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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 193
8 - 14 May 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Displaced in Shilluk Kingdom in urgent need of aid, says rebel 
  leader
SUDAN: Government says it is "keen" to resolve Darfur crisis
SUDAN: Tens of thousands of displaced returning to Bahr al-Ghazal
SUDAN: "Some difficulties" encountered at peace talks, say rebels
SUDAN: US $34 million for health in the south
SOMALIA: Fighting in Bulo Hawa displaces hundreds of families
SOMALIA: Over 60 killed in heavy fighting in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: Detained journalists freed in Jowhar
SOMALIA: Faction leaders expected to rejoin peace talks
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE urges greater commitment to peace
ETHIOPIA: World Bank offers $100 million for water and sanitation


SUDAN: Displaced in Shilluk Kingdom in urgent need of aid, says rebel
leader

Tens of thousands of displaced people in the Shilluk Kingdom area of Upper
Nile, southern Sudan, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance,
according to a Sudanese rebel leader. Since early March, over 70,000
people had been displaced from their homes and over 24 Shilluk villages
south and southwest of Malakal destroyed by "six militias affiliated with
the Sudanese government", Dr Lam Akol Ajawin of the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), told reporters in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, on Tuesday.

Neimat Bilal, the press counsellor at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi,
said the "humanitarian crisis" in the area had resulted from a "tribal
conflict". "We join Akol in appealing to the international community to
give support to those people who have been victims of the tribal
conflict," she said. "There are no army troops in the area..those militia
are not supported by the government," she added.

According to Akol, the numbers killed in the attacks remained unclear as
information was incomplete from many areas. "We think there are hundreds,
but we are still compiling names. We want the international community to
be aware in order to help the situation to stabilise the people who are
there [in the Shilluk Kingdom] and attract back those who have gone to
other areas," he added. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40986 ]


SUDAN: Government says it is "keen" to resolve Darfur crisis

The Sudanese government has said it is determined to find a lasting
solution to the conflict in the country's western Darfur region, where
alleged violations of human rights have prompted widespread criticism of
the authorities in Khartoum. A statement issued on Wednesday by the
Sudanese foreign ministry said: "The government has reiterated its
keenness to achieve a lasting solution to the problem of Darfur, as well
as normalisation of the situation and maintaining stability there."

The Sudanese authorities, it added, had "followed the deliberations of the
Security Council regarding the issue of Darfur, and agreed with the
contents of the reports presented by World Food Programme Executive
Director James Morris and acting UN Human Rights Commissioner Bertrand
Ramcharan, which stated that the rebels were the first party which
instigated the crisis of Darfur".

On 7 May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) urged Sudan
to stem human rights abuses in Darfur, where government troops and allied
militias have been accused of perpetrating atrocities against civilians
during military operations against insurgents. The UNHCHR said in a report
that "a disturbing pattern of disregard for basic principles of human
rights and humanitarian law" had occurred in Darfur. The report followed a
visit by a UNHCHR team to Darfur and neighbouring Chad in April. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41012 ]


SUDAN: Tens of thousands of displaced returning to Bahr al-Ghazal

An increasing number of southern Sudanese who were displaced to northern
Sudan by decades of war are returning south in advance of a peace
agreement, rebel officials say. According to the Sudan Relief and
Rehabilitation Commission (SRRC), the humanitarian wing of the rebel
SPLM/A, between January and March 2004 over 108,000 southerners returned
to areas of Bahr al-Ghazal. These comprised 4,700 to Abyei, over 8,000 to
Aweil East, 44,400 to Aweil North, over 28,000 to Aweil West and 23,500 to
Twic County.

"Significant IDP [internally displaced person] returns are already a
reality in northern Bahr al-Ghazal," said an SRRC report made available to
IRIN on Thursday. "People are not waiting for peace signatures."

The numbers of returnees had been increasing steadily since the beginning
of 2004, with 20,000 people returning to Aweil North in March, compared
with 6,000 in January, the SRRC commissioner, Elijah Malok, reported. The
returnees had come from Khartoum, other cities in northern Sudan, rural
areas and camps for displaced people in Darfur. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41049 ]


SUDAN: "Some difficulties" encountered at peace talks, say rebels

Peace negotiations between the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A were
experiencing "some difficulties" on Tuesday, a rebel spokesman told IRIN.
The details of power-sharing in the two of the disputed areas - the Nuba
mountains and southern Blue Nile - as well as at national level, had yet
to be agreed on, said Yasir Arman, an SPLM/A spokesman.

