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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 146
21 - 27 June 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Restart of refugee returns "very positive" - UNHCR
ERITREA: Announcement of war dead marks "beginning of the chapter" - minister
ETHIOPIA: Warning of another food deficit
ETHIOPIA: Gov't criticises attitude towards women's rights
ETHIOPIA: Ministers discuss Nile potential
ETHIOPIA: African stability threatened by mass migration
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN peacekeepers to stay during demarcation
SOMALIA: UN to extend mine clearance project
SOMALIA: Peace talks falter over proposals for parliament
SOMALIA: UNICEF condemns child killings
SUDAN: Marginalised areas pose threat to peace, says leading think-tank
SUDAN: Widespread malnutrition in Pibor county


ALSO SEE:

SOMALIA: Interview with Somaliland Foreign Minister Edna Adan Ismail at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34962


ERITREA: Restart of refugee returns "very positive" - UNHCR

The repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan resumed this week after
the operation was suspended for 11 months due to bad weather and
heightened tension between the two governments.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said 394 refugees came home on Monday after
it reached agreement with both sides to open a humanitarian corridor to
facilitate the repatriations. The border between the two countries has
been closed since last October after accusations and counter-accusations
regarding military activity in the area. As a result, the repatriation
procedure has changed. Previously, trucks bringing the refugees home made
the journey from Sudan all the way to the western Eritrean town of
Tesseney where UNHCR has its facilities. But now, Sudanese trucks and
buses drop the refugees at the border between the Sudanese town of Laffa
and Talatasher in Eritrea, where they are picked up by Eritrean vehicles.
Wendy Rappeport, UNHCR's spokeswoman in Asmara, told IRIN the operation
worked extremely well. "It took less than 45 minutes to transfer the
refugees at the border," she said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34972]

ERITREA: Announcement of war dead marks "beginning of the chapter" -
minister

Eritrea has been announcing the names of its war dead from the two-year
conflict with Ethiopia, nearly three years after the end of the war.
Acting Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed told IRIN on Monday the
announcements began on Saturday - a day after the country marked Martyrs
Day on 20 June - and had now almost been completed. Eritrea and Ethiopia
fought a bitter two-year war from 1998-2000, sparked by a dispute in the
border town of Badme. Asmara says it lost 19,000 fighters in this second
conflict with Ethiopia. "The details include full names, date of
enlistment as well as the place and date of martyrdom," the government's
website Shabait.com said. It added that President Isayas Afewerki had sent
out a "message of fortitude" to the victims' families. "People have been
desperate to get some sort of closure on this issue," one observer told
IRIN, describing the move as a "positive step forward". Ali Abdu said
families had received the news "with pride" and ululations. The names were
announced nationwide in the country's various regions by the relevant
administrations and army officers. "The entire population turned

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34930]

ETHIOPIA: Warning of another food deficit

Ethiopia is facing another massive food shortfall in the coming year,
according to the US government's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). The
grim assessment comes after a technical analysis of desperately needed
rains for the country's main harvest along with an estimated population
growth. "A coarse food balance shows that about 13 million people would
meet none of their food needs at all in 2003-04, assuming equitable
distribution," FEWS said. "In reality, no-one will completely go without,
but many impoverished Ethiopians without adequate access to food will face
debilitating hunger and malnutrition, as seen in the high rate of stunting
in children and increased susceptibility to disease. "The implications of
these rainfall and crop production trends is that projected food shortages
in Ethiopia may soon pass beyond chronic into tragic, exceeding the
ability of food aid to make up the difference," the report said.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34981]

ETHIOPIA: Gov't criticises attitude towards women's rights

The Ethiopian government has blasted the "pathetic" attitude towards
women's rights in the country which it says is fuelling the AIDS epidemic.
It warned that social and cultural factors such as polygamy and sexual
violence were exacerbating the vulnerability of the nation's women. In a
statement, the information ministry described the threat posed by HIV/AIDS
as "terrifying." In Ethiopia, HIV has infected some three million people.
The majority - around 58 percent - are women. A million children have also
been orphaned. The government warned that limited job opportunities forced
girls and women into prostitution and women were often excluded from the
labour market. "This is caused by poverty, lack of economic empowerment,
harmful customs and traditional practices as well as a low level of
democratic culture," the statement said. "In addition, the pathetic level
of implementation of human and democratic rights of women enshrined in our
constitution contributes its share to the vulnerability of our women to
the deadly virus."

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34974]

ETHIOPIA: Ministers discuss Nile potential

The Nile should act as a springboard for economic development, ministers
from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt declared at a summit aimed at harnessing
the river's power. Shiferaw Jarso, Ethiopia's Minister of Water Resources,
told delegates that the waters of the Nile must be shared in a fair way to
"enhance confidence" between the three countries. The ministers, meeting
for key two-day talks which began in Addis Ababa on Monday, are drawing up
plans to develop at least seven projects aimed at harnessing the potential
of the river. The initiative is part of the Eastern Nile projects directly
backed by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia whereby all three countries have
agreed to set up specific schemes on the river. Among the first schemes
that are likely to get underway are plans for reducing soil erosion along
the river in all three countries and a flood early warning system. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34948]

