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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 293
3 - 9 September 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extension of UN mission's mandate
ETHIOPIA: Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll
SOMALIA: UN official urges restraint amid rising tension
SOMALIA: Media watchdog alarmed at threats against journalists
SOMALIA: Dozens drown in failed immigration to Yemen
SUDAN: Arbitrary detentions remain widespread - HRW
SUDAN: Gender-based violence prevalent in Darfur, says UN report
SUDAN: AU condemns rebel attack against nomads in Darfur


ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Trying to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48921


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Annan recommends extension of UN mission's mandate

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended that the UN Security 
Council extend the mandate of the peacekeeping mission on the 
Ethiopia-Eritrea border until March 2006 and has stressed the need for 
both governments and the international community to do their utmost to 
ensure the border stalemate is resolved, as it "inherently 
destabilizing".

"I would like to call on the international community to spare no effort 
in bringing the parties together to engage in constructive dialogue 
aimed at moving the peace process forward and normalizing bilateral 
relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea," Annan said in his latest report 
to the Council on Ethiopia and Eritrea. "I reiterate that the 
governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea have the primary responsibility to 
bring durable peace and security between their two countries," he added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48957]


ETHIOPIA: Ruling party named winner in final result of disputed poll

Ethiopia's ruling party has retained power after winning a majority of 
seats in national elections marred by violence and alleged fraud, 
according to final results released by the election board on Monday. 
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling coalition, which has held power for 
14 years, took 327 seats, winning another five-year term, the National 
Election Board of Ethiopia said. The results meant the Ethiopian 
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front now controls 59 percent of the 
547-seat parliament, losing around 150 seats during the polls.

Opposition parties took 174 seats - 32 percent of the seats - with the 
largest opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, taking 
20 percent of the parliamentary seats. Opposition parties won only 12 
seats during the last elections in 2000. Ethiopia's elections were 
marred by controversy, with the European Union saying the 15 May ballot 
had failed to meet international standards in key areas.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48905]


SOMALIA: UN official urges restraint amid rising tension

The UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Somalia urged members of 
the split transitional government to exercise restraint on Thursday amid 
reports of militia movement in the town of Jowhar, where the president 
and the prime minister are based. "I am concerned at the escalation of 
tensions in Jowhar and Mogadishu, and appeal for restraint from all 
parties whatever their differences," Francois Lonseny Fall, 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Somalia, said 
in a statement.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi and 
their supporters decided to set up Transitional Federal Institutions 
(TFI) in the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, in 
June. They said Mogadishu was not secure enough to be the seat of 
government.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48978]


SOMALIA: Media watchdog alarmed at threats against journalists

The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, expressed concern on 
Monday over alleged threats by gunmen in Somalia against local 
journalists and appealed to the country's interim government to help 
stop the intimidation. "It is getting more and more difficult for Somali 
journalists to work," the press freedom organisation said in a 
statement. "Pushed around by warlords, Islamic courts and businessmen, 
they chose to defend themselves by setting up an exemplary, 
democratically-run organisation, and this is now being targeted," it 
added.

Threats, it noted, had been directed against the National Union of 
Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) both before and after its annual general 
assembly in Mogadishu on 29 to 31 August. "We appeal to the Transitional 
Federal Government and its international partners to use their influence 
to get these threats stopped as soon as possible," the statement said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48925]


SOMALIA: Dozens drown in failed immigration to Yemen

At least 58 people drowned and some 150 others were missing when armed 
men smuggling would-be immigrants to Yemen in two boats forced them 
overboard several kilometres from the shore, sources said on Monday. The 
boats had set sail on 30 August from a coastal village some 25 km from 
northeastern Somalia's port town of Bossaso, the commercial capital of 
the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, Abdinasir Mire Adan, a 
reporter for the Bossaso-based Midnimo Radio, told IRIN.

The boats, he added, had been carrying 250 people, many of whom were 
women and children. The acting Somali Consul-General, Husayn Haji Ahmad, 
told IRIN by phone from the Yemeni port city of Aden that as of Sunday, 
37 people had been found alive. He said the smugglers, out of fear of 
interception by Yemeni coastguards, had on Friday afternoon forced 
people - at gunpoint - to jump into the sea some five km from the shore.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48899]


SUDAN: Arbitrary detentions remain widespread - HRW

Arbitrary arrests and detentions remain widespread in Sudan despite 
President Omar al-Bashir's promise to release all political prisoners 
and lift the nationwide state of emergency, Human Rights Watch (HRW) 
said on Wednesday. "The government promised [on 30 June] that the 
north-south peace accord would usher in a new day in Sudan, but we have 
yet to see it in the field of human rights," Peter Takirambudde, Africa 
director at the international advocacy organisation, said in a 
statement.

"Beyond the conflict in Darfur [where the state of emergency remained in 
place], Sudanese across the country still remain at risk of arbitrary 
arrest, detention and torture," he added. Death sentences, the statement 
noted, were often carried out without notice, and many of the trials 
leading to the sentences lacked basic fair-trial protections for the 
accused.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48946]


SUDAN: Gender-based violence prevalent in Darfur, says UN report

Women and girls continue to experience sexual violence in the 
strife-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur and more needs to be done 
to prevent such crimes, a joint report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) 
and the UN Children's Fund said. "Sexual violence was consistently 
reported during attacks on villages but was reported to be continuing 
even at the time of the study - especially when women and girls left the 
camps," the report said.

By conducting a large number of focus group discussions with internally 
displaced persons, the report, published on Monday, aimed to gain a 
better insight into the ways the conflict had affected the health and 
well-being of women and girls, and to better understand indigenous 
coping mechanisms.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48928]


SUDAN: AU condemns rebel attack against nomads in Darfur

The head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), Ambassador Baba 
Gana Kingibe, condemned the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) 
on Friday for its lack of cooperation in restoring calm to the 
strife-torn western region of Darfur. "Kingibe expressed disappointment 
that one week after the intervention of the AMIS to diffuse the tense 
situation between the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Arab nomads in 
the village of Malam, 50 km north of Nyala [the capital of South Darfur 
State], the SLM/A remains intransigent," the African Union (AU) said in 
a statement.

The SLM/A attacked the nomads on 25 August, killing a number of them and 
abducting seven nomads and 3,100 camels. Kingibe urged the nomads to 
continue to resist the temptation of taking the law into their hands, 
warning it would only lead to the further deterioration of the security 
situation on the ground. He demanded that the SLA/A immediately release 
the abducted persons and camels.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48900]


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


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