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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 131
08 - 14 March 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Warning of "complete humanitarian catastrophe"
ERITREA: Funding crisis as food situation becomes critical
ERITREA: Warning of renewed war with Ethiopia
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia "jeopardising" peace process, says Asmara
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Border commission accuses Ethiopia of undermining peace
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extending UN mission's mandate
ETHIOPIA: Government denies troop presence in Somalia
SOMALIA: Security Council condemns violence
SOMALIA: UN concerned over humanitarian situation in Baidoa
SOMALIA: TNG, faction leaders again threaten walkout
SOMALIA: Opposition accuses TNG of trying to sabotage peace talks
SUDAN: Call for greater freedom of expression
SUDAN: Negative public opinion forces oil company out
SUDAN: UN gains access to Southern Blue Nile


ALSO SEE: ETHIOPIA: Interview with Mike Aaronson of Save the Children UK
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32802



ERITREA: Warning of "complete humanitarian catastrophe"

The UN has warned that the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Eritrea
could turn into a "complete catastrophe" unless more aid is forthcoming.
Simon Nhongo, the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Eritrea, on Tuesday
urged donors to increase their level of response to the crisis, triggered
by a devastating drought in the country. "My major concern is that delayed
responses might turn out to be more costly if the situation deteriorates
further by July 2003," he told a press briefing at the UN in New York. A
UN appeal for about US $163 million in food, water and health assistance -
launched last November - has obtained a response of only two percent.
About 70 percent of Eritrea's 3.9 million population is at risk. In
Asmara, the Eritrean government's emergency relief coordination body and
aid officials said they were having difficulty in drawing attention to the
drought. Since appeals for help began last year, UN agencies have received
only 25 percent of the food aid they need. The Eritrean Relief and Refugee
Commission (ERREC) was hoping to supply those at risk of food shortages
with 60 percent of their food needs for the months of February and March,
but officials say they were only able to begin partial food aid
distributions two weeks ago. [Full story at;
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32780 ]

ERITREA: Funding crisis as food situation becomes critical

Food shortages in Eritrea have now become critical and humanitarian
efforts are facing a severe funding crisis, the UN has warned. The Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said only two percent
of some US $163 million appealed for to ease the situation - caused by
drought and the aftermath of war - had been received. It was likely that
aid reserves would run out by the end of this month, it said. About 2.3
million people, out of a population of 3.29 million, are now considered
vulnerable. Of those, an estimated 1.4 million are directly affected by
the drought currently gripping the country. Coping mechanisms are at an
all-time low. "At a time when the country is moving away from humanitarian
relief towards rehabilitation and recovery, it is again faced with another
year of severe drought following the failure of seasonal rains," OCHA
noted. "The drought has led to widespread crop failures and water
shortages," it said. "In addition, Eritrea suffers the continuing effects
of war and generalised poverty, including the need to ensure a safe
environment for the return of thousands of internally displaced persons
(IDPs), expellees and returning refugees and their reintegration in many
parts of the country. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32753 ]

ERITREA: Warning of renewed war with Ethiopia

Eritrea's foreign minister has warned that his country may be plunged into
another war with Ethiopia if the latter is allowed to "flaunt
international law" and reject last year's border ruling. In a letter to
the president of the UN Security Council, Ali Said Abdella accused
Ethiopia of a "litany of obstructions" to impede the border demarcation
exercise, due to begin later this year. He warned that "recent
developments may unravel the whole peace process and plunge my country
into another needless war". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32829 ]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia "jeopardising" peace process, says Asmara

Eritrea has warned that the entire peace process with Ethiopia could be in
danger following recent calls by Addis Ababa for changes to their common
border which was delimited last year.  According to the BBC, Ethiopia's
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Tekeda Alemu said recently the
independent Boundary Commission had promised that demarcations could be
refined. Tekeda also said he could not believe that "any person in his
right mind" could award the disputed village of Badme - where the two
countries' border conflict flared up in 1998 - to Eritrea. Both countries
claim to have been awarded the now-symbolic village. Eritrean Information
Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed told IRIN on Thursday that Ethiopia's comments
would "jeopardise not only the April decision but the whole peace
process". In April 2002, the Boundary Commission issued its decision on
the new border which both countries accepted as "final and binding". "It
is time for the international community to say to Ethiopia - enough is
enough," Ali told IRIN. He noted that the ruling was final and binding and
that talk about "refinements" to the border were "complete fabrication".
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32803 ]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Border commission accuses Ethiopia of undermining peace

