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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 304
3 - 9 February 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Staff expulsion may cripple operations, warns UNMEE
ERITREA: Government rejects religious report
ETHIOPIA: Dead birds tested for bird flu
ETHIOPIA: Main opposition party calls for dialogue
SOMALIA: Somaliland, Puntland exchange detainees
SOMALIA: Leaders appeal for food aid following crop failure
SUDAN: Darfur situation becoming increasingly hostile - aid workers
SUDAN: Campaign to focus on HIV/AIDS affected children
SUDAN: Southern constitution signed as SPLA forces enter Juba


ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Staff expulsion may cripple operations, warns UNMEE

The Eritrean government decision to expel 180 members of the United 
Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) may cripple peacekeeping 
operations in the Horn of Africa, a senior UN official said. The 
expulsion, announced on Tuesday, will affect all aspects of the 
peacekeeping mission, including supplies, transport, finance and 
communications, Joel Adechi, deputy head of UNMEE told reporters on 
Thursday.

Staff from 18 of the 44 countries that make up the 3,300-strong 
peacekeeping force will be affected, Adechi said via video link from 
Asmara. They included staff from Europe, Canada, the United States and 
the Russian Federation. All those expelled were given 10 days to leave 
Eritrea.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50570]


ERITREA: Government rejects religious report

The Eritrean government has rejected a claim by Amnesty International 
(AI) that it engages in religious persecution. In an AI report released 
on Wednesday entitled, "Eritrea: Religious Persecution", the agency 
accuses the Horn of Africa nation of denying people their right to 
freedom of religion. The report maintains many people in the country are 
detained and subjected to physical punishment - including having their 
hands and feet tied together behind their backs for hours - on the basis 
of their religious beliefs.

"We do not want to dignify this politicised report disguised in the name 
of defending religious freedom, but I can tell you that Eritrea is one 
of the very few countries in the world where there has been no religious 
conflict," said Ali Abdu, Eritrea's acting minister of information.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50529]


ETHIOPIA: Dead birds tested for bird flu

Ethiopian authorities have launched an investigation into the recent 
deaths of nonmigratory birds to rule out the possibility of an avian flu 
outbreak in the Horn of Africa nation. Dead birds from the Somali region 
in eastern Ethiopia and the capital city of Addis Ababa have undergone 
initial tests, but further analysis is needed, officials said on Friday.

"Before we can rule out avian flu we have to complete our 
investigations," said Dr Seleshi Zewdie, the head of the animal health 
department at the agriculture ministry. Scientists had carried out 
preliminary tests on eight birds from three different locations. [Full 
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50567]


ETHIOPIA: Main opposition party calls for dialogue

Ethiopia's main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy 
(CUD), called on Wednesday for dialogue with the government as its 
detained leaders entered the 10th day of their hunger strike. Dialogue, 
the CUD said in a statement, was the only option for resolving their 
bitter dispute with the ruling party. Lawyers who visited the CUD 
members in prison on Wednesday said the detainees had lost a 
considerable amount of weight but were in good spirits. The leaders said 
they were in good health.

The call for dialogue came as more than 50 CUD members ended their 
boycott of parliament. The party had refused to assume the 109 seats it 
won in the 15 May parliamentary elections, claiming the vote was rigged 
in favour of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, the 
ruling party.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50568]


SOMALIA: Somaliland, Puntland exchange detainees

Authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland and the 
self-autonomous region of Puntland have exchanged detainees who were 
captured 12 months ago during clashes over the disputed Sool border 
region. The exchange, which was organised and coordinated by aid 
agencies, took place on Monday at Ariade area in Sool, a flash point 
during previous flare-ups.

Some 24 detainees from Somaliland and 12 from Puntland were exchanged. 
Military officials from the two territories witnessed the event. The 
prisoners said they had been treated well during detention. A local 
analyst who did not want to be named said the trade signalled a thaw in 
relations between the neighbouring territories.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50523]


SOMALIA: Leaders appeal for food aid following crop failure

Leaders in Somalia have urged the international community to help feed 
inhabitats of the southern region, where rain failure has led to the 
lowest cereal production in a decade and cattle dying for lack of water 
and pasture. "I wish to appeal for emergency food aid. Any food that is 
sent to the Somali people reaches them," Hassan Muhammed Nur, popularly 
known as "Shatigudud", the minister for agriculture in Somalia's 
Transitional Federal Government (TFG), told IRIN on Friday.

According to the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU), cereal 
production after the gu (long) rains from April to June in southern 
Somalia was the lowest in a decade at 73,000 tonnes, or 44 percent of 
the average yield during the years of instability that followed the 
collapse in 1991 of the Muhamad Siyad Barre regime.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50521]


SUDAN: Darfur situation becoming increasingly hostile - aid workers

The humanitarian environment in the western Sudanese region of Darfur is 
becoming increasingly hostile and clashes between various groups 
continue to flare up, aid workers warned. "There has been a huge 
increase in the number of attacks and robberies [on humanitarian 
workers]," said Mike McDonagh, senior humanitarian affairs officer at 
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 
Khartoum, on Thursday.

"Harassment is too weak a term," he added. "The physical danger aid 
workers have been exposed to over the last four months is a huge 
concern. We are very lucky that none of our staff has been killed so 
far."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50569]


SUDAN: Campaign to focus on HIV/AIDS affected children

The Sudanese National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP), the UN Children's 
Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 
and other partners have launched a campaign focusing on the impact of 
the disease on children. They said as many as 300,000 people under age 
25 in Sudan were living with the HI virus.

"Sudan is at a general epidemic state - the disease is spread all over 
the population. This problem must be addressed immediately, especially 
now with the end of war and peace returning," said Severine Leonardi, 
HIV/AIDS officer for UNICEF. The five-year global Unite for Children, 
Unite Against AIDS campaign has identified some countries around the 
world as "champion countries", including Sudan.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50522]


SUDAN: Southern constitution signed as SPLA forces enter Juba

The signing on Monday of a new constitution for south Sudan marks an 
important milestone in the implementation of the Sudanese Comprehensive 
Peace Agreement, an analyst said. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the Sudanese 
first vice-president and president of southern Sudan, signed the 
document in Juba, two days after the official arrival of two full 
battalions of southern troops in the region's capital.

It was signed in the presence of thousands of people, and copies were 
given to Chief Justice Ambrose Riink and James Wani Igga, the speaker of 
the southern assembly. Additional copies were sent to the ministry of 
justice in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50505]


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