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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 161
04 - 10 October 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN still awaiting demarcation date
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: More Eritreans cross border in UN vehicle
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: President urges UN to intervene over border issue
ETHIOPIA: Corruption reportedly worsening
ETHIOPIA: Rapid birth rate "undermining" economic recovery
DJIBOUTI: Thousands of would-be refugees languishing in dire conditions
SOMALIA: Thousands at risk of malnutrition in Sool area
SOMALIA: Six reportedly killed in fighting near Baidoa
SOMALIA: Veteran aid worker killed in Somaliland
SUDAN: Refugees in Chad to be moved to safe locations
SUDAN: Increasing levels of preventable blindness


SEE ALSO: 

HORN OF AFRICA: Teetering on the Brink
[http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=37110]

ETHIOPIA: Feature - Laying the past to rest
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37075]

SOMALIA: Feature - "Dignity through work"
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37006]

ETHIOPIA: Feature - Praise and misgivings over new gov't food programme
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37009]




ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN still awaiting demarcation date

The UN peacekeeping force in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Friday
it was still awaiting the date for demarcation of the two countries'
contested border. "We are ready to start as soon as we are told that
demarcation is ready to go ahead. But the decision is not ours," UNMEE
spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte told IRIN. "The only people with
the key to when demarcation starts is the EEBC and the two parties," she
added. The independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) is
responsible for demarcation of the 1,000 km-long border. It must agree
with both Ethiopia and Eritrea when positioning of the two metre high
border pillars will begin. Demarcation is scheduled to start this month.
But diplomatic sources close to the peace process told IRIN it was
unlikely the process - which has already been delayed twice - will start
as planned. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37152]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: More Eritreans cross border in UN vehicle

The UN peacekeeping force in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has been hit by
a new bout of cross border stowaways. UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley
Taylor Sainte said on Thursday that a local UN employee had driven 11
Eritreans over the contested border in the latest incident. Some 25
Eritreans have now slipped across the 25 km-wide buffer zone into Ethiopia
in the last three months, hidden in or using peacekeeping vehicles. Sainte
said UNMEE was "extremely disturbed" by the incidents and had launched a
crackdown to try and prevent it happening again. "The incidents are
increasing and we are concerned that the incidents are increasing," Sainte
told a weekly video-linked press briefing in Asmara and Addis Ababa. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37113]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: President urges UN to intervene over border issue

Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis has reiterated calls to the UN
Security Council to "rectify the mistakes" over the ruling on the border
with Eritrea. In a keynote address at the opening session of parliament on
Monday, he said the Ethiopian people "should not be forced to accept the
distorted decisions and interpretations of the boundary commission".
"Therefore, Ethiopia once again requests the UN Security Council to
rectify the mistake committed by the boundary commission," he said.
Ethiopia has been stepping up calls lately for a new body to rule on the
disputed border with Eritrea, following their bloody war from 1998-2000.
The Boundary Commission, set up by a peace deal which ended the war, ruled
last year that Badme - flashpoint of the conflict - was in Eritrea.
Ethiopia has refused to accept the decision, but last week the UN told
Ethiopia to implement the ruling as it stood. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37036]

ETHIOPIA: Corruption reportedly worsening

Corruption is worsening in Ethiopia and the levels are higher than in
previous years, according to the anti-graft watchdog Transparency
International (TI). Ethiopia was listed joint 92 on an index of 133
countries, scoring 2.5 on a scale of 10. TI, which is based in Germany,
said a lack of coherent rules and regulations, red tape and poorly trained
staff were contributing to corruption. "Corruption is a serious problem in
Ethiopia," Jeff Lovitt from TI told IRIN. "There is a problem in
developing countries because they lack strong public services." The
African Union - which has pledged to stamp out corruption on the continent
- estimates graft has cost Africa around US $148 billion. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37106]

ETHIOPIA: Rapid birth rate "undermining" economic recovery

The Ethiopian government faced calls on Wednesday to step up the
distribution of contraceptives to help curb its spiralling population.
Duah Owusu-Sarfo, acting head of the UN's Population Fund (UNFPA), said
the rapid birth rate was "undermining" the economic recovery of the
impoverished nation. "We need to make sure the rate of growth of the
population is commensurate with the development of the country," he told a
launch of the latest State of the World Population report in Addis Ababa.
The report notes that the Ethiopian population has now topped 70 million.
Ethiopia - reeling from a humanitarian crisis affecting 13 million people
- has the third largest population in Africa. By 2050 it is estimated it
will have reached 171 million. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37068]

