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 167
15 - 21 November 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Envoy recalled from AU over border dispute
ERITREA: UN officials warn of “silent emergency”
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boy killed in mine blast
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boundary Commission due to meet
ETHIOPIA: Good harvest predicted but warning of collapse in grain prices
ETHIOPIA: Concern over education cost-sharing scheme
ETHIOPIA: Gov't urged to "stop harassing" private press
SOMALIA: Puntland appeals for help as drought bites
SOMALIA: Over 50 killed in fighting in central region
SUDAN: Surge in malaria cases in Bahr el Ghazal


ALSO SEE:

ERITREA: Interview with recalled AU ambassador Salih Omer at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38027

ERITREA: Interview with UNHCR boss Ruud Lubbers at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37959

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Feature – Where demarcation should have started at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37990

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Oxfam director Barbara Stocking at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37963

DJIBOUTI: Feature – The Horn’s bright new hope at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37927



ERITREA: Envoy recalled from AU over border dispute

Eritrea withdrew its Ethiopia-based ambassador from the African Union (AU)
on Thursday in protest over the unresolved border dispute between the two
countries. According to a foreign ministry statement, the government
expressed indignation over the AU's "failure to adhere to its own charter
and enforce its own treaties". The AU is one of the guarantors of the 2000
Algiers peace agreement which officially ended the border war between the
sides. Eritrea said the AU should be "putting pressure or taking
disciplinary action" against Ethiopia, which Asmara accuses of violating
the peace accord. Ethiopia has rejected elements of an independent
boundary ruling which places the village of Badme - where the war flared
up - in Eritrea. Demarcation of the border has now been put on hold
indefinitely. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38009]

ERITREA: UN officials warn of “silent emergency”

UN officials have warned of a move towards a “silent humanitarian
emergency” in Eritrea unless the level of international aid is sustained.
Christian Balslev-Oleson, country representative of the UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), pointed out that malnutrition among women and children in the
traditional breadbasket regions of Gash Barka and Anseba was rising
rapidly. Some 47 percent of women of reproductive age are malnourished in
Gash Barka while in Anseba the figure reaches an alarming 52.5 percent.
“The figures are dramatic,” Balslev-Oleson told IRIN. Eritrea has been
reeling from a devastating drought which has progressively worsened over
the last four years. Balslev-Oleson noted that the cumulative effect of
drought, coupled with war and poverty, meant these regions could not now
produce enough food. “Other regions are used to drought, but these people
are more vulnerable in drought situations,” he stressed. “They are used to
having food, and their coping mechanisms are different.” [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37898]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boy killed in mine blast

A seven-year-old boy has become the latest casualty of unexploded mines
that blight the border region of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the UN said on
Thursday. Ebrahim Saleh was killed near the Eritrean town of Tserona last
Friday, according to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea
(UNMEE). UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte told journalists at
a weekly press briefing that an investigation was underway into the young
boy’s death. His death brings the total number of fatalities due to
landmines and unexploded ordnance in the border region to 19 since the
beginning of the year. Ethiopia are Eritrea are two of the most
heavily-mined countries in the world – a legacy of successive conflicts
that have ravaged the Horn of Africa. In Eritrea there are an estimated
1,500,000 mines and some 300,000 unexploded ordnance. Ethiopia is
contaminated with around two million mines. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37999]

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Boundary Commission due to meet

An independent commission set up to resolve the border dispute between
Ethiopia and Eritrea is expected to hold key talks in London on Wednesday
over the stalled demarcation. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission
(EEBC), created under a deal to end the 1998-2000 war, will meet to
discuss the current impasse, sources close to the process told IRIN. It is
the first time that the EEBC has met since indefinitely suspending
demarcation of the new 1,000 km border. The Hague-based body, made up of
five international lawyers (two each chosen by the sides), announced late
last month it was unable to carry out its work “under the current
circumstances”. Ethiopia has refused to accept parts of the EEBC ruling
which places Badme – where the war flared up - in Eritrea. Legwaila Joseph
Legwaila, head of the 4,200-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE), will attend the London talks as an observer. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37933]

ETHIOPIA: Good harvest predicted but warning of collapse in grain prices

Ethiopia is predicting a good harvest after one of the worst droughts in
its history left 13 million facing starvation, government officials said
on Wednesday. Adequate rains have boosted crop production compared to
previous years, according to the government’s Central Statistics Authority
(CSA) in Addis Ababa. “This is very important for the Ethiopian people
after such a hard year,” said Samiya Zekaria, the deputy general manager
of the CSA. “Despite small areas of problems, everyone will be better
off.” The harvest, which is predicted at almost 12 million tons of grain,
is 60 percent more than last year, and almost a fifth bigger than the good
harvests of 2001, CSA officials said. According to the UN's World Food
Programme, the annual average crop harvests for the last five years is
10.5 million mt. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37996]

