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

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 163
18 - 24 October 2003


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Peace deal to be signed before end of 2003, says Powell.
SUDAN: Government denies downplaying importance of end-of-year peace date.
SUDAN: Darfur rebels keen to extend ceasefire.
SUDAN: Avoidably high maternal death rates.
ETHIOPIA: Minister defends new press law.
ETHIOPIA: Malaria threatens 15 million people - UN.
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Addis Ababa again attacks border commission.
ETHIOPIA: Orthodox leader lends support to child immunisation.
ETHIOPIA: ADB loan for tackling massive migration problem.
ETHIOPIA: Red Cross trains prison officials.
ETHIOPIA: Villagers get medical, veterinary from US forces.
SOMALIA: Member of parliament murdered in Nairobi.
SOMALIA: Two British teachers shot dead in Somaliland.
SOMALIA: Ensure safety of aid workers, UN official urges.

ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: IRIN interview with World Bank's disability adviser, Judith
Heumann at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37376

SUDAN: Peace deal to be signed before end of 2003, says Powell

Both the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Wednesday committed themselves to signing a
comprehensive peace deal by the end of the year, US Secretary of State
Colin Powell told reporters in Naivasha, Kenya.

Powell said he believed "a final agreement is within the grasp of the
parties". He said the "way is now open to finding a comprehensive
solution", but that there was "still a bit more to be done".

Deep-rooted differences of opinion exist on the status of the three areas
- currently under a divided control - in a future Sudan. Powell said that
once a final agreement had been signed, both the government and the SPLM/A
would be invited to the White House to endorse it and enable President
George W. Bush "to commit the US to assisting in the implementation of an
agreement".  [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37369]


SUDAN: Government denies downplaying importance of end-of-year peace date

The Sudanese government on Thursday said it is committed to finding a
peace deal with SPLM/A by the end of the year, contrary to media reports.

Following a meeting on Wednesday with the government and the SPLM/A in
Naivasha, Kenya, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that
both sides had committed themselves to signing a peace deal by the end of
the year. Neither SPLM/A Chairman John Garang nor Sudanese Vice-President
Ali Osman Taha mentioned any date during the press conference, but the
Sudanese presidential peace adviser, Dr Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani,
reportedly said afterwards that it was "impossible to dictate" a deadline
for reaching a peace deal to end two decades of civil war.  [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37407]

On 17 October, Malik Agar Eyre, SPLM/A commander and governor of southern
Blue Nile, said negotiations between the Sudanese warring parties had "hit
a rock". He said the atmosphere remained "cordial and friendly" but there
was a deadlock in all three committees discussing the pending issues of
power sharing, wealth sharing and the contested areas of southern Blue
Nile, Abyei and the Nuba mountains. "To say we are confident is too much,"
he told IRIN. "We are cautiously optimistic." [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37273]

SUDAN: Darfur rebels keen to extend ceasefire

The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) rebel group operating in
Darfur, western Sudan, says it is keen to extend a ceasefire agreement
with the Sudanese government.

Speaking from the Jabal Marrah area, the SLM/A spokesman, Ahmad Abd
al-Shafi, told IRIN his group wanted to extend the 45 day ceasefire which
began on 6 September, because of the humanitarian needs in Darfur and the
suffering of its people. He added that the SLM/A leadership and Darfur
elders had been holding discussions for the last three days to "settle the
decision". People were arriving from all over Darfur to take part in the
talks, which would probably go on for a further two days.

He said Arab militia attacks were still continuing on a grand scale. With
no international monitors on the ground, there is no independent
confirmation of the attacks.  [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37284]

The conflict in Darfur has displaced over half a million people since
March, in addition to 70,000 who have fled across the border to eastern
Chad, according to the UN. Figures remain uncertain due to access
constraints and poor road conditions, but the latest estimates document at
least 300,000 IDPs in northern Darfur, and 126,000 in western Darfur. In
southern Darfur 76,000 have been displaced this year, on top of 200,000
who fled north from Bahr el Ghazal between 1988 and 2001. [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37414]

SUDAN: Avoidably high maternal death rates

Women have a one-in-30 chance of dying in childbirth in northern Sudan,
with higher rates in areas of the south, according to the UN.