In the disputed areas, the government had offered the SPLM/A forty percent
of parliamentary seats and executive posts, and in the national government
28 percent, he said. Neither of these figures were acceptable: "The
government is offering us 28 percent; we are asking for 38 percent, based
on a population census of southern Sudan, the Nuba mountains and the
southern Blue Nile."

IRIN was unable to obtain a comment from the Sudanese government. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41013 ]


SUDAN: US $34 million for health in the south

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday announced a
new five-year $34 million Health Transformation Programme to improve
health in southern Sudan.

The programme would enhance health by improving maternal and child health
through routine immunisations, polio eradication, growth monitoring, and
diarrhoea and pneumonia care, said a press release. Core activities would
include the rehabilitation of health worker training institutes, training
of county medical officers and community based health workers, the
provision of high quality drugs and other medical interventions, the
expansion of routine immunisation, and access to safe drinking water and
improved sanitation.

"This major investment will apply cross-cutting approaches to the health
sector, including health systems strengthening, human resources
development with a special focus on women and children to break the
vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition and infectious diseases, so mothers
and children are healthier and families are better able to feed, clothe,
and educate their children," said USAID Assistant Administrator for Global
Health Dr Anne Peterson. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41034 ]


SOMALIA: Fighting in Bulo Hawa displaces hundreds of families

Inter-clan fighting in the town of Bulo Hawa, in the north of Gedo Region,
southwestern Somalia, near the border with Kenya, has displaced several
thousand people, according to a humanitarian source. "Between 3,000 and
3,500 people have been displaced by the fighting", Sayyid Mahmud Adan, a
leader of the Somali National Front faction, which controls the area, told
IRIN on Tuesday. Most had crossed over into the Kenyan border town of
Mandera, he said.

About "seven people were killed and a dozen wounded" in the fighting,
which broke out over the weekend, the humanitarian source told IRIN on
Tuesday. Some of the wounded had been taken to Mandera, while others had
been taken to Luq in Gedo Region, added the source.

The fighting pitted an alliance of the Marehan subclans of Hawarsame Rer
Hasan and Habar Ya'qub against the subclans of the Ali Dheere and Rer
Ahmad, local sources told IRIN. The Marehan clan dominates Gedo. "The
fighting is about who should run the town," said one source. The Hawarsame
alliance attacked the other two subclans after a new district commissioner
was appointed by the SNF faction which controls the area, and whose
appointment the alliance opposes," said the source. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40983 ]


SOMALIA: Over 60 killed in heavy fighting in Mogadishu

Heavy fighting which erupted in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on 9 May
had escalated, leaving an indeterminate number of people dead or wounded,
a local journalist told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the fighting was
sparked off by a disagreement between two militias of the same clan who
were loyal to two business people. It involved forces guarding the Global
Hotel in the northern district of Behani, and those loyal to a local
businessman from the Warsangeli clan, who reportedly attacked the hotel,
which belongs to a businesswoman from the Wabudan clan.

"It quickly turned into an inter-clan war," the journalist said. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41001 ]

By Thursday, when the fighting entered its fourth day, at least 60 people
had died, with hundreds wounded, and thousands displaced, according to
local sources. The fighting died down on Wednesday afternoon, but "resumed
with a vengeance at 07:30 local time [04:30 GMT] today", a local
journalist told IRIN on Thursday. "It is now concentrated in the Lido
beach area [north Mogadishu]". "There is a fierce battle raging, with both
sides using heavy weapons." he added. "It is the most intense since Sunday
[when the fighting started]"

When the fighting subsided on Wednesday, the number of wounded in the
various hospitals stood at "over 200", said a local doctor involved in
compiling the data. Most of the wounded were taken to the privately owned
Al-Hayat, Arafaat, Medina and Keysaney hospitals, he said. "Most of those
in the hospitals are civilians, mostly women and children," he told IRIN,
noting that "more people are probably affected" who never made it to a
hospital.

