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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 201
20 - 26 November 2004


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Prime minister seeks to end row with Eritrea
ERITREA: Relief agencies appeal for $157 m for 2005
ETHIOPIA: Hollywood actor Danny Glover calls for ban on landmines
ETHIOPIA: Emergency vaccination starts following polio outbreak
ETHIOPIA: National hand-washing campaign launched to reduce child
   mortality
SOMALIA: IDPs living rough, says NRC
SOMALIA: Reconciliation, security new premier priorities
SOMALIA: Security Council re-affirms full support for peace process
SUDAN: Escalating violence in Darfur condemned
SUDAN: Aid workers take flight from Darfur town as fighting erupts


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Big challenges in the south at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44326


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Prime minister seeks to end row with Eritrea

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced on Thursday a five-point
plan to try and end the stalemate with Eritrea, saying his country would
accept "in principle", the April 2002 ruling of the independent boundary
commission that was intended to end hostilities between the two
neighbours. Reiterating his call for dialogue with Eritrea, Meles told the
Ethiopian parliament that his country would end its two-and-a-half year
opposition to the commission's contested border ruling. He added that the
current standoff with Eritrea could "derail" development in Ethiopia.

Meles, however, insisted that the ruling on their 1,000-km frontier with
Eritrea, which sparked a bloody two-year war, was still "illegal and
unjust". Any attempt to implement the Hague-based decision, he added,
"might lead to a serious escalation of the tension between the two
countries and thereby undermine the peace".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44334 ]


ERITREA: Relief agencies appeal for $157 m for 2005

Relief agencies on Tuesday jointly appealed for nearly US $157.2 million
to fund humanitarian activities in Eritrea in 2005, saying the country had
continued to endure the aftermath of war, five years after the 1998 to
2000 border conflict with Ethiopia. The consequences of war included
destroyed homes, mined villages, shattered livelihoods, hunger and
malnutrition, the agencies said in their Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal
(CAP) launched in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

"With the travails of post-conflict resettlement, the period following the
war has heralded a period of fragile peace, great hardship and competing
urgent needs," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) said in the appeal document.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44307 ]


ETHIOPIA: Hollywood actor Danny Glover calls for ban on landmines

American actor Danny Glover on Wednesday criticised the deadly legacy of
landmines, which were responsible for more than 8,000 casualties last year
and called for a complete ban of their use and production. The star of the
Lethal Weapon films, among others, spoke out as he began a five-day visit
to Ethiopia where he aims to highlight the horrific impact of
anti-personnel mines (APMs).

"We must rid the world of landmines," Glover said in a statement released
by the UN. "They kill innocent people and children, and no weapon should
outlast war itself," he added while on his first trip as a goodwill
ambassador for the UN's Children's Fund (UNICEF). Over 80 percent of the
estimated 20,000 landmine victims each year are civilians and at least one
in five are children, according to UNICEF. Glover is expected to visit
areas heavily mined during the war with neighbouring Eritrea and will meet
with politicians and mine survivors.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44317 ]


ETHIOPIA: Emergency vaccination starts following polio outbreak

Ethiopia has launched an emergency polio vaccination campaign amid new
fears the disease could spread from neighbouring Sudan, the health
ministry said on Monday. The government began targeting children last
Thursday in six regions neighbouring Sudan after 19 cases emerged just 75
km from their common border. Ethiopia has been polio free for the last
four years and hopes to be certified free of the virus in accordance with
World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

Dr Tesfanesh Belay, head of the Family Health Care department at the
ministry told IRIN the disease could easily travel across the border and
jeopardise their health campaign. She said the new cases in Sudan were
unexpected, as the country had remained polio free for the last three
years. "If the threat is not reversed, the gains achieved will dissipate
into thin air," she said. "There is free movement along these border
areas, so it is very easy for the disease to travel."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44260 ]


ETHIOPIA: National hand-washing campaign launched to reduce child
mortality

Thousands of children's lives could be saved each year simply by washing
their hands, the government, the UN and other aid organisations said on
Saturday. The organisations are aiming to bring about a massive
behavioural change to cut sickness and death in the country by raising
awareness about hygiene and water sanitation. According to the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ethiopia has the worst sanitation
facilities in the world and tens of thousands of poor people succumb to
water-related deaths.

