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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 185
21 - 26 March 2004


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deadlock over border ruling drags on
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: 81 Eritreans repatriated
ETHIOPIA: Situation of IDPs in Somali region deteriorating
SUDAN: Gov't stresses commitment to just and peaceful solution to Darfur 
  conflict
SUDAN: Conflict destroying lives and livelihoods in war-torn west
SUDAN: Communities in northern Bahr al-Ghazal urgently need aid
SOMALIA: Two aid workers killed in Somaliland
SOMALIA-UGANDA: EC gives €14 million in humanitarian aid


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: The neglected east
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40219


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deadlock over border ruling drags on

Eritrea has reiterated its opposition to the appointment of a UN special
envoy tasked to help break the deadlock affecting the peace process with
Ethiopia, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Eritrean Brig-Gen Abrahaley Kifle rejected international calls for
Eritrean officials to meet newly appointed Special Envoy Lloyd Axworthy,
according to the UN. A statement issued by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE) quoted Abrahaley as saying that the time was right for
demarcation to be implemented but not for appointing special envoys. The
statement was issued after top Ethiopian and Eritrean military officials
met at a Military Coordination Commission (MCC) meeting in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi, on 15 March.

Also speaking during the MCC meeting, Ethiopian Brig-Gen Yohanes
Gebremeskel appealed to the international community to help in overcoming
the current impasse over the border, urging it "to also seek the views of
the ordinary people who will be affected by demarcation", according to the
UNMEE statement. "It is easy to create problems, to be hostile. The
challenge is how to become rational and how to contribute positively," he
added. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40163 ]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: 81 Eritreans repatriated

Eighty-one Eritrean civilians were repatriated from Ethiopia on Friday,
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced on Monday.
It said "the group included a medical case and 12 unaccompanied children,
who were later reunited with their families".

The operation took place between the Eritrean town of Adi Kwala and the
Ethiopian town of Rama via the Mereb river crossing point, the ICRC said.
It added that Red Cross teams from both countries provided food and water
to the repatriated people as they arrived, noting that the ICRC would
continue helping people affected by the recent war, under the 1949 Geneva
Conventions.

In another development, the ICRC in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on 16 an
17 March conducted two presentations on its work to 20 Eritrean prison
officers. The ICRC delegates explained the purpose of ICRC visits to
detainees, the procedures followed when conducting such visits and the
legal basis for this activity". They also discussed the organisation's
mandate and its activities in Eritrea. "The ICRC regularly visits various
places of detention throughout the country."


ETHIOPIA: Situation of IDPs in Somali region deteriorating

Fears are mounting for the welfare of thousands of internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in eastern Ethiopia, the UN warned on 20 March. Disease,
lack of food and dwindling water supplies are hitting the IDPs, the UN
said in a special alert.

"There is a need to respond with timely assistance in order to prevent the
situation from deteriorating further," said the joint statement issued by
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the
government of the Somali National Regional State (SNRS). "It is necessary
to speed up reintegration efforts from these areas and to secure the
return of the IDPs to their areas of origin."

The UN aims to quickly "reintegrate" the IDP families into their original
communities and provide transport and medical support to get them home. It
is appealing for an immediate sum of US $180,000 to provide support for
the IDPs, many of whom are Ethiopians who have come in from neighbouring
Djibouti and Somaliland. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40147 ]


ERITREA: Food situation still bleak

The food security situation in Eritrea remains bleak despite a partial
improvement in agricultural production last year, the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported on Wednesday.
In an operations update, the Federation said cereal production in 2003
reached 57 percent of average production, but was only 19 percent of
annual consumption requirements. "According to observations by the Red
Cross of Eritrea and UN reports, the situation requires urgent attention,"
it said.

According to the Federation, current crop and food-aid stocks in the
country are not expected to last beyond March when the hunger season
begins. It singled out the lowlands of Anseba and Gash Barka as areas
which had received no rains and where the drought situation had since
worsened.

On Monday, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
Net) reported that the Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Commission
(ERREC) had said available food stocks were only sufficient to cover two
months of food aid for an estimated 1.9 million in need. According to FEWS
Net, however, the 2004 appeal to donors, which included a request for
$97.8 million for food needs, had received little response. It said the
ERREC stock status for February showed that only 26,345 mt of food had
been pledged, of which only 5,601 mt had arrived in the country. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40240 ]


SUDAN: Gov't stresses commitment to just and peaceful solution to Darfur
conflict

The government of Sudan has said it is committed to a just and peaceful
solution to the conflict in Darfur through political dialogue. "Through
political dialogue a final agreement can be reached in the region," said a
statement issued by the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi,
on Wednesday.