Meanwhile, a Mogadishu-based human rights group has condemned the
violence. "We have called on both sides to stop these indiscriminate
attacks on unarmed civilians," Marian Awreye, Director, of the Isma'il
Human Rights Centre told IRIN. "Those suffering the most are
noncombatants." The fighting groups were also perpetrating serious human
rights violations against the civilian population, Marian said, stressing
that "as usual, no group cares for the protection of the civilian
population". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41027 ]


SOMALIA: Detained journalists freed in Jowhar

Two journalists working for a local radio station in Jowhar, 90 km north
of Mogadishu, who were arrested by armed men last week, have been
released, one of the journalists told IRIN on Monday.

Abshir Ali and Abdighani Shaykh Muhammad said they were arrested on the
orders of local leaders who were unhappy with a report that was aired
about the Somali peace process. "We were picked up from our premises on
Thursday morning by security people," Abshir said, adding that the local
leaders had "taken exception to a report we carried on Wednesday about the
IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] meeting on Somalia [in
Nairobi]. We reported that IGAD had asked faction leaders to return to the
[peace] talks."

After their arrest, the radio had gone off the air "in protest and
remained off the air" until the two were released, Abshir said. The
journalists spent "48 hours in jail", Abshir added. "We were told we would
be charged, but then released without charge on Saturday morning. This was
pure intimidation of the independent press," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40969 ]


SOMALIA: Faction leaders expected to rejoin peace talks

A group of Somali faction leaders who abandoned the current peace talks in
Kenya and have been threatening to hold a separate conference inside
Somalia have now said they will rejoin the talks in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, as requested by regional mediators.

One faction leader, Mahmud Sayyid Adan, a member of the group and its
spokesman, told IRIN on Tuesday that his group had "suspended preparations
for convening its own conference" and was ready to rejoin the Nairobi
talks. "Now that IGAD [the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on
Development] has met some of our demands, we are 90 percent sure that we
will be there," he added.

Sayid said his group had been encouraged by the 6-7 May IGAD ministerial
meeting, "which showed unity within IGAD about the conference. We are very
encouraged by this unity and the desire of IGAD to deal with the
conference as a unified group." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40981 ]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UNMEE urges greater commitment to peace

The head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has challenged
both countries to strengthen their commitment to the mission, saying
support for the UN force had "deteriorated". Maj-Gen Robert Gordon was
addressing senior military commanders from the two countries during the
24th meeting of the Military Coordination Commission (MCC) in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi, on Monday. His remarks followed recent criticism of
UNMEE by Eritrea, which claimed that the force was failing in its duty and
even destabilising the region.

The UN strongly rejected the criticism, saying Eritrea was hampering its
operations. "Since its inception, the Mission has worked hard to achieve
progress and find solutions to the peace process," Gordon told the
military officials. Eritrea's claims, he added, had shocked both the UN in
New York and UNMEE. Ultimately, the UNMEE saw "these unjust allegations as
an erosion of the parties' consent for UNMEE to operate".

A statement issued by UNMEE after the day-long MCC meeting said both
Eritrea and Ethiopia had backed the continuing presence of the
peacekeepers. Brig-Gen Yohanes Gebremeskel led Ethiopia's military
delegation while Eritrea's was led by Brig-Gen Abrahaley Kifle. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=40997 ]


ETHIOPIA: World Bank offers $100 million for water and sanitation

The World Bank has approved US $100 million to expand safe drinking water
and sanitation facilities to benefit three million people in Ethiopia over
five years, the bank reported on Wednesday. The $75 million credit and $25
million grant would assist towns and rural communities to plan, construct
and maintain improved water supply facilities, the bank said. It will also
be used to build the capacity of local governments, regions and the
private sector to manage decentralised water and sanitation systems.

"Approximately 5,500 water supply schemes will benefit nearly three
million people in some 3,500 communities and 50 towns," Yitbarek Tessema,
the World Bank's team leader for the project, was quoted as saying in a
statement.

The World Bank support will fund the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
component of the project, the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation, town
water boards and water operators, and a programme support component. It
will also expand pastoralist water supply, promote hygiene and sanitation,
and boost the development of hand-dug wells, spring catchments, and
boreholes to serve domestic needs. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41030 ]


[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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