The independent boundary commission has accused Ethiopia of "appearing to
undermine" the peace process with Eritrea by seeking variations to the
delimited border line. In its latest report, the Hague-based
Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) noted that both sides had been
invited to put forward "technical" comments on the finalised border map,
which was submitted to the parties in December. It noted that Ethiopia's
response went "far beyond the scope" of comments on the map. "The main
thrust of the Ethiopian comments is that the boundary should be varied so
as to take better account of human and physical geography," the report
stated. The ruling on the new border between the two countries was issued
by the EEBC on 13 April 2002, in a decision deemed "final and binding",
and which both Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to abide by in the Algiers
peace agreement of December 2000. The peace accord put an end to a bitter
two-year border war, sparked by a skirmish in the village of Badme which
has now become symbolic for both countries. Addis Ababa and Asmara both
claim they have been awarded Badme and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi warned recently there would be "problems" if the village went to
Eritrea. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32721]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extending UN mission's mandate

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended extending the mandate of
the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) - due to
expire this month - until 15 September. In his latest progress report on
the situation in the two countries, he noted there had been some problems
with the peace process although he expressed confidence that it would
continue to move forwards. Stressing that the process was now at a
"critical stage", he urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to "translate their
commitments into real action on the ground", by implementing the border
decision issued last April by an independent boundary commission. The
Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) has expressed concern over
what it says are Ethiopia's attempts to "vary" the border. Ethiopia has
stated that better account should be taken of human and physical geography
in the border region, but the EEBC has accused Addis Ababa of "appearing
to undermine" the peace process. Annan said he shared the Commission's
concerns and called on the leaders of both countries to "exercise the same
statesmanship and flexibility" which had enabled the peace process to take
root. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32722 ]

ETHIOPIA: Government denies troop presence in Somalia

The Ethiopian government has denied accusations by the Transitional
National Government (TNG) of Somalia that Ethiopian forces have invaded
Somali territory. In a statement, the Ethiopian foreign ministry said
"there is no Ethiopian soldier in Somalia" and described the accusation as
"totally groundless and with no grain of truth". On Tuesday, Muhammad Abdi
Yusuf, the deputy speaker of the Transitional National Assembly and acting
leader of the TNG delegation to the peace talks underway n Kenya, told
IRIN that Ethiopian troops had "occupied parts of Somalia over the past
few days". He added that "so long as Ethiopia is part of the mediation
group, the TNG will not participate". Ethiopia, along with Djibouti and
the conference's host Kenya, is part of the regional Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee which is steering the
talks. The Ethiopian statement said the TNG was making the allegations
because it was unhappy with the progress of the talks in Kenya and was
therefore using Ethiopia as a scapegoat in an attempt to scuttle them.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32804 ]

SOMALIA: Security Council condemns violence

The UN Security Council has condemned the continuing fighting in Somalia,
and called for an immediate end to all acts of violence and for safe
access to humanitarian personnel. "It is those that have weapons of war
who continue to hold the people of Somalia hostage to the cycle of
violence," said a statement by the Council's current president, Guinean
Ambassador Mamady Traore. "These people will be held accountable by the
Somali people and the international community for their actions if they
persist on the path of confrontation and conflict." The statement said
violence had continued even after the signing of a cessation of
hostilities agreement by the Somali parties on 27 October. Under the terms
of the agreement, the Somali groups agreed to suspend all hostilities for
the duration of the peace conference being held in Kenya. Since then there
have been continuing violations, with fighting in the capital, Mogadishu,
the towns of Las Anod in the northeast and Baidoa in the southwest, and in
the Bari, Bay, Bakol, Gedo and Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle and Middle
Juba regions. The statement urged the Somali parties "to end the suffering
of their people and to restore peace and stability to their country".  
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32805]

SOMALIA: UN concerned over humanitarian situation in Baidoa

The United Nations has said it is deeply concerned over the worsening
humanitarian situation in the southwestern town of Baidoa, where a power
struggle between two rival factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA)
has been going on since last July. In a press release, Maxwell Gaylard,
the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said the
fighting had disrupted aid activities for more than eight months and
humanitarian conditions in the town had deteriorated, "in particular in
the area of health". The fighting that engulfed the town - which had
enjoyed relative peace and stability since it was captured by the RRA in
1998 - was caused by a split within the senior ranks of the RRA, which
controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions of southwestern Somalia. The
split originated from a power struggle between the RRA chairman, Hasan
Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, and his two deputies, Shaykh Adan Madobe and
Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. Baidoa changed hands at least three time between
July and December last year. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32777]

