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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 223
11 - 17 December 2004


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN appeals for peaceful resolution of border dispute
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Asmara tells Addis to comply with border ruling
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: German president makes a plea for peace
DJIBOUTI: Grappling with the demand for anti-AIDS drugs
ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI: Power link to boost electricity supply
ETHIOPIA: Plan launched to help orphans
SOMALIA: President reappoints interim prime minister
SOMALIA: IDPs, returnees desperate for assistance in Somaliland - UN
SUDAN: Clashes force suspension of South Darfur relief operations
SUDAN: Southern agreement key to Darfur peace - UN
SUDAN: Darfur rebels withdraw from peace talks citing government attacks
SUDAN: UN condemns killing of relief workers in Darfur


ALSO SEE:
SOMALIA: Q/A with WFP's regional director for East/Central Africa at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44648



ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN appeals for peaceful resolution of border dispute

The UN has called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to stop an ongoing war of words
over their border dispute that sparked fighting four years ago, and
instead concentrate on the search for peace. "I have personally pleaded
with the two sides to lower the temperature, to make sure that we
concentrate on the search for a peaceful end to this conflict," Legwaila
Joseph Legwaila, head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE),
told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned Eritrea earlier this week
that attempts to turn tough words into military action would "endanger the
peace of the region". His comments followed demands by Eritrea that
Ethiopia withdraws from territory along the 1,000-km border, which it says
Addis Ababa had illegally occupied.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44696]


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Asmara tells Addis to comply with border ruling

Eritrea has called on Ethiopia to abide by the ruling of an independent
commission that delineated their disputed border in 2002 and urged the
international community to help secure peace and stability in the Horn of
Africa. An Eritrean foreign ministry statement sent to IRIN on Tuesday
said the wrangle over the 1,000-km border could be resolved if Addis Ababa
withdrew "its forces from sovereign Eritrean territories".

It demanded Ethiopia's "cooperation with the Boundary Commission to ensure
expeditious demarcation of the boundary" and called for "full and
unconditional respect of the Algiers Agreement". "The government of
Eritrea urges the international community to help secure peace and
stability in our region by putting pressure on Ethiopia to ensure the long
overdue demarcation of the boundary," the statement added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44675]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: German president makes a plea for peace

German President Horst Kohler made an impassioned plea on Monday for peace
between Ethiopia and Eritrea, saying neither of the two countries could
afford another war over their unresolved border dispute. "The most
important reason why wars should not happen is because wars are against
the interests of the people," Kohler, former head of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), said in Addis Ababa on the first day of his four-day
visit to Ethiopia. "In Eritrea, as in Ethiopia, there is poverty.

"Both countries - both peoples here in this region can't think that war is
in their interest," Kohler continued. "Therefore, I do think the desire
for peace will and should come mainly from the people in the region."
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-and-a-half year border war that claimed
an estimated 70,000 lives, The war ended in December 2000 with a peace
plan that called for the establishment of an internationally recognised
border between the two countries.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44638]


DJIBOUTI: Grappling with the demand for anti-AIDS drugs

At one stage, Roda, a 24-year-old woman living in Djibouti, had
tuberculosis, a skin disorder, and was disfigured with disease. In March
she began receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) and has started leading a
more normal life again. Roda, who declined to give her second name, is
among the more fortunate in Africa. According to figures released by the
UN World Health Organisation (WHO) in June, just four percent of
HIV-positive people on the continent have access to antiretrovirals
(ARVs), the drugs that inhibit HIV.

"Despite the subsequent successes of one-after-another, small-scale pilot
projects, few countries have managed to deliver HIV treatment to all, or
even the majority, of those in need," the WHO report said. In July the
government of Djibouti - a small country in the Horn of Africa - announced
that, with support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB)
and Malaria, funding was available to provide ARVs for those in need until
2007.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44691]


ETHIOPIA-DJIBOUTI: Power link to boost electricity supply

Ethiopia and Djibouti are to link up their power generation in a bid to
boost electricity access in both countries using loans worth US $32
million and $27 million respectively, the African Development Fund (ADF)
said on Monday. "The common sector goal is to improve the population's
access to electricity in Ethiopia and Djibouti through regional
cooperation in the energy sector," the fund said.

Only 13 percent of the population in Ethiopia has access to electricity
but that would rise to 20 percent by 2012. In Djibouti 49 percent of
people have access to electricity, which would increase to 60 percent by
2015. The project includes development of power transmission network,
electricity supply to border towns, project supervision and management and
institutional support.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44649]


ETHIOPIA: Plan launched to help orphans

One Ethiopian child out of 10 is an orphan, a report by the UN, the
government and the NGO, Save the Children, said. The HIV/AIDS pandemic,
appalling poverty and dire health conditions had left 4.6 million
youngsters without parents, it added. "Ethiopia is facing a crisis of
orphans," Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in
Ethiopia, said at the launch of a national action plan to help children
who have been orphaned and better protect them from HIV/AIDS.

