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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 229
29 January - 4 February 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: $4.38 m sought for drought-affected people
ETHIOPIA: Many still need food aid despite bumper harvest
ETHIOPIA: Punish those responsible for Gambella violence, US urges
SOMALIA: Somaliland frees girl jailed for espionage
SOMALIA: First batch of MPs leave for Mogadishu
SOMALIA: IGAD leaders agree to deploy peace mission
SOMALIA: Government denies split over peacekeepers
SUDAN: National parliament ratifies southern peace agreement
SUDAN: Gunmen shoot at AU monitors in West Darfur
SUDAN: Darfur atrocities do not amount to genocide, UN team says
SUDAN-UGANDA: Refugees reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan, UN
   agency says


ERITREA: $4.38 m sought for drought-affected people

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has
appealed for US $4.38 million to provide food and clean water to some
55,000 Eritrean villagers affected by four consecutive years of drought.
The money would be used to help affected people in 17 villages in Hagaz
subdistrict for eight months, truck water to 10,000 people and build or
rehabilitate water-points, boreholes and wells, the Federation said in a
statement dated 28 January.

Seeds and farming tools would also be distributed to 10,000 households
while a project to encourage more water-efficient farming methods would
be launched in coordination with the Eritrean government's Relief and
Refugee Commission. "The situation is quite serious - the drought was so
severe that [food] stocks were depleted," Andrei Neacsu, the
Federation's regional information delegate in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, told IRIN. "It is an emergency." The Secretary General of the
Eritrean Red Cross, Sr Alganesh Kidane, said assessments had confirmed
that all food reserves had been exhausted after four years of drought.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45383]


ETHIOPIA: Many still need food aid despite bumper harvest

A bumper harvest is anticipated in Ethiopia in 2005, but many Ethiopians
will still need humanitarian aid, UN officials said this week.
Ethiopia's food production rose this year by 24 percent from 14.27
million mt in 2004, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the
World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint report released on Wednesday.
The increase was due mainly to better rains, increased use of fertilizer
and improved seeds, especially wheat and maize, the UN agencies said.
However, more than two million Ethiopians will need emergency assistance
in 2005, Paul Herbert, head of the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia, told IRIN on Thursday.

"There are large numbers of people who did not benefit from a bumper
harvest and we need to ensure their needs are met either through the
safety nets system or emergency programmes," Hebert said. Five million
people suffering from chronic hunger will also require cash and food
transfers under the government-led safety net programme - a scheme
whereby people work for their food or are paid in cash, he added.
Georgia Shaver, WFP Country Director for Ethiopia, said that "for the
first time in the history of food aid assistance in Ethiopia, there is a
different response to the needs of acutely undernourished people as
opposed to the chronically hungry."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45387]


ETHIOPIA: Punish those responsible for Gambella violence, US urges

The US on Tuesday called on Ethiopia to punish those responsible for
violence in its western Gambella region that claimed hundreds of lives
last year. However, Ethiopian government spokesman Zemedkun Teckle told
IRIN Ethiopia was committed to bringing those involved in the killings
to justice. "The government is bringing people to court," he said. "It
has taken great steps to bring people to justice, even if they are in
the government, police or military, wherever they are." US Ambassador
Aurelia Brazeal said in a statement that if the perpetrators of the
killings were not tried, that would only incite new violence in the
region.

"As promised by the Ethiopian government, it is important that all those
involved in the outbreak of ethnic strife in the region in December 2003
and early 2004 should be brought to justice, including those in the
government, police, or military," she said. "Doing so would discourage
renewed violence and restore confidence." Hundreds of people where
killed and thousands displaced from their homes after clashes in the
region, some 800 km west of the capital, Addis Ababa, between December
2003 and early 2004.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45363]


SOMALIA: First batch of MPs leave for Mogadishu

The first group of members of parliament of the Kenyan-based Somali
government left Nairobi on Tuesday for Mogadishu in a move that marked
the beginning of the new administration's relocation back home. "Thirty
MPs left last night for Mogadishu - it is an inclusive group from all
Somali clans," Hussein Jabiri, the director of communications in the
interim Somali Prime Minister's office told IRIN on Wednesday.

Once in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, he said, the MPs would "lay the
groundwork for the return of the whole government". The delegation
included Muse Sudi Yalahow, a powerful former Mogadishu-based faction
leader and a member of the cabinet, and the second deputy speaker of
parliament, Usman Ilmi Boqore. The MPs were also expected to report back
on the political and security situation in Mogadishu, Jabiri said. The
Somali transitional government had formed, in January, three teams
composed of cabinet ministers to begin arrangements for relocation.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45343]


SOMALIA: IGAD leaders agree to deploy peace mission

The governments of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda have
expressed their commitment to supporting a peace mission for Somalia by
providing troops or equipment to the envisaged force, a statement said.
The leaders of the six countries met in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on
Monday, as members of the Intergovernmetal Authority on Development
(IGAD) on the sidelines of the African Union summit. "There is an urgent
need to provide security support to the Transitional Federal Government
of Somalia to ensure its relocation to Somalia and guarantee sustenance
of the IGAD peace process," they said in a joint communique.

