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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 191
24 - 30 April 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Annan urges parties to Darfur conflict to persevere with peace 
  talks
SUDAN: UN mission in Darfur
SUDAN: Vice-president returns to peace talks
SUDAN: Thousands of Sudanese refugees displaced in northwestern Uganda
ETHIOPIA: World Bank announces US $3.3 billion debt relief under HIPC
ETHIOPIA: US grants $18 million for HIV/AIDS
ETHIOPIA: UN expresses concern over mine incident
ETHIOPIA: Hundreds of students cross into Kenya
ERITREA: Fears of drought as rains fail
SOMALIA: Faction leaders plan separate conference in Jowhar
SOMALIA: Two journalists detained in the north


SUDAN: Annan urges parties to Darfur conflict to persevere with peace
talks
 
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has welcomed an agreement on a framework
for talks to resolve the problems in the western Sudanese region of
Darfur, but urged the parties to continue negotiating "in good faith". In
a statement issued by his spokesman on 21 April, Annan called on the
parties to the Darfur conflict to observe their ceasefire agreement "and
do everything possible to prevent attacks on civilians".

The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement on 8 April to allow
humanitarian assistance to reach the victims of the conflict. The UN
estimates that 1.2 million people are affected by the conflict.

The secretary-general stressed the need for "unimpeded access for the
delivery of humanitarian assistance" to the affected populations. He
commended the African Union for sending a ceasefire observer mission to
Darfur, and encouraged "its speedy deployment". He assured the AU and the
government of Chad, which is hosting the talks, and thousands of refugees,
of the UN's "support and cooperation in restoring peace in Darfur". [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40782 ]

A team from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
had arrived in the Chadian border town of Bahai to verify reports of new
refugees from Darfur arriving since the beginning of the month, the UNHCR
said in statement on Tuesday. It quoted Ron Redmond, a UNHCR spokesman in
Geneva, as saying "local authorities estimate that each week some 200 to
300 people have been crossing the border from Darfur into Chad since the
beginning of the month". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40801 ]


SUDAN: UN mission in Darfur

A high-level United Nations mission arrived in the Sudanese capital,
Khartoum, on Wednesday to gather information on the humanitarian
conditions in Darfur. The team, led by UN World Food Programme Executive
Director James Morris, also includes the UN secretary-general's special
envoy for humanitarian affairs in Sudan, Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, and
other senior officials from UN headquarters and agencies.

On Wednesday, the team held a meeting with President Umar Hasan al-Bashir
"in a cordial atmosphere", after which it left for Darfur, according to a
press statement issued on Wednesday by the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40825 ]

On Thursday, UN News reported that the team had split into two groups. The
first, led by Morris, first had gone to Bandago, a village whose sole
inhabitants were found to be just three elderly men, out of an original
population of 250 families. The group then went to Korma, about 80 km
northwest of Al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur. Here, the
marketplace had been completely destroyed, and people said they had been
attacked by militia, who killed 49 residents on 16 March.

Next, at Abu Shawk camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the group
briefly spoke with residents. It "stressed to local officials that IDPs'
areas of origin needed to be safe before they could go home", UN News
said.

The second group, led by Vraalsen, went to Southern Darfur State, where
they met the state governor on Wednesday. On Thursday, they proceeded to
the town of Kas, about 60 km northwest of the state capital, Nyala. Here,
they found that "IDPs were being housed in public buildings and other
'highly unsuitable accommodations'". The town's hospital was in a "bad
condition". On their way from Kas to Nyala, the group had stopped at a
burnt-down village before meeting officials and the local peace committee,
UN News added. [Full stry at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40842 ]


SUDAN: Vice-president returns to peace talks
 
The leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A),
John Garang, was expected to return to the venue of peace talks with the
government "within the next 24 hours", a source close to the talks in the
Kenyan town of Naivasha told IRIN on Monday.

Garang's expected return follows that of Sudanese First Vice-President Ali
Uthman Muhammad Taha on 25 April. Taha "came back after concluding
consultations in Khartoum for the next phase of the talks", Neimad Bilal,
the press attaché at the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi,
told IRIN.

