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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 302
5 - 11 November 2005


CONTENTS:

DJIBOUTI: World Bank to fund electricity project
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Peacekeepers facing more restrictions, says UNMEE
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN envoy urges restraint over border situation
ETHIOPIA: CUD leaders, editors to face treason charges
ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm in capital as residents return to work
ETHIOPIA: Gov't urged to end crackdown on the opposition
SOMALIA: UN Security Council denounces use of force
SOMALIA: Nine killed as prime minister's convoy ambushed
SUDAN: US official urges Darfur rebel leaders to unite


SEE ALSO:

SUDAN: Focus: Growing up in prison at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49995


DJIBOUTI: World Bank to fund electricity project

The World Bank has approved a US $7 million project in Djibouti that
includes initiatives to expand electricity distribution, introduce a
pilot wind farm and provide technical assistance to the Horn of African
nation, the organisation announced in a statement. The "Power Access and
Diversification Project for the Republic of Djibouti" will extend the
electricity distribution network in Djibouti Ville to the Balbala
neighbourhood - a large, low-income area in the western outskirts of the
capital.

The pilot wind farm will be introduced near Arta, a small town west of
the capital, while technical assistance will focus on targeted studies
countrywide to improve sector reliability, efficiency and performance.
"Poverty studies have shown a strong correlation between electricity
access and poverty in Djibouti.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49949]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Peacekeepers facing more restrictions, says UNMEE

Restrictions on United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the "tense and
potentially volatile" Ethiopia-Eritrea frontier have increased
considerably, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on
Thursday. Troop movements from both armies also continued along the
1,000-km border, where the nations fought a bloody war from 1998 to
2000.

"The restrictions have increased almost daily," UNMEE spokeswoman Gail
Bindley-Taylor Sainte said. "Before, the restrictions were more
sporadic. Now, we have almost daily restrictions." UNMEE estimates that
the ban on helicopter flights imposed by Eritrea in October had cut
their monitoring capacity by more than half. Almost all night patrols
had been curtailed, Sainte added, while limitations on vehicle and troop
patrols had "increased considerably".

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50041]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN envoy urges restraint over border situation

The United Nations Security Council envoy Kenzo Oshima urged restraint
on Monday amid reports of rising tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea
over their disputed border. Speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, at the start of a two-day tour of the two nations, Oshima said
"delicacy, skills and good judgment" were needed to try to resolve the
situation.

He was visiting the region following reports of military movements on
both sides of the 1,000-km frontier, over which the two nations fought a
two-and-a-half-year war that ended in 2000. Troops and military hardware
including tanks and missiles have been manoeuvred closer to the
Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) along the border during the past 10 days,
according to the UN.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49970]


ETHIOPIA: CUD leaders, editors to face treason charges

Detained opposition leaders and editors seized after bloody clashes in
Addis Ababa last week will face treason charges, Ethiopian Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi said on Wednesday. The prime minister declared
that the worst of the violence was over, but his government had no
intention of bowing to calls from the international community for the
release of opposition leaders.

"That would not be consistent with the democratic practice here or
anywhere else on earth," the prime minister told journalists. "If in
return for their support they expect us to accept their demands,
instructions, whatever - no questions asked - that means they have no
idea about the history and culture of Ethiopia." Meles maintained that
the detained opposition leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
(CUD) would not be released.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50023]


ETHIOPIA: Uneasy calm in capital as residents return to work

An uneasy calm returned to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on
Wednesday as firms and taxi drivers resumed work defying a fresh call by
the opposition to continue the strike that paralysed the city last week.
Information Minister Berhan Hailu urged people to return to work saying
calm had been restored in the city. "Now that peace and stability has
been restored to the city there is no reason for people, especially the
taxi drivers, not to start work," he said.

"The government has announced that it will take measures if people are
unwilling to go back to work. [It] is responsible to the public to
ensure that services are provided, especially transport." Some shop
owners said they were told by police to open up. Taxi drivers were also
ordered to return to work by the city authorities although less than
half were back on the streets.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50005]


ETHIOPIA: Gov't urged to end crackdown on the opposition

The United States and European Union urged the Ethiopian government on
Sunday to end its crackdown on opposition leaders, many of whom were
seized last week during bloody clashes between demonstrators and police.
In a joint statement, they also called on the government of Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi to allow families and humanitarian workers access
to those who were detained during the fighting.

The EU and US - which together are providing some US $1.3 billion in aid
to Ethiopia this year - issued 10 demands, including lifting
restrictions on opposition leaders, freeing all political detainees,
releasing the names of people in detention and reopening private media.
The violence, which left at least 46 people dead, had undermined efforts
to build democracy and "damaged Ethiopia's international reputation,"
said the statement, which was read in the capital, Addis Ababa, by UK
Ambassador Bob Dewar.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49950]


SOMALIA: UN Security Council denounces use of force

The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned a recent attempt on the
life of Somalia's Interim Prime Minster Ali Muhammad Gedi and denounced
the use of force as a means of addressing political differences in the
country's transitional federal institutions.

"The Security Council expresses its concern over recent reported
military activities and hostile rhetoric and emphasizes that any resort
to military force as a means for dealing with the current differences
within the transitional federal institutions is unacceptable," said
Andrey Denisov of Russia, who holds the Council's rotating presidency
for November. "The Council condemns in the strongest terms the
assassination attempt on 6 November, against Prime Minister Ali Mohammed
Gedi in Mogadishu," he added.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50026]


SOMALIA: Nine killed as prime minister's convoy ambushed

At least nine people were killed and several others injured on Sunday
when a convoy of cars carrying interim Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi
was ambushed in a Mogadishu suburb, sources in the Somali capital said
on Monday. "A remote-controlled device went off as the vehicle carrying
the prime minister was passing by," said Abdirahman Dinari, the
government spokesman.

Gedi was visiting from Jowhar, where the Transitional Federal Government
(TFG) is based. It was his second visit to Mogadishu since his
appointment as prime minister late last year. Gedi's last trip to the
capital was marred by an explosion while he was addressing a public
rally at a football stadium on 3 May. The blast killed 15 people and
injured 50, medical sources said at the time.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49956]


SUDAN: US official urges Darfur rebel leaders to unite

The United States Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick, has urged
the divided leadership of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) to
overcome their differences and present a united front at the upcoming
peace negotiations. "One of the most important assets for the SLM is the
support of countries around the world.

But to maintain that support, they have to respect the ceasefire. They
can't follow a path of violence, and they have to come up with a common
negotiating position," Zoellick told reporters in Nairobi on Tuesday,
after a failed attempt to bring the rebel leaders together. "The
problems of Darfur will not be solved by more violence. We need to
conclude a peace negotiation within the framework of the CPA," Zoellick
added, referring to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on 9
January, which ended Sudan's 21-year north-south conflict.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49998]


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


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