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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 188
05 - 11 July 2003


CONTENTS:


ERITREA: Rainy season halts refugee repatriation
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Independent claims commission announces first awards
ETHIOPIA: US providing counter-terrorism military training
SOMALIA: Five killed as fire sweeps through Bosaso camp
SOMALIA: Over 40 killed in fighting in central region
SOMALIA: Medical workers halt work in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Confusion at peace talks
SUDAN: No health facilities in rebel-controlled Abyei county
SUDAN: Aid agencies alarmed by high malnutrition rates in Bahr el Ghazal
SUDAN: US must engage more in peace process, says think-tank


ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with WFP regional director Holdbrook Arthur at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35280



ERITREA: Rainy season halts refugee repatriation

The repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan, which resumed last
month, has been halted due to the start of the rainy season, the UN
refugee agency (UNHCR) said. The repatriation, which restarted on 23 June
after an 11-month suspension caused by bad weather and heightened tension
between the two governments, was stopped on Tuesday, Kabi Bernander, the
UNHCR-Eritrea assistant representative, told IRIN on Wednesday. Kabi said
since the resumption of the operation in June, the agency had repatriated
1,653 refugees from Sudan. "The last batch was repatriated yesterday [8
July]." The agency has registered about 35,000 refugees who want to return
voluntarily from Sudan, but it expects more Eritreans to register once
they see the success of the operation, she said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35275]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Independent claims commission announces first awards

The independent claims commission, which is looking into post-war claims
by Eritrea and Ethiopia, has announced partial awards regarding the issue
of prisoners-of-war. In a lengthy document issued on 8 July, the
commission - which sits at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
- made awards to the parties after they filed their claims regarding the
treatment of their POWs. All prisoners were finally released in 2002. Both
sides were found liable for issues such as failing to take measures to
stop the abuse of POWs. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35330]


ETHIOPIA: US providing counter-terrorism military training

The US counter-terrorism force in the Horn of Africa has begun a
three-month training exercise with the Ethiopian defence force. According
to a statement issued on Wednesday, the exercise is being held at the
Hurso training camp near Dire Dawa. Infantry forces assigned to the
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) are providing infantry
skills training on small unit tactics. The CJTF-HOA is also providing
training for counter-terrorism missions within the Ethiopian army's 12th
division. The statement said this was part of Ethiopia's effort to
establish the first of three new anti-terrorism battalions. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35278]


SOMALIA: Over 40 killed in fighting in central region

Two days of heavy fighting in the south of Mudug region, have left at
least 43 people dead and over 90 injured, a local journalist in the
regional capital Galkayo told IRIN on Thursday.  The fighting broke out on
Tuesday between the Sa'ad, Habar Gedir subclan and the Dir, and was
concentrated in and around the villages of Towfiq and Awle, some 200 km
east of Galkayo, the journalist Dahir Abdulkadir Aflow said. The two
villages are populated by the Dir. The clashes were triggered by revenge
killings for the deaths of two Sa'ad men in Galkayo last week, but the
ensuing escalation of violence was also attributed to disagreements over
water and grazing in the area, Aflow said. "It is more about water and
grazing land right now." "Unfortunately, this is something that happens
when nomads in search of pasture and water collide with each other," he
said. This particular clash between the two clans had been "exacerbated by
the easy availability of heavy weapons". "Previously they used spears or
guns but now both sides are using technicals [battlewagons fitted with
heavy machine guns]," he said. "In an area with little cover for
concealment, the casualty figures are bound to be high." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35307]

SOMALIA: Five killed as fire sweeps through Bosaso camp

Five people are reported to have been killed when fire swept through a
camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Bosaso, the commercial
capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland. Mukhtar Sa'id
of the Bosaso-based Midnimo radio said the fire broke out at the Buulo
Elay camp on Wednesday, destroying at least 1,000 dwellings, as well as
the personal belongings and household items of some 1,200 families living
there. The cause of the fire has not yet been established but Mukhtar told
IRIN it was probably caused by cooking fire. He said local officials and
aid workers immediately visited the scene to assess the damage and help
the victims. The dead included three children, one woman and a disabled
man, he added. According to UNICEF-Somalia, initial assessments suggest
about half the camp has been razed to the ground and some 600 families are
homeless as a result. UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) have both
sent in assistance, such as food, plastic sheeting, jerry cans, cooking
pots and blankets.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35318]