Taha, the head of the government delegation to the talks, had left
Naivasha for Khartoum on 17 April for consultations with his government
over the talks, a Sudanese government official told IRIN at the time. His
departure was followed by that of Garang on 23 April. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40751 ]


SUDAN: Thousands of Sudanese refugees displaced in northwestern Uganda

UUN agencies have begun an assessment mission in northwestern Uganda
following the mass displacement of Sudanese refugees by Ugandan rebels,
according to the UNHCR spokesman, Dennis Duncan. He told IRIN that an
assessment team comprising UNHCR, World Food Programe and the UN
Development Programme officials had been sent to the affected districts of
Moyo and Adjumani "to figure out where it is safe and where it is not".

"There are tens of thousands that have been displaced over the last three
months," Duncan said. "The concern is self-reliance strategies breaking
down as a result. There is no huge emergency, but it's planting season
soon. We are concerned that if they do not plant now, there could be food
shortages further down the road."

In recent months, small gangs of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, in
search of food and medicine, have been attacking Sudanese refugee
settlements in the area. The attacks have partly resulted from increased
pressure on the LRA inside Sudan from the Ugandan army under an agreement
authorising the army to pursue the rebels inside Sudan. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40748 ]


ETHIOPIA: World Bank announces US $3.3 billion debt relief under HIPC

Ethiopia has become the 13th country to obtain debt relief under the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of the World Bank and
IMF, the World Bank reported on Thursday. It said in a statement that
Ethiopia, which had made sufficient progress and taken the necessary steps
to reach its completion point under the HIPC initiative, had qualified for
total debt relief of approximately US $3.3 billion from its various
creditors.

"The track record of the Ethiopian authorities in policy and reform
implementation has been strong, and the authorities have borrowed
prudently despite being adversely affected by a severe drought and lower
coffee prices," the statement said.

It added that resources made available by debt relief under the HIPC
initiative were being allocated to programmes that would tackle poverty
and benefit poor people in Ethiopia.According to the World Bank, Ethiopia
has a per capita GDP of about $100, making it one of the poorest countries
in the world. Recent national household surveys found 44 percent of
Ethiopians living below the basic-needs poverty line. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40728 ]


ETHIOPIA: US grants $18 million for HIV/AIDS
 
The United States has granted Ethiopia US $18 million towards combating
the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the US embassy in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, announced on Monday. The funding is part of the global $15 billion
anti-AIDS initiative announced by US President George W. Bush for 75
countries. "This plan is a comprehensive and sharply focused initiative
intended to bring relief to the world’s most afflicted countries in Africa
and the Caribbean," the embassy said.

Ethiopia is one of 15 "focus countries" being prioritised because of the
scale of the tragedy affecting them. The scheme, announced last year, aims
to prevent seven million new infections, treat two million people living
with AIDS, and care for 10 million people living with the virus and AIDS
orphans in the focus countries.

The grant was announced as the US inaugurated a voluntary HIV testing and
tuberculosis centre at one of Addis Ababa’s main hospitals, the Zewditu
Memorial Hospital. The funding announcement and inauguration of the centre
coincided with an official two-day visit to Ethiopia by Ambassador Randall
L. Tobias, the coordinator of the US government's global initiative to
combat HIV/AIDS. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40776 ]


ETHIOPIA: UN expresses concern over mine incident

The UN has expressed concern following the explosion of a newly-laid
landmine just outside the border area between Ethiopia and Eritrea,
injuring a man who was driving a truck. It said the UN hoped this would
not mark the start of a new wave of such incidents. Phil Lewis, the head
of the UN’s Mine Action Coordination Centre, said the blast was the first
from a newly-laid mine in almost a year. "We are hoping that it is not the
start of a new campaign," he told journalists in a video-linked press
briefing between Asmara and Addis Ababa.

"We are watching the situation closely, but at this point we have no idea
who laid the mine or for what reason," the landmine expert said on
Thursday. The blast occurred on 17 April, just outside the demilitarised
Temporary Security Zone separating Ethiopia and Eritrea.