While data was available for the north, it was nonexistent in the south
due to the absence of a government there to collect information centrally,
Dr Michaleen Richer of the UN Children's Fund told IRIN on Tuesday. Some
localised studies had been done, producing death rates of between 400 and
800 deaths per 100,000 births, she said, but they had been small-scale,
done on an ad hoc basis, and were therefore not representative.

One of the main ways of reducing maternal mortality was the presence of
skilled medical personnel at births, who were often absent in Sudan, said
Richer. A World Bank survey shows that between 1990 and 1999, an average
of only 57 percent of births were attended each year in northern Sudan,
with no improvements in attendance over the course of the decade. In the
south, just 6 percent were attended by either a doctor or mid-wife. [Full
story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37351]

ETHIOPIA: Minister defends new press law

Ethiopian Information Minister Bereket Simon on Tuesday launched an
impassioned defence of his country's controversial new press law. He
argued that the new law upheld constitutionally enshrined rights of free
expression, denying at the same time that it was too harsh. His statement
followed widespread criticism of the new law by international journalists'
organisations and the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association
(EFJA).

The minister's comments came at the launch of a three-day international
round table on media law reform in the Horn of Africa being held at the UN
conference centre in Addis Ababa. He also launched a strong attack on the
EFJA, which he accused of undermining "responsible" journalism in the
country. Bereket went on to accuse the Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) of engaging in
"unwarranted criticism" of the new law, asserting that the CPJ and IFJ had
attacked the law without first reading the relevant bills. [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37374]

ETHIOPIA: Malaria threatens 15 million people - UN

Fifteen million Ethiopians are facing a deadly malaria epidemic, according
to a warning issued by the UN on Wednesday. This new development comes in
the wake of an unprecedented and complex humanitarian crisis hitting the
impoverished country, leaving 13 million people in need of food aid. "The
risk of death spread by malaria mosquitoes looms in millions of homes in
Ethiopia," the UN Country Team announced in its emergency warning. It said
"thousands of deaths" could occur, because those under threat were already
weakened by months of drought and hunger.

Poor rains last year country-wide resulted in the loss of nearly one-fifth
of the harvest. This year, however, Ethiopia received satisfactory rains
from June until September, which, analysts predict, will result in a good
harvest. But humanitarian organisations have noted that the rains have
left pools of stagnant water, which have provided a fertile breeding
ground for mosquitoes. Malaria is one of the biggest killers in Ethiopia,
usually claiming 100,000 lives each year out of a population of 70
million. [Full Story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37417]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Addis Ababa again attacks border commission

Ethiopia this week again attacked the independent boundary commission set
up to rule on the contested 1,000 km border with Eritrea. In a statement
released over the weekend, the foreign ministry accused the
Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) of "arrogance" and "major
shortcomings."

It said the EEBC had been "transformed into a party to the dispute" after
its ruling awarded contested territory - in particular the town of Badme
where the war flared up - to Eritrea. The Ethiopian government also
criticised the EEBC for failing to make field visits to the border region,
which it added, would have been "illuminating."

"Cloaking itself with the mantle that its ruling would be final and
binding, it stubbornly stuck to it untenable position," the ministry said.
"Its President [Sir Elihu Lauterpacht] probably concluded that a poor
country like Ethiopia would have to submit to his ruling whatever the
merits of its argument." The Eritrean government last week warned that
Ethiopia's "reckless position" could "plunge the region into another cycle
of war and conflict".  [Full Story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37300]

ETHIOPIA: Orthodox leader lends support to child immunisation

The head of Ethiopia's 25 million strong Orthodox Church has thrown his
weight behind a countrywide campaign to boost child immunisation.
Patriarch Abune Paulos urged his clergy to provide teaching on the
importance of vaccinations against preventable child hood killers.

His rallying call came on 17 October at the launch of a campaign by the UN
and the health ministry to boost immunisations in the country. According
to the World Health Organisation, up to 350,000 Ethiopian children die
annually from preventable diseases. Just half of children receive
life-saving vaccines. The UN says that children are dying because parents
are unaware about diseases and they have little knowledge about how to
combat childhood killers. [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37303]

ETHIOPIA: ADB loan for tackling massive migration problem

Ethiopia has been awarded US $86 million in loans and grants from the
African Development Bank to help tackle migration to urban areas from
rural communities. Theodore Nkodo, a vice-president at the ADB, said in a
20 October statement that the bank was backing three projects aimed at
combating entrenched poverty in the country.

