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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 162
11 - 17 October 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Meles vows not to go to war
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Border commission urges Ethiopia to comply with ruling
ERITREA: Repatriation of refugees from Sudan resumes
ETHIOPIA: Gov't admits pastoralists excluded from democratic process
ETHIOPIA: Warning of huge food needs by 2007
SOMALIA: Hundreds fleeing Baidoa
SOMALIA: Kahin trip set to strengthen Somaliland-Djibouti relations
SOMALIA: Talks in Kenya "on course", says official
SUDAN: Analyst says Turabi's release due to confidence at home
SUDAN: Detention without charge must stop, says rights group
SUDAN: Malnutrition high in west Darfur town


SEE ALSO:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with UNICEF malaria expert Chris White at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37171


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Meles vows not to go to war

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi remained defiant on Thursday in the
face of mounting international pressure to abide by the ruling on the
border with neighbouring Eritrea. Speaking at the opening of the Ethiopian
parliament, he described the independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary
Commission (EEBC) which ruled on the border dispute with Eritrea as "null
and void." He said implementation of the contested border ruling would
only escalate already heightened tensions between the neighbouring
countries. "The problem is worsening ... and it could erupt at any time in
a different form," he warned. The EEBC issued its ruling on the 1,000 km
border in April 2002, but Ethiopia is angry over the awarding of disputed
territory - including the town of Badme where the border conflict flared
up - to Eritrea. During his hour-long speech, Meles vowed that Ethiopia
would never resort to war to resolve the simmering border dispute. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37248]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Border commission urges Ethiopia to comply with ruling

Ethiopia has accused an independent boundary commission of trying to
"ridicule" it after the body, set up to rule on the contested border with
Eritrea, called on Addis Ababa to comply with the decision. In a
statement, the Ethiopian foreign ministry described the Eritrea-Ethiopia
Boundary Commission (EEBC) as "callous" and said its ruling would "create
so many ticking time bombs" that peace in the region would be threatened.
The attack on the five-strong legal team comes after it launched a
point-by-point rebuttal following condemnation of its work by Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi. Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, president of The Hague-based
commission, dismissed the criticism as "misconceived and misleading."
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37169]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Eritrea dismisses terror allegations

Eritrea on Monday dismissed allegations by Ethiopia that it is sponsoring
"terrorist" groups in the country. "Most of the terrorist attacks and
attempts committed against our people and country were executed by the
Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Al-Ittihad, surrogates and proxy agents
of the rogue regime in Eritrea," the Ethiopian information ministry said
in a statement at the weekend. "The fact that OLF is still surrogate and
proxy in the subversive service of the Eritrean regime is a vivid
testimony of its final bankruptcy leading to its death throes," it added.
But the Eritrean ambassador to Ethiopia, Salih Omer, dismissed the
allegations. "We have nothing to do with such acts," he told IRIN. He
added that Eritrea was the first country to back the African Union
convention to fight terrorism. "We urge other countries to join us in that
fight," he stated. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37178]

ERITREA: Repatriation of refugees from Sudan resumes

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was due to resume the repatriation of
thousands of Eritrean refugees from Sudan on Wednesday. In a statement, it
said some 36,000 Eritrean refugees would be assisted to go home. The
repatriations had been suspended on 8 July because of the long rainy
season which hampers road travel in many parts of eastern Sudan. The area
is host to about 100,000 Eritrean refugees. The refugees will be taken to
the border town of Kassala, beyond which they will be transferred onto
Eritrean buses and trucks. The first convoy of 134 people who have
registered to return was expected to cross the border on Wednesday
morning. In Eritrea, they will receive a cash grant, basic household
supplies and three-months of food provided by the World Food Programme.
They will then make their own way to their villages of origin, mostly in
the Gash-Barka region of southwestern Eritrea. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37214]

ETHIOPIA: Gov't admits pastoralists excluded from democratic process

Ethiopia's nomadic communities are still being excluded from democratic
representation, the minister of federal affairs acknowledged on Wednesday.
GebreAb Barnabas said that "good governance and democratisation" had
failed to "spread adequately" to Ethiopia's remote pastoral areas. Nomadic
pastoralists make up some seven million people in Ethiopia and are widely
recognised as one of the most politically under-represented groups in the
country. The minister was speaking at a conference organised by the UN's
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). He said the ministry aims to bolster
democratic reforms in the country's nine regions. He told experts in good
governance that highland areas of the country had made important progress
in democratic reforms and transparency. "In the ranks of the populations
of the pastoral and minority states, however, not much has been achieved
as yet," GebreAb added.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37216]

ETHIOPIA: Warning of huge food needs by 2007

Over 17 million people in Ethiopia may need emergency food aid by 2007,
according to a food security watchdog. The warning comes from the US
government's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS) which said 17.3
million people could need help because of declining rainfall levels and a
spiralling population which are fuelling chronic food shortages. The
organisation also calls on the Ethiopian government to "refocus" its
national development goals and try to slash dependence on rain fed
agriculture. The majority of the population are subsistence farmers,
totally dependent on rain. Ethiopia is still reeling from an
"unprecedented" complex humanitarian crisis that left 13.2 million - one
in five of the population - facing starvation during the year.  Aid
agencies blame entrenched poverty rather than a lack of rainfall as the
root cause of the recurrent emergencies that afflict the beleaguered
nation. And FEWS warns that the situation is likely to get worse in the
coming years. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37193]

