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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 303
26 November - 2 December 2005


CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Top US envoy meets government officials
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Possible pullback of troops from border - UNMEE
ETHIOPIA: Parliament establishes panel to probe violence
ETHIOPIA: Four soldiers killed in landmine blast
SOMALIA: IGAD calls for the lifting of arms embargo
SOMALIA: Heavy rains in north, poor season in south
SUDAN: New IDPs seek refuge in Gereida, South Darfur
SUDAN: Aid agencies prepare for large Dinka movement in the south


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Top US envoy meets government officials

A top US diplomat arrived in Ethiopia on a three-day mission to help 
breathe new life into a stalled peace process with Eritrea, the US 
embassy said. Donald Yamamoto, the deputy assistant secretary of state 
for African affairs, met Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Monday. He will 
also discuss post-election disturbances in Ethiopia with members of his 
administration, an official said.

"Yamamoto is in Addis Ababa for discussions with the government on the 
border situation and on the current internal political situation," said 
Anthony Fisher, US embassy public affairs counsel.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50418]


ETHIOPIA-ERITREA:  Possible pullback of troops from border - UNMEE

Ethiopia may be willing to pull back thousands of troops recently moved 
close to its tense border with Eritrea, the UN military commander in the 
region said on Thursday. Maj-Gen Rajender Singh, commander of the UN 
Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) peacekeeping force, said 
Ethiopia had indicated that they would comply with a recent UN Security 
Council resolution calling for a return of both Ethiopian and Eritrean 
troops to their 16 December positions.

"This is very positive," observed Singh, whose 3,200 peacekeepers 
monitor the "tense and potentially volatile" 1,000 km border between the 
two countries. Since December, Ethiopia has moved eight divisions - 
totalling around 50,000 men - towards the border in what it called a 
purely defensive measure, the UN maintained in a previous statement.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50442]


ETHIOPIA: Four soldiers killed in landmine blast

Four Ethiopian soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a newly laid 
landmine near the border with Eritrea, UN officials said on Tuesday. The 
anti-tank mine was planted around 15 km south of the demilitarized 
buffer zone created to separate the two countries' armies following 
their 1998-2000 border dispute that has continued to cause tension 
between the Horn of Africa neighbours.

"Four Ethiopian soldiers died and three were injured when their military 
vehicle hit a newly laid landmine," said Phil Lewis, head of the UN Mine 
Action Coordination Centre of the Ethiopia-Eritrea peacekeeping mission. 
"We do not know who was responsible," he said by telephone from the 
Eritrean capital, Asmara.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50394]


ETHIOPIA: Parliament establishes panel to probe violence

A panel to investigate post-election clashes in Ethiopia, where some 88 
people have been killed by security forces since June, will publish its 
findings in three months, parliament ruled on Tuesday. The decision came 
after the lower House of People's Representatives approved the 
establishment of an 11-member panel to probe the killings in June and 
November.

Opposition leaders condemned the inquiry - ordered by Prime Minister 
Meles Zenawi - as a "whitewash" before the panel's members were even 
elected. "We do not expect anything credible to come out of this," said 
Beyene Petros of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, who voted 
against the commission in parliament.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50414]


SOMALIA: IGAD calls for the lifting of arms embargo

The subregional body that brokered Somalia's reconciliation process has 
called for the lifting of a UN arms embargo on that country to enable 
its transitional federal government (TFG) to establish security 
institutions. The council of ministers of the Inter-Governmental 
Authority on Development (IGAD), which met in the Somalia town of 
Jowhar, the temporary seat of the TFG on Tuesday, said Somalia had a 
legitimate government which should be allowed the create law enforcement 
agencies.

"The Council of Ministers underlines the necessity in recognising that 
Somalia has a legitimate government and in line with the transitional 
federal charter has the solemn right to establish, train and equip its 
law enforcement authority while seeking regional and international 
cooperation towards achieving that goal of lifting the UN arms embargo," 
the ministers said in a joint communique.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50419]


SOMALIA: Heavy rains in north, poor season in south

Two consecutive seasons of above-normal rainfall and distribution of 
relief by aid agencies in Sool, Sanag and Toghdeer regions of northern 
Somalia have led to an improvement of pastoral conditions there, 
according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). Despite the improved 
situation in the north, however, delayed and below-normal rainfall in 
southern Somalia during the current wet season was expected to lead to 
major food shortages in the region next year, the agency warned.

"Sufficient rainfall for the last two seasons led to increased livestock 
numbers and improved body condition due to availability of pasture and 
water, making livestock more productive," said Jean-Pierre Mambounou, 
head of WFP's sub-office in Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared 
republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50356]


SUDAN: New IDPs seek refuge in Gereida, South Darfur

Some 5,000 people sought refuge in Gereida town over the past week, 
following violent clashes in the conflict-torn western Sudanese state of 
South Darfur that had already displaced 15,000, the international NGO 
Oxfam reported. "We are now estimating that between 18,000 and 20,000 
IDPs [internally displaced persons] have newly arrived in Gereida, 
although the number hasn't been officially confirmed yet," Nicki 
Bennett, spokeswoman for Oxfam in Sudan, said on Wednesday.

"We are still seeing the regular arrival of households who fled their 
villages every day," she added. "Everything we are hearing indicates 
that more people will arrive over the next few days." Although the 
initial influx of IDPs was mainly from the Massalit ethnic group, the 
most recent arrivals were predominantly from the Falata community. [Full 
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50438]


SUDAN: Aid agencies prepare for large Dinka movement in the south

A group of up to 12,000 people of the Dinka ethnic group and a large 
number of cattle were approaching the southern Sudanese capital of Juba 
on the way back to their southeastern homeland in Bor, raising tensions 
in the area, aid workers said. "The Bor-Dinka have been displaced for 
the past 16 years in the western part of the country because of the 
war," Jennifer Pagonis, spokeswoman of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), 
told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Sixty-two Dinka cattle camps had fled the violence in Jonglei State 
during the 21-year civil war that claimed 2 million lives. "Return 
movements started over a year ago, and between 25 and 28 cattle camps 
have already completed their journey back," said Mario Samaja, who is 
responsible for returns and reintegration at the UN office of the deputy 
resident and humanitarian coordinator for southern Sudan, on Tuesday.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50434]


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