At least 27 people have been killed in 30 incidents in Ethiopia over the
past three years, especially in its western border region. "This is the
first one since July 2003, so obviously we are very concerned," Lewis
said. "As with all other investigations of the other incidents in the last
three years, we do not have any idea who may have planted this mine or in
fact the reasons for planting the mine," he added from the Eritrean
capital, Asmara. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40752 ]


ETHIOPIA: Hundreds of students cross into Kenya

Hundreds of Ethiopian students have crossed into Kenya to escape what they
claim is government harassment, according to the UNHCR. It said in a
statement released from its headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday that the
students had arrived over the last few days in the border town of Moyale.
"A UNHCR team that flew into Moyale last week interviewed a cross section
of the students. Some claimed that they had been singled out by government
security agents and fled after the army reportedly intervened to halt a
demonstration at their school," UNHCR added.

However, the Ethiopian information minister, Bereket Simon, told IRIN on
Thursday that some the students were already returning home. "This is not
a big problem. Most of them who have crossed the border are discussing the
situation among themselves and the leaders of the community," he said.

The students are mainly Oromos, who constitute the largest ethnic group in
Ethiopia - about 30 million of the 70 million population. Most are
teenagers, but the youngest is eight years old and the oldest 24, UNHCR
said. The group includes about 20 girls. "Ethiopian ethnic Oromos
frequently seek asylum in neighbouring countries and abroad," the
statement noted. [Full sotry at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40840 ]


ERITREA: Fears of drought as rains fail

Rains that normally fall along Eritrea's eastern and coastal areas from
November to February have largely failed for the fourth consecutive year,
raising fears of another drought, the UN reports. OCHA said in a
March-April donor information update issued on 24 April that the rains,
known as the Bahri rains, would normally fall along the eastern
escarpments and the Northern Red Sea region.

"Concern has been rising about the possibility of a fifth year of drought,
due to below-normal rainfall in much of the regions this season," OCHA
said. Rainfall over the central region of Azmera was also expected to be
low, while the rest of Eritrea would be dry, except the Debub and Maekal
regions in the west central and central parts of the country respectively.

OCHA said it was also concerned over the general humanitarian needs of
Eritreans. "Coping mechanisms are wearing out as poverty deepens. Although
generous support helped to avert a major humanitarian disaster last year,
1.9 million Eritreans (more than half the country's population) will have
to rely on humanitarian assistance again this year, for which donor
support is required," it said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40746 ]


SOMALIA: Faction leaders plan separate conference in Jowhar

A group of faction leaders who abandoned the current Somali peace talks in
Kenya have said they will hold a separate conference inside Somalia to
discuss peace instead of returning to Nairobi as requested by regional
mediators.

However, a source in the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
(IGAD) who is involved in the talks dismissed the planned conference in
Somalia. "There is no other conference inside or outside Somalia," he
said. The final phase of the peace talks would open "on 6 May as announced
by the [Kenyan foreign] minister", he stressed.

The faction leaders have been meeting in Jowhar, 90 km north of the
capital, Mogadishu, Abdullahi Shaykh Isma'il, who is the current chairman
of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, told IRIN on
Wednesday. He said they had decided to hold the "third and final phase" of
the peace talks inside Somalia, because the talks in Nairobi had "no
Somali ownership". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40821 ]

On Friday, however, the IGAD source told IRIN that preparations for the
final phase of the talks were proceeding smoothly. He said the orhanisers
were pleased with "the way things were moving", adding that "we have
already started bringing in traditional elders from Somalia". "We are
putting all the pieces together, so we don't have any hitches," he said.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40843 ]


SOMALIA: Two journalists detained in the north

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported that two
journalists have been detained in separate incidents in northern Somalia,
saying it was "deeply concerned" about the detentions. Neither journalist,
it added, had been "formally charged".

In a statement released on Monday, CPJ said those arrested were Abdishakur
Yusuf Ali, the editor-in-chief of the independent War-Ogaal newspaper in
the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, and
Abdirrahman Haji Dahir, a reporter for the independent daily Haatuf in the
self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia.

Abdishakur was arrested in Bosaso, the commercial capital of Puntland, on
21 April, for publishing an article accusing a cabinet minister of selling
food donated by the international community, the CPJ said, quoting local
journalists. Meanwhile, Abdirrahman was arrested on Monday in the
Somaliland port city of Berbera in connection with an article mentioning
differences between Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin and his
vice-president, Ahmad Yusuf Yasin, the statement said, again citing local
journalists.


IRIN-CEA
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