Hassen Abdella, minister of Labour and Social Affairs, said the scale of
the orphan crisis was "tearing at the very fabric of childhood" in
Ethiopia. According to government statistics, 315 people die each day from
AIDS-related illnesses. Some 1.5 million people are living with the virus.
Save the Children estimates one in 14 women in Ethiopia will die during
birth compared to developed countries where one in 2,800 women die during
birth.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44651]


SOMALIA: President reappoints interim prime minister

The interim Somali president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, reappointed Ali
Muhammad Gedi as prime minister on Monday, two days after parliament had
deemed Gedi's initial appointment unconstitutional and passed a vote of no
confidence in the government, an official said. The transitional
parliament, which sits in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, had said on
Saturday that Yusuf had not sought its approval for Gedi's appointment and
therefore his government was not properly constituted. It also said Gedi
had ignored clan quotas when appointing ministers and that his cabinet of
nearly 80 was too large.

"The president reappointed Gedi on Monday evening in the presence of
representatives from the international community," Hussein Jabiri,
communication director in the office of the prime minister, told IRIN. One
of the sponsors of the motion of no confidence, Ali Dasha, told IRIN that
Gedi's new cabinet must be "viable, small in number and highly qualified".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44647]


SOMALIA: IDPs, returnees desperate for assistance in Somaliland - UN

A senior UN official called on Friday for more international and local
assistance for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and
returnees in the self-declared autonomous republic of Somaliland. "These
IDPs and returnees are among the poorest of the poor,"Dennis McNamara,
head of the UN Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division, said during a
visit to returnee camps in Burao, 340 km east of the Somaliland capital,
Hargeysa. "They desperately need assistance."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) and the Norwegian Refugee Council, returnees, IDPs and refugees
constitute about a fifth of the population of Somaliland's major towns -
Hargeysa, Burao, Berbera and Borama. In Hargeysa alone, Gashan, a local
NGO that trains displaced persons in income-generating skills, estimated
that 7,200 displaced families lived within the municipality.

[Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44628]


SUDAN: Clashes force suspension of South Darfur relief operations

The UN has suspended its relief operations in parts of the Sudanese state
of South Darfur due to fighting between government and rebel forces, and a
reported build-up of armed groups in the area, a spokesperson said. Radia
Achouri, spokesperson for the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS), told
IRIN on Thursday that fighting between government troops and the rebel
Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) had continued in areas east and southeast of
Nyala town.

"The security situation is particularly tense around the town of
Muhujariya and two international NGOs have relocated staff from Muhujariya
to Sheriya as a result," Achouri said. Fighting, UNAMIS reported, had also
occurred in the South Darfur villages of Bashom, Eida, Ishma, Um Zehefa,
Reil and surrounding areas on Monday and Tuesday. The clashes intensified
days after two relief workers employed by the NGO, Save the Children
(SC-UK), were killed.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44699]


SUDAN: Southern agreement key to Darfur peace - UN

The settlement of the long-running conflict in southern Sudan between
Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), is key
to solving the humanitarian crisis in the western Sudanese region of
Darfur, a UN envoy said. Jan Pronk, the Secretary-General's representative
in Sudan, told a news conference in New York on Tuesday that a peace
accord in the south would lead to a new constitution and a new government
which would be sympathetic to the situation in Darfur and more open to
negotiation.

With a 31 December deadline for concluding a peace agreement between the
government and the SPLM/A fast approaching, Pronk urged the major global
players - including the five permanent members of the Security Council -
to present a unified position. "If the Sudanese government and the rebels
were faced with a unified front, with the powerful nations in the world
saying that they would not tolerate non-compliance with the Council's
resolution, the parties would have no choice but to come up with a
negotiated political solution," Pronk was quoted by UN News service as
saying.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44681]


SUDAN: Darfur rebels withdraw from peace talks citing government attacks

Peace talks to end the Darfur conflict were stalled on Tuesday after rebel
groups withdrew in protest at ceasefire violations by the government in
Khartoum. The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM) walked out of talks in the Nigerian capital,
Abuja, late Monday -- the first day of face-to-face negotiations.

"We're suspending the talks until the situation on the ground improves and
there is a clear commitment that the Sudanese government will stop the
offensive," SLM/A spokesman Bahar Ibrahim told IRIN on Tuesday. The
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it was suspending participation
because of ceasefire violations but also because it wants Khartoum to
release those of its members being held in prison. "If these two
conditions are met, we will go back to the talks," JEM spokesman Ahmed
Tugod Lissan said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44664]


SUDAN: UN condemns killing of relief workers in Darfur

The UN has strongly condemned the murder of two relief workers in the
western Sudanese region of Darfur and called on the Khartoum government,
rebels and militia to respect the principles of international humanitarian
law. "The fact that [relief] workers themselves seem to have become the
target of fighting poses severe difficulties for humanitarian access, with
grave consequences for assistance in the future," Jan Pronk, the UN
Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sudan, said in a statement.

The two Sudanese employees of the international relief organisation, Save
the Children UK (SC-UK), were killed on Monday in South Darfur state,
after coming under fire while travelling in a convoy of three clearly
marked humanitarian vehicles on the main road between the localities of
Mershing and Duma. "Two other vehicles in the convoy managed to flee the
scene unharmed," Radia Achouri, spokeswoman for the United Nations Advance
Mission in Sudan, told IRIN on Tuesday.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44652]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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