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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 166
8 - 14 November 2003


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Concern grows over deteriorating situation in Darfur
SUDAN: UNHCR prepares for return of refugees
SUDAN: Two thousand displaced moving home from Khartoum
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Probe into death of Eritrean militiaman
ERITREA: UN envoy warns of continuing hardship next year
ETHIOPIA: Call for debate on land reform
ETHIOPIA: Rare wolf facing extinction
ETHIOPIA: Government suspends independent journalists' association
ETHIOPIA: Government appeals for mine-clearance funding
ETHIOPIA: Another drought looms
ETHIOPIA: British government pledges US $2.5 million to fight malaria
ETHIOPIA: Pensions of former state employees doubled
ETHIOPIA: Better coordination needed to fight drought, UN says
ETHIOPIA: Army legal experts undergo human rights training
ETHIOPIA: US $55 million ADB credit for poverty reduction

ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Special report on the impact of a future peace agreement on
refugees and IDPs at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37774

ETHIOPIA: Interview with UNDP's Sam Amoo on peace-building in Africa at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37868

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: IRIN interview with UN Special Envoy Martii Ahtisaari
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37748

SOMALIA-TANZANIA: Focus on the return home of Somali Bantus at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37866]


SUDAN: Concern grows over deteriorating situation in Darfur

Concern continued to mount in the week over increased displacement and a
deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, western Sudan, with calls
for the international community to intervene in order to avert a
humanitarian crisis in the region.

The UN warned that the situation in Darfur may emerge as the worst
humanitarian crisis in Sudan since 1998, owing to rising displacement and
declining access to the area because of insecurity.  The UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement that
insecurity had continued to cause displacement of hundreds of thousands of
people and had hampered relief operations. "Humanitarian access is in some
cases nonexistent, and there are few aid workers in the area," it said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, who this week visited
Sudan in preparation for the possible return of thousands of Sudanese
refugees from neighbouring countries, has also expressed concern over the
deteriorating situation in Darfur. He urged the authorities to grant full
access to humanitarian organisations. Lubbers told reporters in Sudan it
was a "tragedy" that a country that was making peace was at the same time
producing refugees.  [Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37871]


SUDAN: UNHCR prepares for return of refugees

During his visit, on Tuesday, Lubbers said that his agency was making
plans for the return of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees, should
a peace agreement be signed as expected before the end of this year. He
warned that the operation would be one of the "most challenging" of recent
times.

"Once the peace process is concluded, then the real work starts for us,"
Lubbers said. "UNHCR is looking at how to support the peace agreement once
it is signed and is trying to ensure that we are ready to move once this
has happened."

Lubbers was in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on the third leg of a
four-nation Africa tour that has already taken him to Tanzania and
Burundi. In Khartoum, he discussed the prospects for repatriating Sudanese
refugees with President Umar Hasan al-Bashir, and on Wednesday was due to
travel to southern Sudan to meet Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) leader, John Garang. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37809]

SUDAN: Two thousand displaced moving home from Khartoum

About 2,000 displaced southerners who have been living in Khartoum are on
their way home in a convoy of barges, proceeding along the Nile river
towards Juba, Bor and Adok, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
"In the past, we have witnessed a migration south at this time of year for
the harvest season," said Lara Melo, a WFP spokeswoman, "but this year the
numbers are three times as large as normal, and they say they are going
home to stay."

The displaced told WFP staff that they were moving south for a number of
reasons, including the lack of employment opportunities in the capital and
because of the prospects of peace in Sudan.

Humanitarian sources told IRIN it was not the first of Sudan's internally
displaced to move home because of the impending peace agreement, but it
was probably the largest group to do so in such an organised manner. The
2,000 passengers began to arrive in Kosti, about 300 km south of Khartoum,
as early as the beginning of September to wait for the barges, where they
camped in a warehouse under poor conditions. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37719]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Probe into death of Eritrean militiaman
 
The body of an Eritrean militiaman shot dead in the demilitarised zone has
been exhumed as part of an investigation into his murder, the UN said on
Thursday.

Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte, the spokeswoman for the UN peacekeeping force
in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said the victim had bullet wounds to the
shoulder and stomach. The man was killed during a skirmish between three
and five unknown armed uniformed men and two Eritrean militiamen,
according to the UN.