However, the statement said, this did not mean that the government would
give up its "constitutional responsibility in defending the country and
its citizens, and to ensure their security, safety and the safety of their
belongings". International law gave the government the right to enforce
law and order within its territorial boundaries for the purpose of
ensuring stability and security, it continued. The government said it had
conveyed "a strong protest" regarding statements made last week by the
UN's outgoing Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, who
described the conflict as the "world's greatest humanitarian crisis".

The government reiterated that it was "committed to reach a peaceful
solution", adding that it had launched an initiative to conclude military
operations, and issue a general amnesty and a call for a reconciliation
conference for the people of Darfur. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40223 ]


SUDAN: Conflict destroying lives and livelihoods in war-torn west

Conflict in Northern Darfur State is devastating social infrastructure and
placing an increasing number of people at risk of hunger, according to
agencies working in the region. A survey conducted by an NGO, Intermediate
Technology Development Group (ITDG), in February and March revealed that
40,000 households in Northern Darfur have missed this year's cropping
seasons due to displacement. Many of those who did cultivate, had their
crops stolen.

A spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, Laura Melo, told IRIN on
Thursday the conflict was having a "detrimental impact" on food production
in the region, which was already debilitated by four consecutive years of
drought. While the conflict had started in February 2003, it had
intensified during the May planting season, she said. Many of those who
had managed to plant were forced to leave their homes before the harvest
or had their fields burned. Others have had their homes and food stocks
burned and looted during attacks, she said.

"A widespread humanitarian disaster looms for the population of Darfur
unless large-scale humanitarian assistance is rapidly made possible,"
commented a humanitarian source working in the region. The cyclical
'hunger gap' period from March until rains began in June was likely to be
severely exacerbated this year, she said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40248 ]


SUDAN: Communities in northern Bahr al-Ghazal urgently need aid

Communities in northern Bahr al-Ghazal, which are expecting over 100,000
displaced people to return to the region this year, have identified water
as their most immediate need, the UN has reported. Food security and
health care are next in order of importance. The displaced are expected to
return to East, South and West Aweil districts following the expected
signing of a peace agreement between the government of Sudan and the rebel
Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement.

The vast numbers expected to return could constitute the largest number
and greatest concentration of returns in the whole of southern Sudan, said
a recent joint report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN
area coordinator in Bahr al-Ghazal.

Currently, about 30 percent of the 1 million people living in the Aweils
have neither the resources nor the capacity to feed themselves adequately.
Since December 2003, 16,000 people have already returned to the Aweils,
according to the UN. Rates of global acute malnutrition were routinely 18
percent and soared to between 20 percent and 30 percent when harvested
food ran out during the spring months, the UN reported. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40194 ]


SOMALIA: Two aid workers killed in Somaliland

Two aid workers working for the German development agency GTZ in the
self-declared republic of Somaliland were killed when their car was
ambushed on the road between the capital, Hargeysa, and the port town of
Berbera, a local journalist in Hargeysa told IRIN on Monday.

The two, a Kenyan and a Somali, were killed on 19 March by unknown gunmen,
who also wounded a German colleague and a policeman travelling with them
as their security escort, said the journalist. Police, he added, said they
had apprehended five men, "who are now in a Hargeysa prison where they are
being interrogated". They were arrested in the village of Dhokhoshey, some
430 km east of Hargeysa, he added.

It was not yet clear what the motive for the killings was, "but police
investigations are in high gear", said the journalist. "There is a
suspicion that this group may have had a hand in the killings of other
expatriates last year, but we will know for sure after the police release
their report," he added. Last year, two British teachers and a well-known
Italian aid worker, Dr Annalena Tonelli, were also killed in Somaliland by
attackers yet to be identified. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40176 ]


SOMALIA-UGANDA: EC gives €14 million in humanitarian aid

The EC has allocated €14 million (about US $17.5 million) in humanitarian
aid to vulnerable people in Uganda and Somalia, a statement issued by the
EC on Monday said. The funds would be managed by the EC's Humanitarian Aid
Office (ECHO) under the responsibility of Commissioner Poul Nielson, it
added.

Uganda was allocated €6 million and Somalia €8 million. The allocation for
Uganda targets about 500,000 people affected by conflict in the north and
east. In Somalia the funds, targeted at another 500,000 people, will
address core emergency humanitarian needs that have persisted as a result
of the ongoing civil conflict.

In Somalia, the priorities will include access to basic health-care
services, clean water, sanitation and education, health, water and
sanitation, and improving food supply. "Access to basic health-care
services, clean water, sanitation and education is extremely limited, with
some 30 percent of the population of Somalia without access to any health
services. The infant mortality rate is estimated at 132 per 1,000 live
births. Malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea account for
more than half of all mortalities in children under five years of age,"
the EC said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40190]

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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