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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 196
29 May - 4 June 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Access to Darfur for aid workers improves
SUDAN: Donor meeting on Darfur appeals for US $236 million
SUDAN: Final phase of peace talks to open on Saturday
ETHIOPIA: Food aid distribution in drought-hit areas still inadequate
SOMALIA: Nearly 60 killed, thousands displaced in Bulo Hawa clashes
SOMALIA: Calm reported in Mogadishu after weeks of violence
SOMALIA: UN warns of worsening drought conditions in the north
DJIBOUTI: Media to take more active role in fighting HIV/AIDS


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Armed and angry - Sudan's southern militias still a threat to peace
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41414

SUDAN: Access to Darfur for aid workers improves

Just over a week after the government of Sudan said it would allow aid
workers into the western region of Darfur within 48 hours, humanitarian
access was "fairly smooth", according to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital, Khartoum.

OCHA had managed to deploy seven field staff members since 20 May, several
of whom had been waiting for up to two months for a travel permit, said
Ramesh Rajasingham, the head of OCHA Sudan. In one or two cases, visas
were still being delayed, but these were being followed up, he said,
noting that in Southern Darfur it appeared that the message had not
filtered down to local authorities by last Saturday.

At the same time, however, some relief assistance, equipment and vehicles
essential to the delivery of aid were still being delayed, said
Rajasingham. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41359 ]


SUDAN: Donor meeting on Darfur appeals for US $236 million
 
A high-level donor meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday appealed
for at least US $236 million to help an estimated 2.2 million victims of
war and "forced ethnic displacement" in Darfur, the UN reported. In total,
about $126 million has been pledged for 2004, leaving a deficit of $110
million. Representatives of 36 states and institutions, including donor
governments, Sudan, the Arab League, the African Union (AU) and NGOs, were
present at the conference.

Addressing journalists midway through the meeting, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said this was
the most important conference in recent history as the world's biggest
humanitarian crisis was unfolding in Darfur. Even with humanitarian aid,
many lives would be lost, he said. "We are late in responding and the
Janjawid [militia] attacks [are] so harsh that even under the best of
circumstances [in terms of donor response] it will still be a humanitarian
crisis."

A joint statement issued by the UN, US and EU added that hundreds of
thousands of lives were at risk in Darfur "unless immediate protection and
relief are provided". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41413 ]


SUDAN: Final phase of peace talks to open on Saturday

The final phase of the Sudanese peace process is expected to be launched
in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Saturday by President Mwai Kibaki,
according to a press statement issued by the Kenyan foreign ministry. It
follows the signing on 26 May by the Sudanese government and the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) of three key protocols on
power-sharing and the contested areas of Abyei, the Nuba mountains and
southern Blue Nile, paving the way for a comprehensive peace agreement.

Six protocols have been signed to date, which, together with two annexes,
will make up a comprehensive peace agreement. Technical committees are
expected to start work on the annexes governing the implementation of the
protocols, plus comprehensive ceasefire arrangements and guarantees, and
to finish their work within two months.

To build on the momentum so far achieved and to lay a firm foundation "for
this meaningful engagement", Sudanese Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad
Taha, the leader of the government delegation, and SPLM/A Chairman John
Garang "have decided to reconvene in Naivasha on 3 and 4 June 2004 for the
purpose of preparing the formal launch of the final phase in Nairobi", it
added. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41396 ]


ETHIOPIA: Food aid distribution in drought-hit areas still inadequate

The distribution of food and other relief items in drought-affected areas
of Ethiopia has remained inadequate, and donors need to expedite food
deliveries to avert shortages before the end this month, a famine-alert
agency said on Thursday.

"Food aid carry-over and new pledges meet only 64 percent of Ethiopia's
May-December 2004 assessed needs [and] donors need to expedite deliveries
to avoid a shortage of physical supplies before the end of June," the
USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS Net) said in a
report. It said only 174,286 mt of food, or 57 percent of the total
required, had been delivered to those in need between January and April
2004, and that pockets of acute malnutrition remained throughout the
country.