Ethiopia has categorically denied that its troops were involved in the
shooting, which occurred earlier this month. The body was exhumed on 7
November from a grave between 10 km and 15 km from the scene of the
shooting at Fawlina village inside the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The
25 km-wide wide TSZ is strictly off-limits to the armed forces of both
countries, although armed Eritrean militiamen are allowed to patrol it.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37845]

ERITREA: UN envoy warns of continuing hardship next year

Martii Ahtisaari, the UN special envoy for the humanitarian crisis in the
Horn of Africa, has warned that the humanitarian situation in Eritrea will
continue to be serious next year.

Speaking at the end of a four-day visit to the country, Ahtisaari said
Eritrea had little chance of success if the international community did
not assist. He also stressed the importance of working in partnership with
the Eritrean government. "Thanks to donors, a major disaster has been
avoided," Ahtisaari told a press conference this week.

An estimated 1.7 million Eritreans will require humanitarian assistance in
2004 as a result of war, poverty and continuing drought. Coping mechanisms
of the affected population are severely strained, with a deteriorating
nutritional status among children under five and lactating and pregnant
women. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37867]

ETHIOPIA: Call for debate on land reform

Ethiopia must hold a nationwide debate on land reform as it sits at the
"crossroads" of its future, the international charity Oxfam GB urged on
Thursday. The Oxfam director, Barbara Stocking, said that as the country
had set out on the path to development, land ownership was a key lifeline
to the 56 million people in Ethiopia who live in poverty.

"People in Ethiopia are chronically poor, and time and again we see that
the smallest shock can send millions of people to the brink of
starvation," she told journalists at the end of a seven-day visit to the
country.

Stocking said Ethiopia's impoverished rural farmers must be encouraged to
take risks if they were to escape the cycle of dependency that many face.
She also said the government's new land certification scheme, to try to
improve security of tenure for farmers, had left many key issues
unanswered. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37869]

ETHIOPIA: Rare wolf facing extinction

One of the world's rarest animals is facing a renewed battle against
extinction after being hit by a rabies outbreak, a leading wildlife expert
has warned.

Dr Stuart Williams, a British conservationist fighting to save the
critically endangered Ethiopian wolf, said the animal might not survive
this latest threat. There are only 500 of the rare wolves left - an animal
as endangered as pandas. The majority live in the remote mountainous areas
in the south of the country.

"Rabies is the big killer," said Williams, who heads the Ethiopian Wolf
Conservation Programme. He believes three-quarters could die in the
outbreak. The last rabies outbreak occurred in 1991 when three-quarters of
the 300 wolves in the Bale mountains were wiped out, leaving 80 alive.
[Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37839]

ETHIOPIA: Government suspends independent journalists' association

The government has suspended Ethiopia's independent journalists'
association in a row over its out-of-date operating licence, officials
said on Wednesday.

The association said it had been shut down for political reasons. "This is
a major blow for free speech and press freedom in the country," said Kifle
Mulat, who has been president of the 155-strong Ethiopian Free Press
Journalists Association (EFJA) for the last four years.

The suspension came amid increasing tensions between the government and
the EFJA over a controversial new draft press law. The proposed law, which
could come into effect later this year, has been condemned by
international freedom of speech watchdogs as being "restrictive".  [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37812]

On Monday, EFJA expressed concern for the future of the organisation after
its latest confrontation with the government. EFJA also is coming under
fire from journalists working in the private press, who say it has become
"over-politicised" and is suffering from "weak leadership".  [Full
storyat: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37756]

ETHIOPIA: Government appeals for mine-clearance funding

Ethiopia on Wednesday appealed for more help to overcome the potentially
lethal effects of its estimated 2 million landmines. The Ethiopian Mine
Action Office (EMAO) is seeking US $19 million over the next three years
to combat the threat.

Ethiopia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world - the
legacy of successive conflicts over the last 70 years that have ravaged
the Horn of Africa. And the scale of landmine contamination in Ethiopia is
enormous. Under current plans, the government believes it will take two
decades to rid the country of landmines. The funding would support victims
of landmine blasts and help with a mine-risk education programme for
500,000 people.

EMAO is looking to boost activities along its northern border to clear
mines left over from its bitter two-year conflict with Eritrea. Aid
agencies have warned that landmines are still hampering attempts to move
home families who fled during the bloody conflict. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37811]

ETHIOPIA: Another drought looms

Water shortages in eastern and southern Ethiopia are reaching "emergency
proportions" as a result of failed rains, according to the Ethiopian
government's federal early warning system (EWS), based in Addis Ababa.

Pastoralists in the remote Somali Region (now officially classified as the
Somali National Regional State) and along the border with Kenya in the
south are facing critical shortages of pasture for their animals, EWS said
in a report on Wednesday. "The performance of the season is worrying," it
noted.

