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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 278
7 - 13 May 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: Guelleh sworn in for second presidential term
ETHIOPIA: Elections peaceful so far, says NEB
ETHIOPIA: Floods ravage remote Somali Region
ETHIOPIA: Rights group accuses gov't of suppressing opposition
SOMALIA: Parliament to hold next session in Mogadishu
SOMALIA: IGAD to delay deployment of peacekeepers
SUDAN: Two aid workers killed in Darfur
SUDAN: 75 killed, thousands displaced as southern clans fight
SUDAN: Military committee discusses implementation of peace pact


ALSO SEE:

ETHIOPIA: Election fever grips capital at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47103

ETHIOPIA: Interview with Ana Gomes, EU chief election observer at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47050

SOMALIA: Worries over soil contamination in Ayaha valley at:
http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=47105

DJIBOUTI: Guelleh sworn in for second presidential term

Ismail Omar Guelleh was on Saturday sworn in for a second and final
six-year term as president of the tiny Horn of Africa nation, the
official news agency, Agence Djiboutienne d'Information (ADI), reported.
Guelleh won 100 percent of the votes cast in a one-man race on 8 April.
According to ADI, 78.9 percent of approximately 197,000 registered
voters cast their ballots - at 200 voting booths - across the country.
Opposition parties boycotted, describing the poll as "ridiculous, rigged
and rubbish". Present at the swearing in ceremony were several regional
leaders. Guelleh, in an address during the ceremony, said:

Djibouti's second president, Guelleh was first elected to ofice in 1999,
taking over from his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had ruled the
country since its independence from France in 1977.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47007]


ETHIOPIA: Campaigns peaceful so far, says NEB

Ethiopia's election board chairman said on Wednesday that the country's
campaign had been peaceful. The chairman of the National Election Board,
Kemal Bedri, said rallies held by the government and opposition were
proof of growing democratisation in the country. He added that he was
taking seriously concerns raised by the EU election observer mission
over alleged abuses in the country. He told journalists in Addis Ababa
that polling scheduled for 15 May - the third-ever legislative elections
in Ethiopia - was a learning experience that his country hoped to build
upon.

An estimated 25.6 million people were expected to vote on Sunday at more
than 30,000 polling stations around the country. Some 319 international
observers will monitor the polls, including 200 from the EU. Kemal's
comments came after the EU chief election observer, Anan Gomes, wrote a
letter protesting that both government and opposition parties had used
"hate speech" and that murders, harassment and beatings had taken place.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47074]


ETHIOPIA: Floods ravage remote Somali Region

Abdi Omar Elmi was sleeping when floodwaters swept his six-year-old son
to his death. Seconds later, he said, crocodiles seized his two nephews
and dragged them off as the surging torrent washed away their
traditional stick hut. "I have lost everything," said the 40-year-old
farmer from the safety of nearby Kelafo town in Somali Region, a
desolate area of eastern Ethiopia. He never found the bodies of his
nephews or his son, Farah.

Somali Region, which is normally drought-stricken and has an average
rainfall of a little over 250 mm a year, has been battered by heavy
rains and flooding. Government officials estimate that 155 people have
died in the deluge that began on 23 April. They say disease outbreaks
among flood survivors could kill more. Wearing the clothes he managed to
flee in, Abdi added: "We didn't expect the flood. It was dark and we
were trying to grab things to take with us but we did not have any time.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47027]


ETHIOPIA: Rights group accuses gov't of suppressing opposition

Political dissent in Ethiopia's most populous region is being quashed by
the government, thereby compromising the integrity of the 15 May
elections, a human rights group said on Monday. Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said systematic repression in Oromiya region, where one-third of the
country's 71-million population lives, makes next week's elections a
"hollow exercise". "The political freedoms required for elections to be
a meaningful exercise of citizens' fundamental right to participate in
the selection of their government do not exist for many Ethiopians," the
New York-based organisation said.