Ethiopia is witnessing a massive urban population explosion as families
move from rural areas to cities to try and make a better living. The
country, which is reeling from a severe food crisis, is facing one of the
highest migrations from villages to cities in Africa. The funding is part
of an ADB scheme to "make financial services accessible to the rural poor
and to further strengthen the rural financial infrastructure." In a
statement, Nkodo said that the projects would help boost rural enterprises
and reduce rural urban migration. [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37302]

ETHIOPIA: Red Cross trains prison officials

Ethiopian prison officials have undergone training to improve the
conditions for inmates, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) has said. They underwent a five-day programme to "strengthen and
develop competence" of the management of detention centres, the ICRC said
on 17 October.

The move comes amid deep concern over the treatment of prisoners in
Ethiopia. The US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in its
latest 2003 country report that conditions in Ethiopia's prisons are
appalling. It stated that prison conditions "did not meet international
standards" and alleged that in certain parts of the country some prisoners
were tortured. "Prison conditions were harsh in the provinces and in Addis
Ababa. Medical care was rudimentary and rationed to a handful of prisoners
per day," it noted.

The ICRC regularly visits prisoners in Ethiopian jails across the country.
This year alone it has carried out more than 160 visits to 128 detention
centres. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37301]

ETHIOPIA: Villagers get medical aid from US forces

US armed forces at a military camp where Ethiopian troops have been
undergoing counter-terrorism training are providing the local community
with medical support, according to US sources.

Medical staff had treated almost 3,000 patients over a period of three
days in what the US medical staff described as their largest-ever civilian
medical operation in the Horn of Africa. The US military personnel who
participated in the operation are based at Hurso training camp, northwest
of Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia. They treated patients with illnesses
ranging from tuberculosis to malaria, some cases so severe that the
patients could not be cured. Maj Jean Fleurantin, the officer-in-charge of
the team, said they had been overwhelmed by the numbers of patients going
to them for treatment.

The CJTF has spent the last three months training the 12th Division of the
Ethiopian army as part of its support for the country's bid to set up the
first of three new anti-terrorism battalions. [Full Report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37393]

SOMALIA: Member of parliament murdered in Nairobi

A member of the Transitional National Assembly of Somalia, was on Sunday
found murdered in a forest on the outskirts on Nairobi on 19 October. The
body of Shaykh Ibrahim Ali Abdulle, a prominent Mogadishu-based
businessman and delegate to the peace talks in Kenya, was found - along
with those of a Kenyan businessman and their driver - in the Ololua forest
near Nairobi, according to the Kenyan newspaper, Daily Nation.

Somali sources who saw the bodies told IRIN that "all three men were shot
in the head, execution style". "This is not a random shooting. It looks
like an assassination," said one Somali source. However, James Kiboi, a
member of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development technical
committee, which is steering the talks, told IRIN it was premature to
reach any conclusions about the killings. [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37304]

SOMALIA: Two British teachers shot dead in Somaliland

Two British nationals working for an NGO in the self-declared republic of
Somaliland were shot dead on Monday night by unidentified gunmen.

The two bodies were found in their home on Tuesday morning, said Evelyn
Winkler, project coordinator with SOS Kinderdorf International, which
employed them. The house was located in the same compound as the Sheikh
secondary school where they were working, in a town of the same name about
70 km from the port of Berbera. An investigation into the shootings had
started on Tuesday, said Winkler, which was being supported by the
president of Somaliland, Dahir Rialeh Kahin. The house had been sealed and
the school, which opened in January 2003, was closed. Whether the couple
was targeted, and what the motive was remained unclear, she said.  [Full
story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37343]

SOMALIA: Ensure safety of aid workers, UN official urges

A senior UN humanitarian official on Tuesday expressed "profound sorrow"
at the killing of two British aid workers in northern Somalia, saying that
no new UN workers would be sent to the area until it "stabilises".

Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator, said a total of four international aid
workers had been killed in Somalia since mid-September. He called on the
local authorities to take immediate action to "find and prosecute" those
responsible for the killings, and to "ensure the safety and security of
all aid workers in the area". [Full Story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37375]


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


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