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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 199
19 - 25 June 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Militia attacks continue as gov't urges IDPs to return home - UN
SUDAN: Relief operations in Darfur still short of meeting needs - MSF
SUDAN: Tens of thousands lack clean water in Malakal
SUDAN-UGANDA: Kony hiding under Sudanese army's wing, says Kampala
ETHIOPIA: Gambela prisons service boss sacked in government purge
ETHIOPIA: Potential for investment despite widespread poverty
ERITREA: Government official to meet UN envoy
ERITREA: Critical water shortages reported in several regions
SOMALIA: Arbitration committee for proposed parliament formed


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Interview with Kevin Kennedy, outgoing acting UN Humanitarian
Coordinator for Sudan, at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41823 ]


ETHIOPIA: Focus on the problems of pastoralists in the south at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41845 ]


SUDAN: Militia attacks continue as gov't urges IDPs to return home - UN

Janjawid militias are continuing to kill civilians and burn villages in
the three states of western Sudan's Darfur region, as the government urges
displaced people to return to their homes, according to the United
Nations. Militias had attacked, looted and burned six villages around
Golo, Southern Darfur, on 21 June, reportedly killing six civilians, said
a UN report released on Tuesday. Army and police elements were in the
area, but reportedly were not intervening to prevent the attacks, despite
a recent presidential decree calling on all government forces to control
and disarm the militias, the report added.

Looting and attacks were also reported on the edge of Kalma camp for
internally displaced persons (IDPs), just outside Nyala, and on a village
near Bilel camp, both in Southern Darfur. The village of Hajir Tono, 30 km
southeast of Nyala, had also reportedly been burned to the ground.

In Northern Darfur, "a clearly marked humanitarian convoy" travelling from
Kabkabiya had been fired on by government troops on 15 June, the UN said,
while clashes between the government, the Janjawid and rebels of the Sudan
Liberation Army were continuing, particularly south of Al-Fashir. [Full
report: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41841 ]

Meanwhile, in a report released on Wednesday, Physicians for Human Rights
(PHR), an international watchdog, said there was compelling evidence that
"a genocidal process" was in Darfur. "In the case of Darfur, PHR has
concluded that there is ample indication that an organised campaign on the
part of the government of Sudan is under way, targeting several million
non-Arab Darfurian inhabitants for removal from this region of the
country, either by death (most commonly through immediate violence or slow
starvation) or forced migration," PHR said.

It was not immediately possible to obtain a comment from the Sudanese
government on the report. But on Wednesday, President Umar Hasan el-Bashir
said on Sudanese television that accusations of ethnic cleansing being
published by Western media were "fabrications and lies that had no basis
in truth". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41854 ]


SUDAN: Relief operations in Darfur still short of meeting needs - MSF

Thousands of displaced civilians in Darfur are still short of desperately
needed relief assistance despite ongoing aid operations, the international
medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said on Monday. "Relief
operations throughout the region fall far short of the massive needs, and
as currently designed will not succeed in preventing an entirely man-made
famine from wiping out tens of thousands of lives throughout the region,"
MSF said in a statement.

According to a recent survey in the town of Murnei, Western Darfur State,
where nearly 80,000 people have sought refuge, one out of every 20 people
were killed during attacks on 111 villages from September 2003 until
February 2004. "Adult men were the primary victims, but women and children
were also killed," MSF said.

According to the statement, some 200 people were still dying in the town
monthly from various causes. "Today, one in five children in the camp are
severely malnourished while irregular and insufficient food distributions
do not come close to meeting the basic needs of people weakened by
violence, displacement, and deprivation," it said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41793 ]


SUDAN: Tens of thousands lack clean water in Malakal

Eighty percent of Malakal's 120,000 residents and most of the 35,000 IDPs
in and around the town have no clean drinking water, according to the UN.
The town's water plant, which normally purified Nile water for Malakal's
residents, had not been operational for a month, Nadia el Maaroufi, an
official with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), told IRIN. "People are taking water direct from the Nile, leading
to an unknown number of deaths and cases of diarrhoea," she said. "We do
not know how many people are dying."

According to the Sudanese Ministry of Engineering Affairs and Public
Utilities in Malakal, incorrect water-tank construction (elevation should
be 33 metres instead of 22), coupled with inadequate power supplies and
piping systems, have caused the problems. But nothing had been done to
repair the plant, said el Maaroufi.

About 25,000 IDPs are camped in Malakal, the gateway to southern Sudan in
Upper Nile, and a further 10,000 in camps outside the town, known as
Canal, Obel 1, 2 and 3 and Dulayb Hill. Tens of thousands more are
scattered along the Nile in unknown areas of the Shilluk Kingdom. With no
NGOs or UN presence on the ground, it is impossible to determine how many.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=41866 ]


SUDAN-UGANDA: Kony hiding under Sudanese army's wing, says Kampala

Uganda has written to Khartoum asking for help to locate Joseph Kony, the
commander of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), saying he was hiding
beyond the scope of Sudanese territory within which the Ugandan army is
mandated to operate, diplomats said on Thursday. "The Hon Noble Mayombo
[the chief of military intelligence], yesterday [Wednesday] delivered the
letter to the embassy, and we have since brought it to the attention of
our foreign ministry in Khartoum. The Sudanese defence ministry has also
been alerted. Investigations will be carried out and action taken," the
Sudanese ambassador in Kampala, Siraj al-Din Hamid Yusuf, told IRIN.