The EWS also reported that signs of malnutrition were now appearing among
the vulnerable.  The Deyr rains, normally expected in October, and vital
to pastoralists in the Somali region, are now a month late. It was the
failure of the same rains in 1999 that caused the devastating drought
estimated to have claimed 50,000 lives. The failure of this year's Deyr
rains also comes in the wake of a country-wide drought which has left 13.2
million people dependent on international food aid. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37808]

ETHIOPIA: British government pledges US $2.5 million to fight malaria

The British government pledged $2.5 million on Wednesday to combat a
massive malaria epidemic threatening 15 million people in Ethiopia. The
funding follows an emergency appeal by the UN for $5 million to provide
drugs and mosquito nets for affected regions.

The British ambassador to Ethiopia, Myles Wickstead, called on the
international community to follow suit and provide financial backing to
stave off the crisis. "Malaria is one of the biggest killers in Ethiopia,"
Wickstead said. "Financial support from the donor community is required
urgently to avoid a major epidemic."

Malaria claims around 100,000 lives in Ethiopia each year - 250 people a
day - out of a population of 70 million. Humanitarian organisations say
rains in the country have left pools of stagnant water that have provided
a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37807]

ETHIOPIA: Pensions of former state employees doubled

International aid organisations on Tuesday welcomed a government decision
to double state pensions, but warned that more had to be done for
Ethiopia's elderly. Peter Bofin, the head of HelpAge International, said
that whereas the move was a positive step, it was noteworthy that about 3
million old people in the country were receiving no pension at all.

Ethiopia's 411,000 or so pensioners have now seen their state pensions
doubled to US $11 a month, but the recipients are all former government
and state sector employees. "These pensioners are among the lucky ones,
because they have already been working for a large part of their lives and
have money," Bofin told IRIN.

The plight of the elderly in Ethiopia - one of the world's 10 poorest
countries - is particularly hard. Bofin said HelpAge was currently
considering the feasibility of offering old people cash as an alternative
to the food aid many of them were depending on. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37781]

ETHIOPIA: Better coordination needed to fight drought, UN says

Better coordination is needed to help drought-stricken families facing
humanitarian crises in Ethiopia, representatives of the UN Children's Fund
(UNICEF) said on Monday. UNICEF also stressed the need for stronger links
between emergency support given to families hit by poor rains, and
measures to promote development in the country.

The officials were speaking during a four-day summit in Addis Ababa from 4
to 7 November, to analyse the response to the ongoing emergency in
Ethiopia. Some 13.2 million people have been dependent on food aid in the
last year after poor rains devastated the harvest. Food production has
fallen by a quarter and there are new fears over failed rains in eastern
Ethiopia.

According to humanitarian agencies fighting the drought, tens of thousands
have died during the emergency that has hit both Ethiopia and Eritrea. But
agencies insist that without the huge relief effort, the effects would
have been far worse. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37780]

ETHIOPIA: Army legal experts undergo human rights training

Legal experts for the Ethiopian armed forces have undergone key training
on the law of war. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
said on 9 November that the military legal advisers played a vital role in
planning armed operations and offering support to commanders.

It was the first time that legal advisors of the Ethiopian National
Defence Forces (ENDF) had undergone a specialised course in the Law of
Armed Conflict (LoAC). "The legal advisers to the commanders have a key
role in planning military operations," Robert Zimmermann, the deputy head
of the ICRC, said in a statement.

Some 25 legal advisers took part in the five-day course Addis Ababa. Gen
Alamu Ayele of the ENDF said the training had helped "broaden and
consolidate" their knowledge of international humanitarian law. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37747]


ETHIOPIA: US $55 million ADB credit for poverty reduction

Ethiopia has secured US $55 million from the African Development Bank
(ADB) to help in the fight against rural poverty. The ADB said in a
statement that the funds, comprising a $30 million loan and a $25 million
grant, would boost small-scale irrigation, rainwater harvesting and
environmental conservation.

Rainwater harvesting is one of the central planks of the Ethiopian
government's attempts to reverse dependency on rain-fed agriculture. It
aims to build more than 1,000 wells country-wide to tap rainfall and
run-off from hillsides for use by farmers during dry months.

The government stressed in its recently released strategy for ending food
dependency that "utilisation of water resources is ill-developed".
Ethiopia has one of the largest and most impoverished rural populations in
Africa. Some 85 percent of its population of 70.7 million eke out a
hand-to-mouth existence in the countryside. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=37757]


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