The revised Humanitarian Appeal for Ethiopia, adjusted in February,
concluded that 7.1 million people would require 872,301 mt of emergency
food assistance during 2004. In addition, non-food requirements in
agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, water and sanitation for the
year were estimated at US $85 million. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41422 ]


SOMALIA: Nearly 60 killed, thousands displaced in Bulo Hawa clashes
 
Nearly 60 people have been killed in clashes between rival clans in the
southwestern town of Bulo Hawa, humanitarian sources said. About 2,500
families had been displaced in and around the town while another 2,000
people had fled to Mandera in neighbouring Kenya, they added. Relief
workers in Bulo Hawa, Gedo Region, told IRIN by telephone that the latest
round of fighting, which took place on Tuesday, was "a continuation of
tension between rival clans that had built [up] since May" over control of
the local administration.

One of the sources said local NGOs were planning to conduct an assessment
of the situation together with local authorities, but could not
immediately ascertain the number of those injured. "The death toll as of
yesterday was 59, while 52 people have been admitted in hospitals and 24
are in a private compound," the source told IRIN on Thursday. The latest
fighting pitted an alliance of the Marehan subclans of Hawarsame, Rer
Hasan and Habar Ya'qub, which dominate Gedo, against the subclans of the
Ali Dheere and Rer Ahmad, the sources told IRIN.

OCHA-Somalia, which called meetings of various humanitarian agencies and
NGOs to discuss how to send help to the displaced and injured, said
tension had remained high in the region, although the latest clashes had
died down. "It is a very complicated situation. It is still very tense and
we would not be surprised if clashes broke out again anytime," Calum
McLean, the head of the OCHA office in Somalia, told IRIN on Thursday.
"Nothing has been resolved so far." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41397 ]


SOMALIA: Calm reported in Mogadishu after weeks of violence
 
Clashes between two rival groups in the Somali capital, Mogadishu,
subsided over the weekend after local elders brokered a truce, but the
city remained tense, and the displaced reluctant to return to their homes,
residents said. "It [a ceasefire agreed on Sunday] is holding and looks to
be more serious than previous attempts to halt the fighting," a local
journalist told IRIN by telephone from Mogadishu on Monday. "But the city
is still very tense."

Relief workers told IRIN that since the start of the clashes on 9 May,
more than 100 people were estimated to have been killed, while hundreds
were believed to be wounded and thousands displaced from their homes.

Bethuel Kiplagat, the Kenyan special envoy to the Somali peace process and
chairman of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
committee spearheading efforts to bring together the various fighting
groups in Somalia, expressed "deep concern" over the violence and called
for an immediate end to the fighting. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41357 ]


SOMALIA: UN warns of worsening drought conditions in the north

The drought situation in northern Somalia is getting worse and could
develop into a full-blown disaster in the next couple of months, the UN
warned. "Although there are about two weeks left of the rainy season, all
the signs indicate that the communities of large parts of northern Somalia
are experiencing yet another season of inadequate rainfall," the UN
humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, said in a statement
released by his office on 28 May.

Four years of below-normal rainfall had decimated the herds of
pastoralists living in the regions of Sool, Sanaag, Togdheer, Nugaal,
Mudug and Bari in Somaliland and Puntland, northern Somalia, and some
areas of Galgaduud in the central region of Somalia, the statement added.

Aid agencies, it added, had estimated that only 20 percent of northern
Somalia had received enough rain to allow pasture to grow. But even that
would run out within 10 to 15 days because of the high concentrations of
livestock that desperate pastoralists had moved into those areas in an
attempt to save their remaining animals. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41345 ]


DJIBOUTI: Media to take more active role in fighting HIV/AIDS
 
The Djiboutian communication and culture ministry has said it plans to
involve journalists more actively in fighting HIV/AIDS despite a
relatively low prevalence of the virus in the country. Speaking at a
seminar for journalists in the capital, Djibouti, Minister for
Communication and Culture Rifki Abdoulkader Bamakhrama said the seminar
was the first step in his ministry's national programme to combat
HIV/AIDS.

"You have challenged yourselves to evaluate the impact of your
contributions to this battle," he said. "It is a sign of humility and
proof of the greatest awareness of the importance of your role as
journalists, and it is proof of your sense of responsibility in this
collective enterprise and towards your fellow citizens."

According to national health authorities, 2.9 percent of Djibouti's
600,000 population is HIV-positive - a figure, they said, which was low by
African standards, but represented a generalised epidemic. The country,
however, has a high prevalence of tuberculosis. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41373 ]


IRIN-CEA
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Email: IRIN@ocha.unon.org

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