ETHIOPIA: African stability threatened by mass migration

Mass migration in Africa will threaten the region's stability if it
continues unchecked or unabated, a conference in Addis Ababa heard on
Monday. Millions who flee conflict or economic crises pose enormous
burdens on their new host nations, the four-day meeting on migration and
trafficking was told. The meeting - organised by the International
Migration Policy Programme (IMP) - brings together top officials from
dozens of African countries who will draw up an action plan aimed at
curbing migration and introduce a continent-wide policy to tackle the
crisis. In Africa, there are an estimated 16 million migrants and 13
million internally displaced persons (IDPs). Hassen Abdella, who heads
Ethiopia's Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), said many
migrants were "maltreated" and deprived of basic rights. He also warned
that trafficking, which he described as the "demeaning side of migration"
was a particular menace to children who were used as cheap labour or in
prostitution.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34920]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN peacekeepers to stay during demarcation

UN peacekeeping forces are to remain as a buffer between Ethiopian and
Eritrean security personnel during the crucial demarcation of the border,
according to the UN Force Commander. In a statement issued last week,
Major General Robert Gordon reiterated that the 4,200 Blue Helmets would
continue to monitor the security buffer zone that separates both
countries. His remarks follow a top-level meeting of Ethiopian and
Eritrean military leaders in Nairobi where both sides vouched for the
safety of staff from the independent Boundary Commission. The Eritrea
Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) drew up the new,
internationally-recognised border between both sides on 13 April last
year. Its personnel will physically mark out the border. The Algiers peace
agreement of December 2000, which established the EEBC, followed a bloody
two year war which flared up in the small and now-symbolic border town of
Badme. Tens of thousands of lives were claimed.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34947]

SOMALIA: UN to extend mine clearance project

A UN mine-clearance pilot project in the self-declared republic of
Somaliland has been so successful that it is planned to extend it to other
regions of Somalia. According to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) press
statement, the project has trained and equipped two teams in the
Somaliland police force. "The squads consist of a team leader and three
policemen trained in unexploded ordnance [UXO] disposal and first aid, and
a commander who is in overall control," UNDP said. They were trained for
12 months by a UN Mines Advisory Group before being deployed under their
own command. The teams, which come under the direct command of the
Somaliland police commissioner, have destroyed 10,000 items of UXO and
mines since they became operational in July 2002.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35001]

SOMALIA: Peace talks falter over proposals for parliament

The Somali peace talks, currently underway in Kenya, are in danger of
collapse if a compromise solution is not found to the selection and number
of future parliamentarians, a faction leader warned on Wednesday. Speaking
on behalf of the G8 alliance of factions, the influential Mogadishu-based
faction leader, Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, told IRIN that certain groups -
"with the tacit approval of some Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) technical committee members" - had proposed a
450-member parliament, with the 361 delegates to the peace conference
forming the basis. The regional IGAD body is facilitating the talks. "This
is unacceptable to us," Qanyare said. "Somalia cannot afford such a large
number of MPs." He said the G8 had proposed a "compromise number" of 275
members.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34980]

SOMALIA: UNICEF condemns child killings

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has condemned attacks targeting children
in Somalia. It described the recent killing of three schoolgirls and the
hijack of a bus carrying children as "abominable acts". "These incidents
dramatically highlight the need for Somalis to halt the escalation of
conflict in central and southern Somalia, which have seen growing levels
of trauma and violence, increasingly targeting small children," UNICEF
said in a statement. Its Somalia representative Jesper Morch urged Somali
leaders, currently holding peace talks in Kenya, to ensure all children
were protected against violence. Over the past few months, the statement
noted, there had been an increase in kidnappings and killings of children
in Somalia. "These incidents are the latest in a worrying pattern that
includes killings, kidnappings and attacks targeting children in Mogadishu
and other vulnerable places in central and southern Somalia since late
last year," the statement said.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34922]

SUDAN: Marginalised areas pose threat to peace, says leading think-tank

A peace deal in war-torn Sudan will not be sustainable if the grievances
driving conflict in the marginalised areas of Darfur, Abyei, Southern Blue
Nile and the Nuba mountains are not fully addressed, the Brussels-based
think-tank International Crisis Group (ICG) has said. The current peace
talks between the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) were not adequately addressing all of the country's
armed conflicts, the ICG said in a new report entitled 'Sudan's Other
Wars'. "The clear danger is that as long as these groups continue to feel
marginalised and their views are not represented in the IGAD process, the
pull toward violence will remain compelling." The Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD) is steering the talks which led to the
signing of the Machakos Protocol in July 2002. The grievances of the
populations in these regions had long been viewed as matters of "secondary
importance", said the ICG. "There is real potential for those who feel
ignored by the IGAD peace process to undermine any deal that is between
only the Khartoum goverment and the rebel SPLA."

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35000]

SUDAN: Widespread malnutrition in Pibor county

Children in Pibor county in the Upper Nile region of southern Sudan are
suffering from widespread malnutrition in "a critical emergency
situation", Gloria Kusemererwa, a senior nutritionist with Action Against
Hunger-USA, told IRIN. With global rates of malnutrition among babies,
aged between 6 and 29 months, at over 44 percent, she described the
situation as "extremely serious" and "very alarming". Just under 15
percent of them were at risk of dying, she said, with many needing medical
attention on top of food as they were suffering from malaria, as well as
diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases. The World Health Organisation
considers that global malnutrition rates above 15 percent constitute an
emergency. In a recent survey of 4,000 children in Lokongole, a district
of Pibor county, mothers whose children were under 60 percent weight for
height reported having no breast milk to give them, Action Against Hunger
reported. While adults were doing better than children in general, their
reduced food intake of only one meal per day meant that over 40 percent of
them were at risk of becoming malnourished, the NGO said.

[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34949]


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