The letter was prompted by Uganda's insistence that Kony was hiding near
Sudanese army bases in Nsitu in the south. Uganda said Nsitu was out of
reach for its army, which is deployed under Operation Iron Fist - an
operation agreed by the two neighbours which authorises Ugandan troops to
enter, search and destroy LRA bases within Sudan.

The Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that President
Yoweri Museveni had directed the defence minister to write the letter. "We
have deployed in southern Sudan, but the LRA has fled to areas under the
control of the Sudanese army. We want the Sudanese government to do
something as per the protocol that indicated that when the LRA flee to
areas under their [Sudanese army] control, then they [the latter] take
over from us," Bantariza said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41867 ]


ETHIOPIA: Gambela prisons service boss sacked in government purge

Utow Uweren, the head of the Gambela State prisons service, has been
sacked, government officials told IRIN on Thursday, allegedly for trying
to help prisoners accused of being linked to "anti-peace" groups escape
from jail. This is the latest move in a series of attempts by the
government to contain disturbances in the western state of Gambela, which
borders on Sudan, the officials added. The region was hit by serious
fighting which first broke out in December and has claimed several hundred
lives, with thousands fleeing from their homes.

The federal affairs ministry has launched a shake-up of the state's
affairs that has seen at least 32 police officers and government employees
sacked. Minister of Federal Affairs Abay Tsehaye told parliament last week
that the crisis - in the course of which about US $400,000-worth of
property was destroyed - was now under control. According to local press
reports, he also criticised "independent newspapers and human rights
organisations" for issuing "misleading statements" about the violence.

However, the government also apologised for failing to react swiftly
enough after the violence started to erupt in mid-December following an
attack on a vehicle in which eight government officials were killed. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41852 ]


ETHIOPIA: Potential for investment despite widespread poverty

Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations on earth, but it has the potential
to be a land of opportunity for investors and businesses, analysts say. In
a newly launched Investment Guide to Ethiopia, the UN and the
International Chamber of Commence spell out three reasons why financiers
should look to setting up shop in the country.

It points to a corrupt-free environment, an enormous and largely untapped
domestic market of 70 million people, and what it describes as a
near-perfect climate. Most of the population, however, live in poverty,
while many rely on food aid.

The 84-four-page guide also cites newly established macroeconomic and
policy reforms by the government, which, it adds, has put the country on
the road to success. It said foreign direct investment, while small at US
$75 million in 2002, was creeping up, and the country was on the brink of
membership of the World Trade Organisation. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41843 ]


ERITREA: Government official to meet UN envoy

The Eritrean government has offered to send one of its officials to meet
with UN Special Envoy, Lloyd Axworthy, who is trying to resolve the border
dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the spokeswoman for the UN Mission
in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said. "I can confirm that I have heard
that the Eritrean government has in fact offered to have their own envoy
meet with the special envoy," Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte told journalists
in a weekly video-linked press briefing from Asmara on Thursday.

Axworthy had tried but failed to meet with Eritrean officials ever since
he was appointed in December 2003 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to
try and resolve a deadlock over the implementation of an independent
ruling over the border dispute.

The ruling was made in The Hague in April 2002. Ethiopia rejected parts of
the ruling and called for dialogue to resolve the matter. Eritrea, on the
hand, refused to engage in dialogue until the decision has been
implemented. Since the ruling was announced, nothing has been done to
demarcate the 1,000-km border. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41790 ]


ERITREA: Critical water shortages reported in several regions

A harsh drought has led to critical drinking-water shortages in several
Eritrean regions, including Anseba, Southern Red Sea and Northern Red Sea,
OCHA reported. "The ground water table did not replenish due to the poor
performance of rains in March-May," OCHA said in a humanitarian update on
17 June. "Eritrea is therefore still under the grip of a harsh drought,
resulting in severe critical drinking-water problems both for humans and
animals."

According to the update, a task force set up by aid agencies on water and
sanitation is trying to meet the urgent water and sanitation needs of the
communities most affected by war and drought including IDPs, returnees and
host communities.

It said around 30,000 people were being provided with emergency water by
trucking. "However, in terms of drought-affected communities, an estimated
54,000 people require immediate support through accelerated water projects
and water trucking," OCHA said. It noted that some US $4 million had been
requested by relief agencies for the water sector for this year, but only
$1.8 million had so far been received. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41785 ]


SOMALIA: Arbitration committee for proposed parliament formed

Twelve members of an arbitration committee to resolve any disputes that
might arise during the nomination of the 275 members of Somalia's proposed
Transitional Federal Parliament were on Tuesday sworn into office in the
Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The committee members, who were named at the end
of a meeting of IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought and
Development) regional foreign ministers, were nominated by delegates to
the ongoing Somali National Reconciliation Conference.

Five clans each nominated three members to the committee, but one clan,
the Dir, failed to present its nominees to the IGAD ministerial team
because of a dispute over who was to represent the clan.

The ministers, who are mediating the talks under the auspices of IGAD,
warned that faction leaders who had boycotted the Nairobi peace process
risked being subjected to international sanctions. In a joint communique
issued by the IGAD Ministerial Facilitation Committee, the ministers said
they were concerned about "the unacceptable absence of certain Somali
leaders from the Third and Final Phase of the conference", and urged those
leaders to return to "the conference without further delay." [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41834 ]


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