"In Oromiya, systematic political repression and pervasive human rights
violations have denied citizens the freedom to associate and to freely
form and express their political ideas," it added. "As a result, on
election day, most voters there are unlikely to be presented with real
choices." The government dismissed the claims made in the 44-page report
entitled, "Suppressing Dissent: Human Rights Abuses and Political
Repression in Ethiopia's Oromiya Region".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47024]


SOMALIA: Parliament to hold next session in Mogadishu

The Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) of Somalia will hold its next
session in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, the speaker told IRIN on
Thursday. "The parliament will meet in the capital on 17 May," Sharif
Hassan Shaykh Aden, the TFP speaker, said. The move follows a
controversial parliamentary session held by a group of MPs in the
absence of the speaker on Wednesday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

The session debated two contentious motions: the proposed deployment of
peacekeeping troops from neighboring countries, and the temporary
relocation of the government to the towns of Jowhar and Baidao, in south
and south-central Somalia, respectively. Wednesday's motions were tabled
by MPs who support the deployment of troops from Somalia's immediate
neighbors - Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti - as part of any peacekeeping
force.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47075]


SOMALIA: IGAD to delay deployment of peacekeepers

A peacekeeping force scheduled for deployment to Somalia will be delayed
as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) attempts to
iron out legal limitations and reconcile the divided transitional
federal government (TFG), sources said. "IGAD's charter does not cater
for troop deployment, and therefore efforts are underway to have it
amended," a senior Uganda government official who preferred anonymity
told IRIN on Monday.

"Uganda chairs the regional body and is seeking an IGAD member to move
the amendment before the force can be deployed," he added. The force was
to have been deployed at the end of April. Another hindrance to
deployment, the official said, was the lack of consensus among many
Somalis about the proposed peacekeeping force. He said the Ugandan
government had invited the country's various faction leaders for a
meeting to try and convince them of the importance of an interim
government and the need for peacekeepers in Somalia.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47025]


SUDAN: Two aid workers killed in Darfur

Two Sudanese truck drivers, contracted by the UN World Food Programme
(WFP), were killed on Sunday in two separate incidents, when
unidentified gunmen opened fire on them on the road between Ed-Daen and
Nyala in the western Sudanese state of South Darfur, UN officials said.
"It's murder," Jan Pronk, the UN Secretary-General's Special
Representative for Sudan, told reporters in Khartoum on Wednesday. "It
is murderous." Pronk said he was very concerned about the "increased
number of security incidents carried out by bandits", and noted that the
African Union (AU) estimated that banditry in Darfur was leading to the
death of one person every three days.

"Both incidents happened after dark and we don't know who is responsible
for this. The African Union has been requested to investigate the
matter," Julie Stewart, WFP spokesperson, told IRIN on Thursday. In the
first incident, the driver was attacked between Assalaya and Yassin and
shot in the head. The truck, with its cargo intact, was recovered the
next day when other drivers found it on the road.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47080]


SUDAN: 75 killed, thousands displaced as southern clans fight

At least 75 people have been reported killed and thousands more
displaced in southern Sudan's Lakes State since interclan violence,
sparked by cattle rustling and disputes over pasture and water, erupted
on 24 April, aid workers said on Wednesday. "About 4,000 people, mostly
women and children, fled when their villages in Yirol and Awirial
[counties] were attacked," Rene McGuffin, spokesperson for the UN World
Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN. "It was reported by local villagers
that at least 75 people were killed."

"On 24 April, we assisted the wounded in whatever way we could and
evacuated six wounded people to our facilities in Yirol town [east of
Rumbek, the provisional capital of southern Sudan]," Paul Conneally,
communications coordinator for the International Committee of the Red
Cross in Sudan, told IRIN. On the same day, unidentified men looted 23
mt of food from WFP facilities in the town of Bunagok, southeast of
Yirol, as the organisation prepared to start distributing it. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47072]


SUDAN: Military committee discusses implementation of peace pact

A joint military ceasefire committee comprised of officials from the
Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
has held its first meeting to discuss the implementation of a peace
accord that ended two decades of war in the south. The Ceasefire Joint
Military Committee (CJMC), which met in the southern Sudanese town of
Juba on Sunday, agreed to hold biweekly meetings to ensure that the
military and security forces from both parties fulfilled their
obligations under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on 9 January
in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

"I am extremely pleased to announce that all present at today's [8 May]
CJMC expressed their determination to work together over the coming
months to ensure that the many tasks listed in the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement will be undertaken in a positive manner," Major-General Fazle
Elahi Akbar, UN Force Commander, said in a statement issued after the
meeting.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47026]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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