SOMALIA: TNG, faction leaders again threaten walkout

Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) has reiterated that it
will not take part in the peace talks underway in Kenya as long as
Ethiopia is involved in the process. Muhammad Abdi Yusuf, the deputy
speaker of the Transitional National Assembly and acting leader of the TNG
delegation to the talks told IRIN that Ethiopian forces had "occupied
parts of Somalia over the past few days". In a separate press statement
issued on Tuesday, the TNG accused Ethiopia of sending military forces
"with heavy armour, including tanks", into parts of Somalia. In a recent
interview with the BBC, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi admitted his
country had occasionally sent troops into Somalia to attack members of the
Islamist al-Ittihad group. "We hope that the international community
appreciates our position that mediation by the Ethiopian government
between the TNG and the opposition is neither reasonable nor fruitful,"
the TNG statement said. "So long as Ethiopia is part of the mediation
group, the TNG will not participate," Muhammad added. He said the TNG had
no confidence in Ethiopia and "sees no point in continuing to be part of a
conference managed by Ethiopia". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32755]

SOMALIA: Opposition accuses TNG of trying to sabotage peace talks

The Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC) has accused the
Transitional National Government (TNG) of trying to scuttle the ongoing
peace talks. The SRRC is a grouping of the southern-based factions opposed
to the TNG. In a statement, the SRRC said the TNG was behind the current
confusion bedevilling the peace process by presenting itself as the
legitimate government of Somalia. This was "inconsistent with the
understanding of the principle of no-preconditionality agreed [to] prior
to this conference". The SRRC said the TNG was "starting to play with the
ownership concept of the conference... for the purpose of weakening and
undermining the pillars of the conference itself, using the argument as an
instrument of destabilisation and political intrigue". It said the various
participating groups had not accepted the TNG as a broad-based government,
and "there is no legitimate government or centrally accepted authority in
Somalia". The SRRC denounced what it termed as "this practice [of claiming
to be the only legitimate government] on the part of the TNG group, and
requests an instant discontinuation of this attitude". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32723]

SUDAN: Call for greater freedom of expression

The human rights advocacy group, Amnesty International (AI), has called
for restrictions on freedom of expression to be lifted in Sudan, following
the confiscation of an edition of a local newspaper on 9 March. The
offending article, published in the 'Khartoum Monitor', quoted at length
from a well-known history of Sudan concerning the Egyptian Mameluke
expeditions into the country between 1275 and 1324, AI reported. The
article had suggested that the advance of Islam into Sudan had not always
been peaceful. As a result, the whole edition had been confiscated,
causing "serious financial loss" to the newspaper and the acting editor,
Nhial Bol, who was also interrogated for an hour by Sudanese security
services. "It is of fundamental importance that journalists, media and all
Sudanese should be able to hold free discussions on important questions
relating to the future of Sudan, including questions of human rights and
those areas which are being defined and discussed by the peace
negotiators," said AI.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32807 ]

SUDAN: Negative public opinion forces oil company out

Canada's largest independent oil and gas exploration firm, Talisman
Energy, said on Wednesday that it had completed the sale of its oil
interests in Sudan's Western Upper Nile region for US $771 million. Its 25
percent share of the Greater Nile Oil Project had been sold to a
subsidiary of India's national oil company, the company said in a
statement. "Talisman's shares have continued to be discounted based on
perceived political risk in-country and in North America," said the
company's chief executive, Jim Buckee, when the sale was announced in
October 2002. "Shareholders have told me they were tired of continually
having to monitor and analyse events relating to Sudan." Human rights
groups, NGOs and churches launched a divestment campaign against the
company four years ago claiming that its involvement in Sudan was
exacerbating the 20 year civil war, by providing the revenue which pays
for it. In addition, the Sudanese government's human rights record around
the oil fields has been heavily criticised. A study funded by Canadian and
British NGOs in 2001 ("Report of an Investigation in Oil Development,
Conflict and Displacement in Western Upper Nile" by John Ryle and
Georgette Gagnon) stated that the government had launched a strategy of
"coordinated attacks" on civilian settlements.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32806]

SUDAN: UN gains access to Southern Blue Nile

The United Nations has been given a green light to bring humanitarian aid
into the Southern Blue Nile region of eastern Sudan. Bernt Aasen, the UN
Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for southern Sudan, told IRIN that as of
Tuesday, it was agreed that 72-hours notice would be given to the
government of Sudan regarding all UN flights going into Southern Blue
Nile, which was standard procedure. A spokeswoman for the World Food
Programme (WFP), Laura Melo, confirmed to IRIN that clearance had been
obtained from the Sudanese government on Tuesday, and that WFP expected to
begin delivering food aid on Friday. Representatives from the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) would also go into Southern Blue Nile at the
weekend to start repairing damaged hand pumps and to assess wells, said
Aasen. This would "help ease the critical situation in terms of water
supply", he said, stressing that the priorities were food and water. In
January, the UN negotiated separate bilateral agreements with the
government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A), to enable it to provide humanitarian aid in Southern Blue Nile
which falls outside the remit of the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)
umbrella.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32784]


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