U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 224
17 - 24 December 2004


CONTENTS:

SUDAN: Aid worker killed in South Darfur
SUDAN: Agreement on southern conflict within reach
ETHIOPIA: Gov't, relief agencies launch humanitarian appeal
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Normalise relations, Security Council urges
SOMALIA: Parliament endorses new prime minister
DJIBOUTI: New food security project


SUDAN: Aid worker killed in South Darfur

An aid worker employed by the international medical relief organisation, 
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), was killed on 17 December during an attack 
on Labado town in the western Sudanese state of South Darfur, humanitarian 
sources said. "Twenty-nine of the 38 national staff MSF employs in Labado 
are still unaccounted for," Wyger Wentholt, MSF regional press and 
information officer, told IRIN on Wednesday.

The Sudanese aid worker was shot dead in front of the MSF warehouse in 
Labado whilst off duty. MSF said it was shocked by the killing and called 
upon all parties to respect the neutrality of its organisation, its staff 
and its ongoing relief operations.

On Tuesday, the British charity Save the Children (SC UK) announced it was 
pulling its humanitarian operations out of Darfur, following the deaths of 
four staff members over the previous two months.

The war in Darfur pits the Sudanese government troops and militias, 
allegedly allied to the government, against rebels fighting to end what 
they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's 
inhabitants by the state. The conflict has displaced an estimated 
1.45-million people and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border 
into Chad.

Full 
report


SUDAN: Agreement on southern conflict within reach

A comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the 
Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to end two decades of 
conflict in the south could be signed within days, officials involved in 
peace talks in Kenya said on Tuesday.

"The talks are going very well and the SPLM/A is optimistic that an 
agreement will be reached on the outstanding provisions within the coming 
three days," SPLM/A spokesman Yasser Arman told IRIN from Naivasha, Kenya, 
where the negotiations are being held. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the 
Sudanese deputy ambassador in Nairobi, told IRIN: "The parties have 
finalised the implementation modalities of the wealth-sharing provision 
and reached agreement on two of the three [disputed] regions [of Nuba 
Mountains, Abyei and Southern Blue Nile]."

Sudanese Vice President Ali Uthman Taha and SPLM/A leader John Garang 
resumed high-level talks on 6 December, raising hopes that a peace accord 
could be signed by the end of the year, as agreed in a memorandum of 
understanding they signed in November.

Full 
report


ETHIOPIA: Gov't, relief agencies launch humanitarian appeal

The Ethiopian government, UN agencies and their humanitarian partners 
appealed on Thursday for 387,482 mt of food valued at approximately US 
$159 million to help an estimated 2.2 million needy people in the Horn of 
Africa country in 2005. Another $112.74 million worth of non-food 
assistance would be needed to meet emergency humanitarian requirements, 
the government and aid agencies said in their appeal, they said.

>From January 2005, about 2.2 million people will be provided with 
emergency food assistance under the appeal, while more than 5 million 
chronically food-insecure people will be given assistance in the form of 
cash or food for labour-intensive public works. The appeal also seeks to 
address cross-sector elements, such as capacity building, coordination, 
gender, child protection and HIV/AIDS.

Full 
report


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Normalise relations, Security Council urges

The UN Security Council has urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to normalise their 
relations, saying it was encouraged by the recent move towards a peaceful 
resolution of their border dispute. The Council, in a statement issued by 
its president for December and ambassador of Algeria, Abdallah Baali, 
commended both Ethiopia's recent announcement that it had a new peace plan 
and Eritrea's continued acceptance of an independent boundary commission's 
decision on the frontier as binding.

"Members of the Security Council are encouraged by this movement towards a 
peaceful solution of the border dispute and now look forward to the 
beginning of the border demarcation process," the Council said. It urged 
the two neighbours to "refrain from any action in the border area, which 
could be viewed as provocative or destabilising".

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned Eritrea last 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.

Tensions also rose when Asmara accused Addis Ababa of sending troops into 
a remote Eritrean village in November. Ethiopia denied the accusations and 
UN peacekeepers patrolling the region said they had found no evidence to 
support the accusation.

Last month, Ethiopia accepted "in principle" a ruling on the border that 
was made as a part of a peace deal, which ended the two-and-a-half year 
war.

Full 
report


SOMALIA: Parliament endorses new prime minister

The Somali transitional parliament approved on Thursday the appointment of 
Ali Muhammad Gedi as the country's prime minister, 12 days after the 
assembly rejected his nomination on the grounds that his initial selection 
was unconstitutional.

Under article 49, the president is obligated to submit his prime 
minister-designate to parliament for approval. The nominee is also 
required to present himself before parliament to explain his programmes 
and how he intends to implement them. Gedi will now have to reconstitute 
his cabinet, which had also been rejected by the parliament, and present 
the names of those selected to the transitional assembly for approval.

Gedi, a 51-year-old former professor of veterinary science, was initially 
appointed on 3 November. Commentators then said he was a good choice, 
mainly because he had not been tainted by the factional bloodshed that 
ruined Somalia following the toppling of the regime of Muhammad Siyad 
Barre in 1991.

Full 
report


DJIBOUTI: New food security project

Djibouti is to benefit from a US $1.2 million food-security improvement 
project funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Saudi Arabia and the 
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO said in a statement 
issued on Monday that under the scheme, 22 Moroccan agriculture experts 
and technicians would be sent to Djibouti to work with local specialists.

The agreement is part of the FAO's South-South Cooperation Programme, a 
global initiative aimed at strengthening cooperation among developing 
countries at different stages of development to improve agricultural 
productivity and ensure access to food for the general population. The 
experts will work in Djibouti for three years, contributing their skills 
in areas such as water management, crop intensification and 
farming-systems diversification, including animal husbandry and fisheries.

Full 
report


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