SOMALIA: Medical workers halt work in Mogadishu

Hundreds of medical workers in the capital, Mogadishu, held a one-day work
stoppage on Sunday to protest against the killing of a prominent doctor in
the city last week, one of the organizers told IRIN on Monday. Dr Husayn
Muhammad Nur, one of the best eye specialists in Mogadishu, and younger
brother of faction leader Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, was gunned down
in front of his clinic by unidentified gunmen on 3 July. The work stoppage
was called by the Somali Medical Association (SMA) and supported by all
civil society organisations, including groups from the education sector,
religious organisations and the business community, association member Dr
Abdullahi Farah Aseyr said. According to Aseyr, "all hospitals, clinics
and other medical facilities" in the capital were closed for the day. He
said the stoppage affected "all routine work" and that only emergency
cases were being treated. Aseyr stressed that insecurity in the city, in
particular the targeting of medical staff, was undermining their work. "We
have had medical staff abducted and some maimed or killed," he said.  
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35223]

SOMALIA: Confusion at peace talks

Delegates to the Somali peace talks, taking place in Kenya, signed what
was termed an "historic" agreement on 5 July to set up a federal
government, but confusion was created when some political groups denounced
the agreement the following day. The president of the Transitional
National Government (TNG), Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, rejected the
agreement, signed by his prime minister, Hasan Abshir Farah, at a press
conference on Sunday. Abdiqassim said that it would divide the country and
the TNG would "not be party to a process that is flawed and aimed at the
dismemberment of Somalia". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35218]


SUDAN: No health facilities in rebel-controlled Abyei county

An NGO survey of rebel-controlled Abyei county has found that there are no
health services available to a population of about 32,000 people, forcing
them to walk for between two and three days to access medical care. About
60 percent of people relied on traditional healers and "spear masters" who
performed witchcraft, the Irish charity GOAL reported, with about 20
percent opting for formal health care in Abyei town, where there is a
hospital, or neighbouring Twic county, which has primary health clinics. A
lack of money and the distance involved determined where people went, GOAL
reported, adding that those who were unable to walk had to be carried on
stretchers. Community leaders had set up "emergency health posts" in
rebel-held Abyei three years ago, but there were no medicines and no
salaries available which meant they were unsustainable, GOAL programme
officer Martina Collins, told IRIN. Malaria, diarrhoeal diseases,
respiratory infections, malnutrition and measles were the main causes of
mortality in the area. Two thirds of people had no blankets and slept
around fires, exposing themselves to mosquitos and malaria as the fires
died down and the smoke - which acts as a repellant - thinned out, GOAL
reported. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35305]

SUDAN: Aid agencies alarmed by high malnutrition rates in Bahr el Ghazal

Humanitarian agencies have expressed alarm over what they describe as the
deteriorating food security situation in parts of southern Sudan. They
have appealed for urgent donor support to save the lives of thousands of
children who are at risk. World Vision International on Tuesday said it
had launched two emergency supplementary feeding clinics in Bahr el
Ghazal, southern Sudan. The intervention followed a nutrition survey
conducted in mid May in Gogrial, one of the seven counties in the
province, which found that over 5,000 out of 21,000 children were severely
malnourished. The agency has called for urgent funds to start therapeutic
feeding clinics for the most vulnerable children. "What we have now will
only stretch for a few weeks - the number of children is overwhelming,"
World Vision's officer on the ground, Ann Njenga, said. The Warrap and
Thiet areas of neighbouring Tonj County are suffering similar food
shortages and malnutrition, according to World Vision. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35282]

SUDAN: US must engage more in peace process, says think-tank

The US must make a clear commitment to its relationship with Sudan and to
remaining closely involved in a post-agreement phase involving the
government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A),
says leading think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG). A report
entitled "Sudan Endgame" says that commitments to the US-Sudan bilateral
relationship are "the glue without which a deal is unlikely to stick". All
international observers must coordinate the phased lifting of punitive
measures against Sudan and the provision of financial and political
benefits for the country, says ICG. But the US, in particular, must make
the conclusion and implementation of a peace agreement a precondition to
improved relations. The latest stage of peace talks between the government
and the SPLM/A rebel group, began in Nakuru, Kenya, on Sunday. A draft
framework agreement is expected to be produced by the end of the talks, on
which the Kenyan mediators will seek agreement by mid-August. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35256]


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