DJIBOUTI: Thousands of would-be refugees languishing in dire conditions

Thousands of would-be refugees are languishing at a transit centre, some
100 km southwest of Djibouti town, after being given a deadline by the
government earlier this year to leave the country. Numbers vary from 7,000
to 9,000, but local sources told IRIN the people had not actually been
allowed access to the Aour Aousa centre, which was set up in August in
anticipation of the government's order. The sanitary conditions were
reported to be dreadful and four people had been tested for cholera
although three tests had come back negative, the sources said. The outcome
of the fourth test was unknown. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, however
denied that anyone was sleeping outside the centre and said they were all
being looked after. "Nobody is camped out and there is no cholera,"
UNHCR's regional spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey told IRIN. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37136]

SOMALIA: Thousands at risk of malnutrition in Sool area

Thousands of people in northern Somalia are in need of urgent humanitarian
assistance due to falling incomes and rising malnutrition, a food security
watchdog has warned. According to the US government's Famine Early Warning
System Network (FEWS), about 11,170 pastoralist households in the Sool
Plateau are at risk. The gu (April-June) rains largely failed in the area,
and while the better-off households migrated with their animals to other
areas, the poor households were left behind. "After four years of
successive rain failures, poor livestock productivity and significant
livestock losses, pastoralist households face fewer options for obtaining
food and income," the FEWS report said.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37142]

SOMALIA: Six reportedly killed in fighting near Baidoa

Up to six people are said to have been killed in southwestern Somalia in
fighting between rival factions of the governing Rahanweyn Resistance Army
(RRA). RRA chairman Hasan Muhammad Nur "Shatigadud", who leads one of the
factions, said "skirmishes" broke out when his clan members came under
attack from supporters of his rival Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. He told IRIN
the fighting had taken place on Tuesday and Wednesday at Dambal near
Baidoa airport and at Dainunai on the road to Mogadishu, but that it died
down on Thursday. Last month, Shatigadud reconciled with one of his
rivals, deputy RRA chairman Shaykh Adan Madobe, but Habsade, the other
deputy chairman, has refused to join them. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37100]

SOMALIA: Veteran aid worker killed in Somaliland

A veteran aid worker was shot dead in the self-declared republic of
Somaliland on Sunday by unknown attackers, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR)
announced on Monday. It expressed "shock and sadness" over the murder of
Dr Annalena Tonelli, a 33-year veteran of assistance to poor people in
Africa, who earlier this year won the agency's highest award for her work
in bringing attention to the crisis in Somalia. Sixty-year old Dr Tonelli,
an Italian, was shot in the grounds of a hospital in Borama. "The exact
circumstances of the shooting are not yet known," UNHCR said in a
statement. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37017]

SUDAN: Refugees in Chad to be moved to safe locations

Amid signs that a ceasefire in the Darfur region of western Sudan may be
"ending prematurely", tens of thousands of refugees who have fled to
eastern Chad have to be transferred to "new, safer locations", the UN
refugee agency (UNHCR) has said. UNHCR staff are currently looking for
safe sites where water will be available once the dry season starts next
month. A number of places have been suggested by local authorities, but
are either too close to the border or without a ready supply of water, the
agency said in a statement on Thursday. In the meantime, it is looking for
sites to set up communal kitchens. A 45-day ceasefire agreement signed by
the government and rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in Darfur
became effective on 6 September, but both sides have since accused each
other of breaching the truce. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37137]

SUDAN: Increasing levels of preventable blindness

Extremely poor levels of hygiene in Sudan, coupled with a lack of health
care facilities, medicines and trained personnel, are contributing to
widespread preventable blindness. All the leading causes of preventable
blindness, such as trachoma, river blindness, and cataracts co-exist in
Sudan, Dr Serge Resnikoff, Coordinator of the World Health Organisation's
(WHO) Prevention of Blindness and Deafness programme, told IRIN. An
estimated 3.5 million people in Sudan have trachoma, he said, which is
caused by a bacteria that spreads from a person's eye or nose discharges
through the common housefly or human contact. A chronic eye infection
results, scarring the eyelids and causing damage to the eyeball -
requiring surgery - leading to blindness if left untreated. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37153]


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