IGAD, which groups Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda as
well as Somalia, sponsored peace talks between Somalia's various clans
and factions that culminated in the establishment of the Somali
transitional federal government in 2004. The newly created government,
however, remains in Nairobi, where it was set up, because security
concerns and lack of resources have prevented members of the
administration from moving to Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The IGAD
heads of state, who met under the chairmanship of Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni, instructed the IGAD secretariat, in collaboration with
the African Union, to establish a fund to cover expenses for the
deployment of the peace support mission.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45347]


SOMALIA: Government denies split over peacekeepers

A member of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, currently based
in Nairobi, Kenya, has denied reports of a split within the government
over the deployment of foreign peacekeeping troops and relocation to the
Somali capital, Mogadishu. "I am not aware of any such split," Aden Ibbi
Abdirahman, the state minister for parliamentary relations, told IRIN on
Monday. He was reacting to reports in local Somali media. "I think it is
a figment of someone's imagination," added Ibbi, who is a member of the
relocation committee.

According to Somali political sources, a section of the cabinet agrees
with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed that peacekeepers should be
deployed in Mogadishu before the government relocates there. "He has the
support of many cabinet members," one source said. A supporter of
Yusuf's position told IRIN peacekeepers were "essential and necessary"
before the government went to Mogadishu. Prime Minister Ali Muhammad
Gedi, on the other hand, wants part of the cabinet to relocate to
Mogadishu and "assess the situation on whether peacekeepers are needed
or not" rather than condition the relocation on the deployment of
foreign troops, a source who supports Gedi's position told IRIN. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45299]


SUDAN: National parliament ratifies southern peace agreement

Sudan's national assembly on Tuesday unanimously ratified the
comprehensive peace agreement which was signed by the government and the
southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in Nairobi,
Kenya, on 9 January. The Nairobi agreement formally ended the 21-year
civil war in the south between government forces and the SPLM/A. Ismail
Al-Haj Musa, chairman of the assembly's law and justice committee,
presented the committee's findings on the comprehensive peace agreement
to the parliament, describing the agreement as "paving the way for a
just partnership in resources and power and giving solution for the
issue of the relation between religion and state".

The committee noted that peace was a strategic goal of the state
intended to bring about comprehensive development and progress all over
Sudan, and stressed that the "implementation of peace is a common
responsibility of the government, the SPLM/A, and all the national and
political forces." It said the agreement had paved the way for the
realisation of democratic transformation and the expansion of the scope
of participation, facilitating the return of a large number of
opposition leaders to the Sudanese capital.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45345]


SUDAN: Gunmen shoot at AU monitors in West Darfur

Gunmen in the western Sudanese state of Darfur on Monday opened fire on
two African Union (AU) teams investigating reported cease-fire
violations, AU officials said. Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe, the Special
Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission in Sudan,
condemned the shooting in a statement on Tuesday. The first incident
occurred in the town of Jayjay, south of the capital, Nyala, where AU
monitors were investigating an alleged attack on a village. The second
occurred near Shangil Tobai, where another team was looking into reports
that aerial bombings had taken place.

No casualties resulting from either incident were reported. Kingibe said
that "the military observers were undertaking their legitimate duty" of
investigating allegations of violations of the N'Djamena Ceasefire
Agreement when they came under fire. "The AU does not wish to be drawn
into a situation where its monitors and protectors will be obliged to
defend themselves by the use of force," he added. UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan condemned attacks on the monitors in a separate statement on
Tuesday, saying this "could jeopardise the fulfilment of the AU mission
in Darfur."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45344]


SUDAN: Darfur atrocities do not amount to genocide, UN team says

A UN-appointed commission of inquiry concluded on Monday that violence
in Sudan's western region of Darfur did not amount to genocide, but that
mass killings of civilians had occurred in the strife-torn area. "The
crucial element of genocidal intent appears to be missing, at least as
far as the central government authorities are concerned," the
five-member commission said. "There may have been genocidal acts in
Darfur and some individuals may be found guilty of genocidal intent."

It said, "The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and
implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through
the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as
detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region." In
its 176-page report, sent to the president of the UN Security Council in
New York on Monday, the commission said the central government of Sudan
did not have the intent of carrying out genocide in Darfur. Intent to
carry out extermination of a group of people is considered a key factor
in establishing a case of genocide. The 1948 convention on genocide, to
which Sudan is a party, obliges signatories to stop and punish the
perpetrators of genocide.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45326]


SUDAN-UGANDA: Refugees reluctant to repatriate to southern Sudan, UN
agency says

Thousands of Sudanese refugees living in camps in northern Uganda are
reluctant to consider repatriation for a variety of reasons, including
the lack of facilities in southern Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR,
told IRIN on Tuesday. The agency reported that the refugees felt the
landmark peace agreement signed in December 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya, was
not inclusive of all Sudanese groups.

"When the agreement was signed, the initial reaction was that of joy
among the refugees. But eventually they started raising some concerns
that they were not catered for in the agreement," Roberta Russo, the
UNHCR spokeswoman in Kampala, said. "They are eager to go back, but they
are considering their political situation and position in southern
Sudan." UNHCR was trying to establish the refugees' view on the
agreement between the Khartoum government and the southern rebels of the
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "We wanted to find out what their
intentions were after the signing of the agreement," Russo said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45329]


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


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