The country, which has a population of roughly 70 million people, also has
the second lowest number of people with access to clean water in the
world. A mere six percent have access to basic sanitation facilities,
fuelling diarrhoeal and other water borne diseases. Less than a quarter
have access to clean water. An estimated 1.8 million people die worldwide
from diarrhoea, according to Water Aid Ethiopia. Up to 70 percent of
transmissible diseases are due to dirty water or lack of sanitation.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44253 ]


SOMALIA: IDPs living rough, says NRC

An estimated 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia
continue to live in extremely difficult conditions as the newly installed
government tries to relocate to the country and restore order, a report by
the Global IDP Project of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said. In a
press statement issued on Wednesday, the NRC said more than half - some
250,000 - lived in the capital, Mogadishu, "the most dangerous place in
the country". Mogadishu is where IDPs were at constant risk of being
caught in the crossfire of clan fighting, "as well as being exposed to
extortion of money and food aid" by gunmen who control IDP sites".

"Somalia's IDPs are the most vulnerable people in a country whose whole
population has greatly suffered from years of war and anarchy", Raymond
Johansen, the NRC secretary-general is quoted as saying. He said in an
atmosphere where securing oneself was accomplished through "clan"
association - as a necessary means of continued existence, being uprooted
from a community could result in serious risks, possibly even violent
attacks and "human rights violations".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44335 ]


SOMALIA: Reconciliation, security new premier priorities

The main priority of the newly appointed prime minister of the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia, Ali Muhammad Gedi, will
be reconciliation and security, his director of communication, told IRIN
on Tuesday. Hussein Jabiri said that the prime minster's "first priority
will be national reconciliation". He said: "He [the prime minister] has
been busy meeting various groups to deepen the reconciliation. Everything
else depends on that."

Jabiri said that another pressing issue for the new government will be
security. "Security is another priority where the prime minister is
devoting time and energy as he puts his government together." According to
Jabiri, the prime minister is determined to return to Somalia,
particularly the capital, Mogadishu. "He [PM] has already announced that
as soon as a cabinet is formed a committee consisting of ministers,
members of parliament and elders will be dispatched to Mogadishu," he
said. "The committee's task will be "to pave the way the return and the
relocation of the government to Somalia."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44284 ]


SOMALIA: Security Council re-affirms full support for peace process

The UN Security Council on Friday re-affirmed its full support for the
peace process in Somalia and the UN's commitment to help regional and
sub-regional organisations working to restore stability in the
Horn-of-Africa country, which has lacked an effective government for more
than a decade. "The Council welcomes the progress made in the Somalia
national reconciliation process - in particular the establishment of the
Transitional Federal Parliament, the election of the speaker of the
parliament, the president and the appointment of the prime minister, which
provides a sound and solid framework to achieve a comprehensive and
lasting solution to the situation," the Council said in a statement
adopted on the last day of a two-day meeting in Nairobi.

"The Council reiterates its expectation of the establishment of a
broad-based, all-inclusive and effective government inside Somalia that
will continue the reconciliation efforts with all Somali parties," it
added. The Council further emphasized its "respect for the sovereignty,
territorial integrity, political independence and unity of Somalia,
consistent with the purposes and principles of the charter of the UN".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44249 ]


SUDAN: Escalating violence in Darfur condemned

The UN condemned on Tuesday escalating violence in the Darfur region of
western Sudan, saying it threatened ongoing relief activities, violated
recently signed ceasefire accords between the government and rebels, and
placed tens of thousands of civilians at risk. "The parties have committed
themselves to refrain from all hostilities and military actions," the UN
envoy for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said in a statement. "I fully expect them to
live up to their obligations."

The parties, Pronk added, "should understand that the recent aggression
goes directly against the spirit and letter of the Abuja Protocols and
cannot be justified on the basis of self defence or grievances that
predate the 9 November agreement to cease hostile actions". The Protocols
on the Improvement of the Humanitarian Situation and on the Enhancement of
the Security Situation in Darfur were signed in the Nigerian capital,
Abuja, by the government and two rebel groups in Darfur - the Sudan
Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44306 ]


SUDAN: Aid workers take flight from Darfur town as fighting erupts

The humanitarian agency Save the Children said on Monday that its staff
had been forced to flee the town of Tawilla in the troubled Darfur region
of western Sudan when fighting broke out between government forces and
rebels, despite an existing ceasefire agreement. "Both sides have
demonstrated utter disregard for the ceasefire," Toby Porter, director of
emergencies at Save the Children said in statement issued by the agency.

"Yet again, innocent civilians, particularly women and children, are
suffering at the hands of the rebels and their own government, and still
the international community fails to protect them." Tawillah in North
Darfur state is home to more than 30,000 internally displaced persons
(IDPs) who have sought refuge there because of fear of being attacked by
militias, locally known as the Janjawid and who are said to be backed by
the government. The statement said that an aerial attack by the
government, including one bomb which landed 50 mt from a Save the Children
UK feeding centre, forced more than 30 of its staff to flee into the
desert.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44281]


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