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 154
16 - 22 August 2003


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia says UNMEE "increasing border tension"
ETHIOPIA: Six killed in mine blast
ETHIOPIA: Gov't to send troops to Liberia
ETHIOPIA: Emergency food arriving via Berbera
ERITREA: New mineral water factory aims to save money, create jobs
SOMALIA: UN concerned over "persistent" weapons flow
SOMALIA: Interim gov't sets conditions for return to talks
SOMALIA: Peace talks resume after five-day break
SOMALIA: Kenyan envoy urges TNG president to return to talks
SUDAN: Bashir urges negotiating teams to reach agreement "soon"


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Special Report on women in the south at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36080

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Arkebe Oqubay, mayor of Addis Ababa at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36078

ETHIOPIA: Interview with World Bank head Ishac Diwan at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36132]

ETHIOPIA: Feature - Necessity, the mother of invention at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36036



ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia says UNMEE "increasing border tension"

The Ethiopian government on Monday accused the UN peacekeeping force of
fuelling tensions along the contested border with Eritrea. It hit out
after a complaint by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) that
Ethiopian troops in military uniform had encroached the off-limits buffer
zone separating the two countries to play football. UNMEE spokeswoman Gail
Bindley Taylor Sainte said the men were armed and should not have crossed
into the 25 km wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), describing it as a
violation of a peace accord between the two sides. But the Ethiopian
government accused UNMEE of overreacting and insisted it had not violated
the June 2000 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. "What increases the
tension along the border is the seriousness with which UNMEE treats this,"
Zemedkun Tekle, spokesman at the ministry of information said on Monday.
[Full stor at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36031]

ETHIOPIA: Six killed in mine blast

Six people were killed and three others injured after a tractor hit a
landmine near the Ethiopian border with Eritrea, the United Nations said
on Thursday. The blast, which occurred on 13 August south of Humera inside
Ethiopian territory, is still under investigation, the UN's Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said. The peacekeepers are trying to
establish whether the blast - which was outside the Temporary Security
Zone patrolled by UNMEE - was a result of a newly-laid mine. Dave Bax,
deputy head at the UN's Mine Action Coordinating Centre (MACC), warned
that newly-laid mines were being planted by unknown groups along the
border. "Definitely some of the mines that we are finding are newly-laid
which would lead one to believe that there is some kind of a coordinated
mine campaign going on," he told a weekly press briefing. "There have been
mines found on both sides of the border," he said. "There is activity
going on. The level of it and who it is, we are not in a position to make
any judgements on that."
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36130]

ETHIOPIA: Gov't to send troops to Liberia

Ethiopia has pledged to send troops under the United Nations peacekeeping
umbrella to help maintain order in war-torn Liberia, defence officials
said on Wednesday. Ethiopian Defence Minister Abadula Gemeda told the
country's parliament that African countries had been urged by the UN
Security Council to support a peacekeeping effort. The move follows the
signing of a crucial peace deal between the Liberian government and the
main rebel groups in Ghana on Monday. "We have agreed to deploy the
Ethiopian army to the Liberia peacekeeping mission," a spokeswoman for the
ministry of defence told IRIN. "This was submitted to parliament and they
have approved the proposal." Preparations are now underway in the armed
forced to ensure military readiness for the operation, the defence
ministry said. A timescale for troop deployment and the size of the
contingent have yet to be determined, the spokeswoman added.
[Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36076]

ETHIOPIA: Emergency food arriving via Berbera

Emergency food aid to tackle Ethiopia's devastating famine is being
shipped in through the Somaliland port of Berbera, officials said on
Monday. The shipment - some 15,000 mt tons of wheat from the European
Commission - is the first consignment of emergency aid through the port
this year. But the commission - one of the largest donors in Ethiopia - is
trying to shift the focus from the impoverished country's reliance on food
aid. Jean-Pierre Pierard, deputy head at the EC in Ethiopia, told IRIN
that continual shipments of food aid would not resolve the underlying
crisis in Ethiopia - namely poverty. "Food aid is a partial answer,"
Pierard said. "It helps today but what we need are long term solutions."
He said member states of the 15-strong European Union, along with the
World Bank and the US Agency for International Development, were trying to
establish a "common approach." "We are all worried about the food
situation because the numbers needing food aid are increasing," he added.
"We cannot keep having a succession of emergencies."
[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36032]