ETHIOPIA: Concern over education cost-sharing scheme

Ethiopia’s teachers' association condemned on Tuesday the government’s
newly introduced “cost-sharing” scheme where students must foot part of
their fees. Dr Taye Wolde Semayat, president of the Ethiopian Teachers'
Association (ETA) told IRIN that the policy put Ethiopia on a “slippery
slope” towards privatising education. “This government is selling our
diplomas and degrees to the highest bidder,” said the former professor of
political science at Addis Ababa University. “This is a concept that will
take us to privatisation,” added Taye who was jailed in 1996 for 15 years
for conspiring against the state – a charge he denies. He was freed last
year after criticism over his imprisonment. “It is a very important and
crucial issue that money must go into education, but this is not the way,”
he said. The government has stressed that students are not paying to
learn. “It must be clear that the cost-sharing system is not a mechanism
whereby the students are forced to pay to learn,” it says. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37928]

ETHIOPIA: Gov't urged to "stop harassing" private press

The government has been urged to “stop harassing” the country’s private
media after suspending Ethiopia’s independent journalist association.
Robert Ménard, secretary general of the Paris-based Reporters Without
Borders, also called on the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to lift
the suspension. The government suspended the Ethiopian Free Press
Journalists' Association (EFJA) on 10 November because its operating
licence was three years out of date. But Kifle Mulat, who heads the
155-strong organisation that was set up in 1993, claimed that they were
shut down for political reasons. He says the EFJA had been suspended for
its widespread criticism of a new controversial draft press law being
introduced by the government. “The coincidence between the EFJA’s
criticism of this repressive law and the insistence…that the suspension is
not political is just too much to be believed,” Ménard added. Relations
between the EFJA and the government are extremely poor, according to
analysts, who cite repeated attacks by both sides. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37904]

SOMALIA: Puntland appeals for help as drought bites

The authorities of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland,
northeastern Somalia, are appealing for assistance for thousands of people
affected by a serious drought in the region. Parts of Puntland are facing
serious food and water shortages, according to its local government and
rural affairs minister Ali Abdi Aware. He told IRIN on Wednesday that the
problem was most acute in the Sool and Sanaag regions, which are claimed
by both Puntland and the neighboring self-declared republic of Somaliland.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Somalia had
earlier in the week warned that more than 90,000 of the 650,000 people in
the Sool Plateau are facing starvation. Also seriously affected by the
current drought were the districts of Qardho, Iskushuban, and Badar Beyla,
all in Bari Region, and parts of Nugal Region, said Ali. "The Deyr rains
[September-November] have failed this year in most areas. This, coupled
with an already existing drought, has made matters even worse." [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37962]

SOMALIA: Over 50 killed in fighting in central region

Three days of heavy fighting in the northwest of Galgadud Region have left
at least 50 people dead and over 150 wounded, local sources in the
regional capital, Dusa-Mareb, told IRIN on Monday. The fighting broke out
last week between the Darod subclan of the Marehan and the Dir subclan of
Fiqi Muhumud, and was concentrated in and around the village of Herale,
some 80 km northwest of Dusa-Mareb, said Nur Mu'allim Dhere of the Dir.
Herale village is populated by the Dir. According to Abdinasir Hashi of
the Marehan clan, the current clashes were triggered by revenge killings
for the death in May last year of a prominent Marehan businessman. But the
ensuing escalation of violence was also attributed to disagreements over
water and grazing in the area, another source from a neutral clan told
IRIN. "It is more about water and grazing land right now. Herale is close
to a good pasture area and water points are very close," he said. "Each
group is trying to dislodge the other."  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37910]

SUDAN: Surge in malaria cases in Bahr el Ghazal

The Medicines sans Frontieres international humanitarian organisation has
said its teams are treating over 5,000 malaria patients each week in Bahr
el Ghazal province, south central Sudan, following an outbreak of the
disease in the region. The agency said its team had treated 52,000
patients since the end of June, including 800 severe cases - a marked
increase from previous years. It was still expecting to treat a high
number patients until the end of the year.  "Malaria is endemic in this
region, but there has been a sustained increase in the numbers of cases
this year, compared with previous years," Greg Elder, MSF medical
coordinator for Sudan said in a statement. According to Elder, the number
of consultations and hospitalisations in Akuem, one of its treatment
locations in Bahr el Ghazal, "exploded" in July, a month earlier than the
usual peak of August. MSF has attributed this year's surge in malaria
cases to the unusually heavy rains, which converted most of the region
into marshland.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37935]


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