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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 297
1 -  7 Octoebr 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Flight restrictions to affect border monitoring
ERITREA: Gov't urged to reverse flight restrictions on UNMEE
SOMALIA: Annan saddened by killing of UN employee
SOMALIA: US commends Somaliland on polls
SOMALIA: Hijacked ship released
SUDAN: Malnutrition levels in south high - NGO
SUDAN: Rebel disunity threatens Darfur peace effort - ICG


SEE ALSO:

SUDAN: Interview with Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, Ummah party president at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49368

SUDAN: South largely unprepared for returnee influx at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49349

SUDAN: Khartoum destruction triggers southern returns at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49414


ERITREA: Flight restrictions to affect border monitoring

The decision by the Eritrean government to restrict United Nations 
helicopter flights will significantly reduce the organisation's ability 
to monitor the situation on the border with neighbouring Ethiopia, the 
top UN military commander in the region said. "Our surveillance and 
monitoring of the border - of the Temporary Security Zone - was 
dependent to a very large degree on aerial surveillance," Maj-Gen 
Rajender Singh, commander of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea 
(UNMEE) peacekeeping force, said.

"[The restrictions] would seriously affect our monitoring capability by 
anything up to 40 to 45 and maybe even 50 percent," he added. On 
Tuesday, Eritrea demanded that all UN helicopters cease using its 
airspace, prompting fears that the move was an attempt to cover-up 
military movements and preparations for renewed conflict between 
Ethiopia and Eritrea. Despite the loss of surveillance capability, Singh 
said the UN had seen no military build-up by either side.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49409]


ERITREA: Gov't urged to reverse flight restrictions on UNMEE

The United Nations Security Council has called upon the Eritrean 
government to reverse a decision to restrict within its airspace 
helicopter flights used by the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea 
[UNMEE]. "The Security Council calls upon the government of Eritrea to 
immediately reverse its decision and provide UNMEE with the access, 
assistance, support and protection required for the performance of its 
duties," Mihnea Ioan Motoc, the current president of the Council, said 
in a statement on Tuesday.

The Eritrean decision, which takes effect on Wednesday, "would have 
serious implications for UNMEE's ability to carry out its mandate and 
for the safety of its staff", Motoc added. It would also contravene the 
Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities signed by the governments of 
Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2000 in Algiers, Algeria, following their 
two-year border war.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49366]


SOMALIA: Annan saddened by killing of UN employee

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged authorities in Somalia to 
bring to justice the people who on Monday killed a UN security officer 
in the port city of Kismayo, 500 km south of the capital Mogadishu. 
Mohamuud Muse Gurage, a Somali national, was walking toward his house 
from the UN offices when unidentified assailants shot him dead. "The 
Secretary-General is saddened to learn that a UN security officer, 
Mohamuud Musse Gurage, was killed by gunmen on Monday night in the Lower 
Juba region of Somalia," said a statement issued by Annan's spokesman.

"The brutal murder of Mr. Gurage underscores the difficult security 
situation the United Nations faces as it attempts to assist the people 
of Somalia," the statement said. He called on the authorities in Kismayo 
"to do their utmost to bring to justice the perpetrators of this 
terrible crime".

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49395]


SOMALIA: US commends Somaliland on polls

The United States has welcomed the recent legislative elections in the 
self-declared republic of Somaliland as an example to the rest of 
Somalia, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday. 
"We congratulate the people of Somaliland on holding peaceful elections 
with significant voter turnout," McCormack said in a statement. "The 
United States calls on all political parties to work together peacefully 
during the post-election period to strengthen the democratic transition 
in Somaliland and serve as an example for greater Somalia."

"The United States welcomes the September 29 parliamentary elections in 
Somaliland, which represent a step towards democracy in Somalia," the 
statement added. Somaliland voters went to the polls on 29 September to 
elect 82 members of the region's parliament.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49350]


SOMALIA: Hijacked ship released

The hijackers of a ship transporting food aid for survivors of the 
December tsunami in northeastern Somalia released the vessel on Sunday, 
leaving it to proceed to El Maan port, north of the Somali capital, 
Mogadishu, sources said. "The ship has been free since yesterday and 
it's on its way to Mogadishu to offload its cargo," Inayet Kudrati, 
director of the Motaku Shipping Agency, which runs the ship, told IRIN 
on Monday.

The hijackers left the vessel on Sunday afternoon, nearly 100 days after 
they commandeered it. "The hijackers have disembarked from the ship, and 
security officials from El Maan Port are now on board," Kudrati said 
from his headquarters in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The MV Semlow 
- with its crew of 10 Kenyan, Tanzanian and Sri-Lankan nationals - was 
commandeered on 27 June between Haradhere and Hobyo, some 400 km 
northeast of Mogadishu.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49334]


SUDAN: Malnutrition levels in south high - NGO

Malnutrition levels in southern Sudan are alarmingly high and have been 
above the emergency threshold for the past three years, a report 
released by the NGO, Action Against Hunger (AAH), said. "The nutritional 
situation in southern Sudan is dire by any standards," Roger Persichino, 
AAH desk officer, said in a press release on Friday. "Rates show a 
prevalence of malnutrition comparable to what we have in Niger or in 
Darfur. But it seems nobody cares or, maybe worse, that everybody has 
gotten used to it," he added.

The January-July 2005 report said the overall rate of global acute 
malnutrition was 20.7 percent, above the 15 percent emergency threshold 
and equalling the rates of malnutrition currently observed in 
hunger-stricken Niger in West Africa. In certain areas of Upper Nile and 
Bahr-el-Ghazal regions, it added, malnutrition rates had reached 39 
percent and 64 percent, respectively.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49352]


SUDAN: Rebel disunity threatens Darfur peace effort - ICG

Efforts by the African Union (AU) to end violence in the war-torn 
western Sudanese region of Darfur could fail unless rebel leaders there 
act to unify their groups, an international think tank warned on 
Thursday.

"Unless reversed, the slow implosion of the rebel movements threatens to 
extend the tragic situation in Darfur indefinitely," the International 
Crisis Group (ICG) said in report entitled, "Unifying Darfur's Rebels: A 
Prerequisite for Peace".

"As long as the rebels, the SL[M/]A [Sudan Liberation Movement/ Army] in 
particular, remain divided and the fighting in Darfur continues, there 
is little hope for real success at the African Union (AU)-sponsored 
peace talks in Abuja, since the government is likely to exploit and 
exacerbate rebel weakness at the [negotiating] table," the report said.

Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the 
AU to discuss the recent upsurge of violence in Darfur was postponed to 
give delegates more time for informal consultations.

"The meeting was postponed but no new date has been set yet," El Ghassim 
Wane, head of AU's conflict management division, said. The emergency 
session of the council on Darfur was to have taken place on Wednesday at 
the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

[Full story: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49412&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=SUDAN]


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


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