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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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 184
13 - 19 March 2004


CONTENTS:

CHAD-SUDAN: Cross-border conflict escalates, militia attacks persist
SUDAN: US officials outraged by Darfur crisis,Khartoum wants US sanctions 
  lifted
SUDAN: Peace talks for Darfur on the horizon
SUDAN: Refugees to go home after peace agreement only if security is 
  guaranteed, says UNHCR
ETHIOPIA: Donors urged to provide cash for local purchase of food
ERITREA: Restrictions on movement of peacekeepers persist, UN says
ERITREA: Slight improvement, but humanitarian situation still grave
SOMALIA: Process moving to phase three, say IGAD ministers

ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Teshome Toga, youth, sports and culture minister
Full story

ERITREA: Eking out a living in Emkulu
Full story


CHAD-SUDAN: Cross-border conflict escalates, militia attacks persist

Chadian troops have successfully crossed into Darfur, western Sudan, to
rescue cattle stolen by Sudanese militias known as Janjawid, according to
UN sources. In the last couple of days, Chadian soldiers had crossed into
Gogei, Western Darfur, to collect the cattle, following an agreement
signed last week between presidents Idriss Deby of Chad and Umar al-Bashir
of Sudan, sources told IRIN. The agreement allowed Chadian soldiers to
cross into Sudanese territory to chase away "rebels", but was being used
to chase away Janjawid militias, IRIN was told.

For the last six weeks, Janjawid - roaming the region in gangs of hundreds
mounted on horses and camels - have been mounting almost daily attacks on
Chadian territory to steal livestock from refugees who have fled from
Darfur. In one such incident on 7 March, 35 armed men stole 100 cattle
from two border sites, killing one refugee in his hut and wounding
another.

Details have also emerged of a militia attack on Tawilah in Northern
Darfur on 27 February in which 41 schoolgirls and teachers were raped, a
number of them by up to 14 men and in front of their families, the UN
Children's Fund reported. At least 67 people were also killed and 16
schoolgirls abducted.

Full story


The rights group Amnesty International (AI) said on Tuesday that the
government had made "no progress to ensure the protection of civilians
caught up in the conflict in Darfur". "This is not a situation where the
central government has lost control," said AI. "Men, women and children
are being killed and villages are burnt and looted because the central
government is allowing militias aligned to it to pursue what amounts to a
strategy of forced displacement through the destruction of homes and
livelihood of the farming populations of the region."

AI said it had received information indicating that "the Sudan government
is encouraging the actions of the Janjawid". Sudanese refugees in Chad had
described the Janjawid attacking villages accompanied by soldiers and
often wearing army uniforms, it said. Some Sudanese army soldiers had also
described how they were following the Janjawid in attacks on villages,
which, they said, were clearly civilian targets. "For the past year, no
member of the Janjawid has been arrested or brought to justice for a
single unlawful killing," AI noted.

Full story


SUDAN: US officials outraged by Darfur crisis, Khartoum wants US sanctions
lifted

Top US officials have expressed outrage at the deteriorating humanitarian
situation and the continued restriction of aid workers from reaching
Darfur. Roger Winter, the assistant administrator of the US Agency for
International Development Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian
Assistance, described the war in Darfur as "today's most serious
humanitarian crisis on the African continent".

In his testimony on 11 March before the Committee on International
Relations Sub-Committee on Africa in the US House of Representatives,
Winter accused the Sudanese government of mounting a "scorched-earth
policy" to crush rebellion in Darfur through large-scale human rights
abuses against civilians and the obstruction of humanitarian access to the
region. "The extent of the violence and terror being inflicted on the
population is frightening," Winter told the hearing.

"Humanitarian workers have witnessed the looting and burning of villages
by the Janjawid militia and have seen that the government police and
military forces in the area do nothing to stop the violence," said Winter,
who himself led a delegation to the three Darfur states in February.

Full story


On Monday, the Sudanese ambassador to the US, Khidr Harun Ahmad, said
Sudan was "on the brink of peace" and that "with peace and the lifting of
US sanctions, Sudan will be a good place for American companies to
invest". "American companies know Sudan's mineral and hydrocarbon riches
better than anyone, and that their capital and technological know-how are
much needed to develop this country," he continued. He added that Sudan
had "vast agricultural potential", which had only been partly exploited
and could be harnessed to avoid hunger in the entire region.

While Sudanese officials continuously make public announcement about the
lifting of sanctions, US officials say a normalisation of bilateral
relations is dependent on Khartoum improving its "very poor" human rights
record, and continuing to cooperate in the war against terrorism.
Khartoum's record in Darfur has been singled out for particular criticism.
"We have made it clear that the situation in Darfur would slow the process
of normalisation of relations," said Charles Snyder, the US acting
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, on 11 March.

Full story


SUDAN: Peace talks for Darfur on the horizon

Peace negotiations for Darfur are on the horizon, with the government
agreeing for the first time to attend talks that are internationally
monitored. An EU official told IRIN on Thursday that the government had
agreed to meet the Darfur rebel leaders in Chad with representatives from
the EU and others present as observers. He said the details surrounding
the talks were "still under discussion".

An official at the US embassy in Khartoum told IRIN the matter was still
being discussed, but that the "US will be present if talks take place".
There was no comment available from the Sudanese government on Thursday.

Dr Khalil Ibrahim, the exiled chairman of the rebel Justice and Equality
Movement, confirmed to IRIN from France that he would be prepared to
attend talks if they were monitored by "neutral supervisors" in a suitable
country, which could include Chad. Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Ahmad al-Nur, the
rebel Sudan Liberation Army chairman, told IRIN he would also send a
delegation to internationally monitored talks in Chad.

