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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 101
10 - 16 August 2002


CONTENTS:

SOMALIA: Date set for reconciliation talks
SOMALIA: Aid agencies uncoordinated in Somaliland
SOMALIA: Abdullahi Yusuf takes Qardho
SOMALIA: Hijacked ship not UK-registered
SOMALIA: Abducted UN employee released
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE's mandate changed to support Boundary Commission
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN commends Eritrea on release of prisoners
ETHIOPIA: Earthquakes in Tigray, no casualties
SUDAN: Rights for southerners key to national unity, says US envoy
SUDAN: President lifts ban on political parties
SUDAN: Peace talks resume in Kenya
HORN OF AFRICA: New consensus needed to avert famine

SOMALIA: Date set for reconciliation talks

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development sponsored Somali
reconciliation conference is scheduled to convene on 16 September, in the
town of Eldoret, western Kenya, a Kenyan foreign ministry official told
IRIN. An IGAD technical committee completed its report this week, after
ending a fact-finding mission to Somalia, during which it held talks with
the Transitional National Government and all other groups. The committee,
whose membership comprises representatives from the front-line states of
Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia, was established by the foreign ministers of
the IGAD member states when they met in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in
February. Its mandate includes monitoring the Somali peace process and
drawing up the terms of reference for the forthcoming conference,
determining the criteria for participation and deciding on the number of
participants. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29351]

SOMALIA: Aid agencies uncoordinated in Somaliland

International aid agencies lack coordination when dealing with long-term
assistance for internally displaced and returnee populations in the
self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, says a report
from the United Nations Coordination Unit/Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs. "The primary reason is the problem associated with
which agency has, or should have, a mandate to assist these communities,"
said the report. Efforts to form a joint committee to sort out this issue
had also not materialised, it added. As a result, the "little assistance"
delivered to the region to date had been on an ad hoc basis. This meant
that the prospect of as many as 80,000 returnees to Somaliland arriving
over the next two years was raising "grave concerns" with regard to
increased social and economic pressures on both local authorities and
resident populations. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29346]

SOMALIA: Abdullahi Yusuf takes Qardho

Col Abdullahi Yusuf has captured the town of Qardho, 240 km south of
Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of
Puntland, northeastern Somalia, a local journalist told IRIN on Tuesday.
Forces loyal to Abdullahi entered the town on Monday without a fight, with
forces loyal to his rival for the presidency of the region, Jama Ali Jama,
having retreated, said Fadumo Yasin of the Bosaso-based Midnimo radio.
Qardho is a strategically important town and was one of Jama's last
remaining strongholds. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29307]

SOMALIA: Hijacked ship not UK-registered

Latest reports indicate that the oil tanker, reported as having been
hijacked off the northeastern coast of Somalia, is not UK-registered, but
rather a North Korean-registered, Greek-owned vessel. Members of the crew,
who had been disembarked, were still being held in various locations "in
and around" the coastal village of Bareda, 150 km east of Bosaso, Mukhtar
Sa'id of the Bosaso-based Midnimo Radio, told IRIN. The 15 militia who
originally seized the tanker, using speedboats, had now been joined by
"many other militia from the area" said Mukhtar. The hijackers were now
reportedly asking for a ransom of US $600,000, he said. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29309]

SOMALIA: Abducted UN employee released

The UN welcomes the release of Abdulkadir Mohamed Abikar, a national UN
project staff member, who was abducted on 5 August. He was released
unconditionally in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on 10 August, a press
statement from UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator's Office for
Somalia said on Monday. "Mr Abikar has undergone a medical examination and
is reported to be in good health. He has been reunited with his family in
the city, and is scheduled to resume his duties as the Officer-In-Charge
of the Mogadishu office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s
(FAO) Food Security Assessment Unit after a short break," said the
statement. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29279]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UNMEE's mandate changed to support Boundary Commission

The mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has been
adjusted to include mine clearance, and administrative and logistical
support for the field offices of the independent Boundary Commission, the
UN reported. A resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Wednesday
stated that the adjustment would permit UNMEE to assist in the
"expeditious and orderly" implementation of the Boundary Commission's
decision on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The resolution urged
the parties "to provide their full and prompt cooperation in the process
with a view to ensuring an expeditious transition for the benefit of the
affected populations". Both sides were also called upon to cooperate
"fully and promptly" with the Commission. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29350]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN commends Eritrea on release of prisoners

UN officials have welcomed the release, on 2 August, of 15 Ethiopian
prisoners of war (POWs) by Eritrea. In a statement released on 9 August,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson commended Eritrea for
resuming the process of releasing POWs, describing the move as a "positive
step" towards reinforcing peace between it and Ethiopia. "This is a
positive development after the long standstill which has characterised the
process of releasing prisoners of war so far," she said. The 15 POWs were
released at the Mereb River Bridge, which links Eritrea with Ethiopia. The
process was observed by the Human Rights Office of UNMEE in both countries
and assisted by the International Committee of the Red Cross. [Full report
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29277]

ETHIOPIA: Earthquakes in Tigray, no casualties

An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale was measured on the
evening of 10 August, about 40 km east of Mekele, the capital of Tigray
State, Atalay Ayele, a seismologist from the Geophysical Observatory at
the Addis Ababa University, told IRIN on Wednesday. No casualties have
been reported. Atalay said he believed the area to be uninhabited, and
that while houses had been vibrating and shaking in the town of Mekele,
not much damage had been reported so far. A series of minor earthquakes
had been recorded coming from the same point since 7 August, and the
observatory was continuing to monitor these, he said. "We think that was
the main shock, and now they are decreasing." [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29329]

SUDAN: Rights for southerners key to national unity, says US envoy

The US envoy for Sudan, John Danforth, said on Wednesday that rights for
southerners were the key to national unity. "The issue is what will happen
in the next six years," he said. "Whether there will be a just peace,
whether the rights of the people who are in the minority and the people in
the south will be recognised and whether they will be full participants in
the country," Reuters news agency quoted him saying in the Egyptian
capital, Cairo. Following a meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr
Musa, he told reporters that almost all parties to the 19-year conflict
recognised that a united Sudan was desirable, Reuters reported. [Full
report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29354]

SUDAN: President lifts ban on political parties

Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir has lifted a ban on political
parties, as a step towards his goal of establishing democratic
institutions in the country, a Sudanese diplomat in Nairobi has told IRIN.
Bashir abolished all political parties when he took over power in a coup
in 1989. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese
embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, said on Monday that legislation
aimed at establishing freedom of association was enacted in 1997. He said
the latest presidential move was meant to lift some of the tough
regulations governing the registration of parties. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29313]

SUDAN: Peace talks resume in Kenya

The second phase of Sudanese peace talks, a follow-up to the talks in July
which resulted in a historic agreement between the main warring parties -
the Khartoum Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) - opened in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos on Monday.
The July talks resulted in the Machakos Protocol, which was hailed as a
breakthrough, but renewed fighting since it was signed has been seen as a
setback, raising fears of lack of commitment to the accord on the part of
the signatories. The Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis
Group (ICG) has described the second phase of the talks as "the best", but
"shaky", chance for a just peace in Sudan since the civil war broke out in
1983. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29284]

HORN OF AFRICA: New consensus needed to avert famine

A number of priority issues must urgently be addressed - by governments,
aid agencies, donors, media, and local communities directly affected - in
order to avert another famine in the Horn of Africa, according to a
discussion paper from the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System (FEWS
Net) and the international aid agency, CARE. While the technical,
logistical and financial resources had long existed to eradicate the
phenomenon of famine - which had led to "significant progress" being made
towards its elimination in some parts of the world - vulnerability
appeared to be on the increase in the Horn of Africa, said the authors of
the paper. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=29278]


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