho, some 260 km south of Bosaso, the
commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland,
northeastern Somalia, local media sources said. The fighting pitted forces
loyal to Col Abdullahi Yusuf against those of Jama Ali Jama, both of whom
claim to be the legitimate president of Puntland. Yusuf's forces launched
"a fierce attack" on Friday to dislodge Jama's forces" from the area, the
sources said. The fighting, which was described as "the heaviest seen in
Puntland", lasted well into the night, claiming the lives of over 90
people, with over 100 wounded, they said. Other sources in Bosaso,
however, rated the death toll much higher. "At least 120 were killed on
Friday, if not more," said one. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29176]

ERITREA: Another journalist detained

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has confirmed that Simret
Seyoum of the banned private weekly Setit has been in detention since
early January 2002. In a statement released on 6 August, the committee
said Simret - a writer and manager of the publication - was arrested on 6
January while attempting to cross the Eritrean border into Sudan in a
mini-van. He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement at the
Hadish Maaskar detention facility near Gyrmayka, on the Sudanese border.
The CPJ put the number of journalists being held "incommunicado" in
Eritrea at 14, although presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel recently
told a CPJ delegation that the number was "about eight". Yemane would not
guarantee that all of them were alive, the CPJ said. Nor would he comment
on their whereabouts or condition, beyond saying that they were not being
mistreated. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29220]

ERITREA: University student leader escapes from detention

Former Asmara University Student Union President Semere Kesete has
reportedly escaped from detention and is now in Ethiopia, a source in the
Eritrean capital, Asmara, told IRIN on Wednesday. He arrived in Ethiopia
on 1 August, accompanied by "one of his prison guards", after walking for
five days, the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information Centre reported
on Tuesday. However, Eritrea's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Teweldemedhin
Tesfamariam, told IRIN that he had "no knowledge" of Semere's whereabouts.
If the reports from Ethiopia were true, Teweldemedhin added, "then
Semere's activities had nothing to do with democracy, but had more to do
with treason, which is what the government has been saying all along".
[Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29221]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN preparing demining support for border demarcation

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has announced
plans to provide demining support for the demarcation of the border
between the countries. UNMEE's move is based on the expectation that the
UN Security Council will soon formally mandate the Mission to provide such
aid, UNMEE spokeswoman Diane Bailey told reporters on Friday in the
Eritrean capital, Asmara. "By the end of this week, all three UNMEE MACC
Boundary Commission personnel will have assumed duties," she said on
Friday. The three lieutenant-colonels from Sweden, the Netherlands and
Ukraine will respectively perform the functions of boundary commission
project officer, military liaison officer in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, and field military liaison officer in Adigrat, northern Ethiopia.
The Eritrean government issued a proclamation on 8 July establishing the
Eritrean Demining Authority. On 30 July, the head of the Eritrean
Commission for Coordination with the UN Peacekeeping Mission, Brig-Gen
Abrahaley Kifle, spoke at a meeting of mine-action NGOs and UN personnel
to explain the ramifications of the declaration. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29171]

ETHIOPIA: UN appeals for help for drought-hit pastoralists

Half a million pastoralists in the Afar region of Ethiopia suffering from
a severe drought need international assistance, the UN Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said in press statement on Monday. It said
cattle and camels [the mainstay of the region] had already started dying.
The situation was further aggravated by recent fighting over grazing land
and water, forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes, said the
statement. FAO is appealing for US$1.3 million to supply veterinary drugs,
animal feed and water to keep animals alive during the crisis. As well as
cattle and camels, rescue efforts would also target thousands of breeding
goats owned by internally displaced families, said the statement. Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29187]

ETHIOPIA: Two million face serious food shortage

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday that "exceptionally dry
weather" was causing serious food shortages and affecting millions of
farmers and pastoralist in eastern, northern and southern Ethiopia. In a
statement, the agency said that the dry weather had been due to the
partial failure of the 'Belg' rains (February to May) and a late start of
the main 'Meher' rains (June to September). It said a monthly average of
two million Ethiopians had already been identified as being in need of
food aid for the second half of the year, but the poor rainfall meant that
another two million would also need similar help. WFP said that it, donors
and the government conducted several joint inter-agency assessment
missions in June and July, and found that in one of the worst affected
areas - the Afar region - at least one-third of the 1.2 million people
living there were "in dire need of immediate food assistance" through
December.  [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29165]

SUDAN: Militia sets free remaining hostages

Two aid workers abducted in southern Sudan last week have been released
following successful negotiations with the militia holding them, the
United Nations said on Saturday. The two aid workers - a German and a
Kenyan - were released from captivity in Yuai in Bieh State at 15:00 local
time on Saturday and handed over to representatives of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian
Coordinator for Sudan, Michael Sackett, said in a statement. A third aid
worker had been released by the militia on Thursday. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29172]


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