ERITREA: New mineral water factory aims to save money, create jobs

A private company in Eritrea has begun producing totally pure drinking
water, which is expected to save the country over one million dollars a
year and create new job opportunities. Asmerom Russom, the owner of the
factory at Mainefhi, some 20 km from the capital Asmara, told IRIN that
the plant was producing 1,000 bottles an hour of pure water, devoid of any
gas compound which means it can be drunk by children. The factory, named
'Mai-liham pure water production', is expected to replace imported bottled
water from western and Arab countries, thereby reducing hard currency
expenditure by almost half, Asmerom said. "Our factory will save over one
million US dollars a year," he stressed. He added that the factory had
also opened up over 100 job opportunities, which would be worked in three
shifts. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36105]

SOMALIA: UN concerned over "persistent" weapons flow

The UN Security Council has expressed concern over the "persistent flow of
weapons and ammunitions" to Somalia. The sentiment was expressed in a
statement read out by Fayssal Mekdad of Syria - which currently holds the
Council's presidency - after hearing a briefing from the sanctions
committee on Somalia. A four-member panel of experts, investigating
violations of the arms embargo on Somalia, was appointed by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan in September 2002 and advises the Council's
sanctions committee. The statement stressed that member states were
responsible for "fully implementing" the arms embargo on Somalia. "[The
Council] reiterated its call upon all Somali and regional parties, as well
as government officials and other actors contacted outside the region, to
cooperate with the panel of experts in the discharge of its mandate," the
statement added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36107]

SOMALIA: Interim gov't sets conditions for return to talks

Somalia's Transitional National Government (TNG) has formulated a reply to
an official invitation from the Kenyan government to return to the Nairobi
peace talks, in which it sets out its conditions, according to a senior
TNG official. The official told IRIN on Wednesday that the reply "will be
presented to the Kenyan government no later than this afternoon". The
Kenyan ambassador to Somalia, Muhammad Abdi Affey, delivered the
invitation to the TNG president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, last week. One
of the TNG's conditions is that future parliamentarians must be selected
by traditional elders in consultation with political leaders "to give
legitimacy to the process", the TNG official said. Other conditions are
that Somalis must be given "overall control of the talks, with the
international community playing a facilitating role only".  [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36077]

SOMALIA: Peace talks resume after five-day break

The Somali national reconciliation conference reconvened in the Mbagathi
suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday after a five-day hiatus,
according to a member of its organising committee. "The suspension of the
proceedings came at the request of the participants and our partners
[donor countries] who said they wanted a break to give time to bring
everyone on board," said James Kiboi of the Inter-Governmental Authority
on Development (IGAD) technical committee which is steering the talks.
"Some delegates and our partners asked for a postponement to try and bring
on board the leaders who are not here," Kiboi, the committee's political
and diplomatic liaison officer, told IRIN. Also requesting the
postponement was "a splinter group of civil society" who wanted
constitutional experts to study the draft charter, he added. Kiboi said
the technical committee had "deployed every effort to convince those
leaders who are absent to return to the talks". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36056]

SOMALIA: Kenyan envoy urges TNG president to return to talks

Kenyan envoy Muhammad Abdi Affey, who last week travelled to Mogadishu,
said he had asked Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, the president of Somalia's
Transitional National Government (TNG) to return to peace talks in
Nairobi. He told IRIN on Monday the request was made in an official
message from the Kenyan government. "I had a warm reception and we had a
very fruitful discussion," Affey said. "We are waiting for a formal
response from them [TNG] today or tomorrow." He declined to speculate on
whether the TNG would return to the talks or not. "The president told me
that he would consult his parliament and cabinet before making any
decisions," he stated. Last month, Abdiqassim walked out of the peace
talks in Kenya, saying they were leading towards the "dismemberment" of
Somalia. However, a splinter group of the TNG led by Hassan Abshir and
Abdallah Derow - the prime minister and speaker of parliament who were
dismissed by the TNG parliament last week - is continuing to participate
in the conference. The two men say the move by the parliament was
illegitimate and that they continue to represent the interim government at
the Nairobi peace talks. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36033]

SUDAN: Bashir urges negotiating teams to reach agreement "soon"

Sudanese President Umar Hassan al-Bashir has called on the negotiating
teams at peace talks underway in Nanyuki, Kenya, to conduct the
deliberations in an atmosphere of mutual trust and reach a final peace
agreement soon, the Kenyan ministry of foreign affairs announced. The
statement was issued on Thursday after Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo
Musyoka arrived home from a two-day visit to Egypt, during which he made a
stopover in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum and held talks with Bashir.
According to the statement, Bashir reiterated his "faith and trust" in the
Kenya-led Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative to
restore peace in Sudan. Noting that the negotiations taking place in
Nanyuki had reached a critical stage, the statement added that the Kenyan
government was keen to see the peace initiative "bear fruit for the sake
of stability and development in the region". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36131]


IRIN-CEA
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:  
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

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


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Horn of Africa                   www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/hafrica