Full story


SUDAN: Refugees to go home after peace agreement only if security is
guaranteed, says UNHCR

Sudanese refugees will be prepared to go home after a peace agreement is
signed by the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) only if they "see real security on the ground", a high-level team
from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has heard
first-hand.

Refugees in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kenya
had "pretty unanimously" said they were keen to return home, Dennis
McNamara, UNHCR^Òs inspector-general, told IRIN in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi. But their first concerns were protection and physical security
during and after their return, including from armed groups and militias.
Women's concerns included landmines and the large numbers of small arms in
communities after 20 years of civil war, UNHCR reported.

"We want to go home, but only when we are sure it is really safe on the
ground," one of the refugee leaders told the UNHCR team. "We have learnt
from 1972 [date of the previous Sudanese peace agreement which fell apart
in 1983 with the start of Sudan's second civil war] that peace agreements
have to be respected and implemented if we are going to be able to go home
permanently."

Full story


ETHIOPIA: Donors urged to provide cash for local purchase of food

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday called on donors to give cash
to enable humanitarian agencies to purchase food locally to meet the needs
of some 7 million people who will be unable to feed themselves this year.
WFP said in a statement that Ethiopia's harvest in late 2003 had been 40
percent higher than the previous year's, but it was still not enough to
feed all the people. It added that there were localised surpluses in some
of the regions that could be bought for food aid.

A survey conducted by WFP, the EC and the Swedish International
Development Agency, the statement added, had found that between 300,000 mt
and 350,000 mt of maize, wheat and sorghum was available for local
purchase in 18 surplus-producing zones. "If WFP and NGOs buy local cereal
surpluses, it will most certainly benefit local farmers," Georgia Shaver,
the WFP country director in Ethiopia, said in the statement. "Our proposal
makes economic sense. Donors could save money if they support the purchase
of food aid in the local market."

WFP said the Ethiopian government had appealed for around 900,000 mt of
food, and one-third of this requirement could be covered through buying
food in country. Buying 300,000 mt of cereals in Ethiopia would cost
donors US $100 million, it added.

Full story


ERITREA: Restrictions on movement of peacekeepers persist, UN says

The UN has expressed concern over Eritrea's continuing imposition of
restrictions on the movement of its peacekeepers north of the Temporary
Security Zone (TSZ) set up on its disputed border with Ethiopia. The UN
mission to the two countries (UNMEE) said on Monday that while Ethiopia
had lifted its earlier interdictions in the south of the 25-km-wide zone,
Eritrea had continued to restrict the movement of peacekeepers in the
adjacent areas north of the TSZ and along the Asmara-Keren road, which
leads to Barentu.

Maj-Gen Robert Gordon, the UNMEE force commander, said during a Military
Coordination Commission (MCC) meeting on Monday in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, that Eritrea had maintained its restrictions on peacekeepers
despite a Security Council resolution appealing to the Eritrean
authorities to give UNMEE "the freedom of movement it needs to carry out
its mandate".

An UNMEE statement quoted Gordon as saying that although the environment
inside the TSZ and adjacent areas had remained stable, UNMEE was
experiencing some difficulties in its daily operations due to bilateral
actions taken by the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Full story


ERITREA: Slight improvement, but humanitarian situation still grave

Derspite a marginal improvement in Eritrea^Òs humanitarian situation, the
country still faces very serious problems, the UN said on Wednesday. Simon
Nhongo, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator, told IRIN that years
of sustained drought and the effects of war had exhausted people^Òs coping
mechanisms to the extent that a slight improvement would have no tangible
benefits.

About two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line, and in
some small rural towns the figure leaps up to 80 percent due to the
dislocation of the population and the return of hundreds of thousands of
Eritreans from Sudan. Most of them had been there for years, after they
fled during Eritrea^Òs 30-year liberation war which broke out in 1961.

Within Eritrea, there are still 58,000 people displaced from the 1998-2000
border war with Ethiopia. Aid workers said it was very unlikely they would
be relocated before the stalemate in the Eritrea-Ethiopia border
demarcation was resolved. Nhongo expressed particular concern over the
malnutrition rates in the country which, he said, exceeded the danger
level of 15 percent. "Malnutrition, exhaustion of coping mechanisms, the
receded water table, lack of foreign currency and general poverty are all
major factors," Nhongo said.

Full story


SOMALIA: Process moving to phase three, say IGAD ministers

Foreign ministers from member states of the regional Inter-Governmental
Authority on Development (IGAD), who met in Nairobi, on 12 March to
discuss the Somali peace talks, have supported moving the talks into their
third and final phase, a communiqué said. The ministers declared phase two
of the talks "complete", saying that "the process is now moving into the
preliminary stage of phase three", the communiqué issued on their behalf
by IGAD added.

The ministers appealed to Somali leaders who were currently in Somalia "to
return to Nairobi immediately to participate in the remaining part of the
peace process". They directed the IGAD facilitation committee "to bring
all the remaining authentic traditional leaders from Somalia to Nairobi
within the next one week".

The IGAD ministers also welcomed the recent UN Security Council statement
condemning those who were obstructing the peace process, and stressed that
those persisting on the path of confrontation and conflict would be held
accountable.

Full story


On Tuesday, a press statement issued by special envoy of the Arab League -
of which Somalia is a member - to the talks called on Somali participating
parties to make their nation's interests paramount. The statement urged
the groups "to commit themselves to the ceasefire agreement, consolidate
the Somali reconciliation conference process in Kenya, and expedite a
political settlement of the Somali crisis".

The League warned the Somali parties that "if they fail to adhere to their
agreements and commitments, the international community will impose
sanctions on them through the United Nations Security Council".

Full story


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