SOMALIA: Hundreds fleeing Baidoa

Hundreds of people are fleeing their homes and businesses in the
southwestern town of Baidoa after heavy fighting broke out between rival
factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) which controls the area,
local sources told IRIN on Thursday. They said the conflict, which broke
out last week, is centred around the villages of Dambal near Baidoa
airport, and at Dainunai on the road to Mogadishu. According to the
sources, the fighting pits forces loyal to the RRA chairman, Hasan
Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, against those of his former deputies Shaykh Adan
Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. Shatigadud and Madobe were reported
to have reconciled recently, but sources on the ground said the accord had
not yet taken hold. One source said it appeared that anyone associated
with Shatigadud's Harin sub-clan was being targeted. An employee of
Olympic Telephone Company was shot dead in front of the company's offices,
he said. Telephone companies were threatening to shut down if "those in
charge do not do something about the insecurity", he added. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37250]

SOMALIA: Kahin trip set to strengthen Somaliland-Djibouti relations

Relations between Djibouti and the self-declared republic of Somaliland,
northwestern Somalia, are set to improve following a three-day visit to
Djibouti by the Somaliland president, Dahir Riyale Kahin. Abdillahi
Muhammad Duale, Somaliland's Information Minister, told IRIN on Wednesday
that the "Riyale administration has been extremely busy strengthening
relations with neighbouring states, and this trip is part of that". Kahin,
who is accompanied by four cabinet ministers and a number of members of
parliament, is in Djibouti "at the invitation of the government", Duale
added. Meanwhile, a Djibouti official told IRIN the two sides discussed
bilateral issues particularly, economic cooperation. "We discussed ways of
improving trade ties and exploring areas of further cooperation," he
noted. The sides also discussed "how best to bring closer the two
brotherly peoples", added the official. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37219]

SOMALIA: Talks in Kenya "on course", says official

Organisers say the Somali peace talks underway in Kenya are on course, and
contrary to reports, have not stalled. James Kiboi, a member of the
Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee
which is steering the talks, admitted that "some personalities are not at
the talks", but that the proceedings were continuing. He said the
committee - which now comprises Kenya and Ethiopia - was trying to bring
back those leaders who had left the talks. "We are still pursuing them and
we have not given up on them, but even if they refuse to return the talks
will continue," he told IRIN. Among those absent from the talks are the
president of Somalia's Transitional National Government Abdiqassim Salad
Hassan, prominent Mogadishu-based faction leaders Muse Sudi Yalahow and
Usman Hasan Ato, the leader of the Kismayo-based Juba Valley Alliance Col
Barre Adan Hirale, and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade of the Rahanweyn
Resistance Army. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37194]

SUDAN: Analyst says Turabi's release due to confidence at home

The release of Dr Hassan al-Turabi, a key Islamist leader of the Sudanese
opposition, is due to electoral confidence at home and not outside
pressure, according to John Prendergast of the advocacy organisation,
International Crisis Group (ICG). "It demonstrates the government's level
of confidence in its future role in Sudan, that the principal threats it
perceived itself to face in the political landscape have diminished," said
Prendergast, ICG's co-director for Africa. Turabi, who was freed on Monday
along with other detainees, said his release was ordered because of a
combination of national and international pressure for greater political
freedoms and peace in Sudan. But the government's political adviser, Dr
Qutbi Mahdi, issued a swift denial saying the decision was not made
because of any "pressure", rather because there was "no reason to continue
detaining him". Prendergast told IRIN the US administration had not pushed
for Turabi's release. The decision was an "internal calculation", he
stated. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37241]

SUDAN: Detention without charge must stop, says rights group

The high-profile release of a number of Sudan's political prisoners this
week is a welcome move, but prolonged incommunicado detention for
political reasons continues in the Darfur region of western Sudan, says
rights group Amnesty International (AI). It said Sudan must do more to
prove its commitment to human rights by abolishing Article 31 of its
National Security Forces Act, which allows detention for up to nine months
without charge or judicial review. In Darfur a number of community leaders
of the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups have been detained without
charge - 11 known to AI - on suspicion of supporting the Sudan Liberation
Movement/Army rebel group. There have also been numerous allegations of
torture and ill-treatment in Darfur made by the UK-based Sudan
Organisation Against Torture. The release of Dr Hassan al-Turabi, Islamist
leader of the Popular National Congress and other party members including
Yusuf Saleh Libis, was widely welcomed by observers this week. [full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37213]

SUDAN: Malnutrition high in west Darfur town

A rapid assessment conducted around the town of Mukjar in west Darfur
found that almost 100 children under five years of age were severely
malnourished, according to the NGO Medair. Among some 900 children who
were surveyed earlier this month, a further 502 were either moderately or
mildly malnourished, the NGO reported. In August at least 150 people were
killed, and 225 injured, during a series of militia attacks in Wadi Sali
province. Most of the displaced lost all their possession and livestock,
as 89 villages were burned to the ground by Arab militas known as the
Janjaweed. Almost 32,000 people fled to Mukjar, while the populations of
24 villages, who remain unaccounted for, are believed to have fled to
neighbouring Chad. The current death rate among the population around
Mukjar was averaging seven per day, Medair reported. Three quarters were
under five. With no health facilities in the town, general health is
continuing to deteriorate, principally due to malaria, diarrhoea, chest
infections and eye diseases. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37181]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


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