U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 306
17 - 23 December 2005


CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Commission rules on border war claims
HORN OF AFRICA: EU envoy urges rethink on UNMEE restrictions
ETHIOPIA: Concerns about opposition activists' trials
ETHIOPIA: Birds test negative for avian flu
SOMALIA: Two million facing food crisis in the south
SOMALIA: First police academy opens in the northeast
SOMALIA: Needs of thousands of IDPs not addressed - OCHA
SUDAN: Twenty killed as militias raid West Darfur village
SUDAN: Children bearing the brunt of Darfur conflict - UNICEF
SUDAN: UNHCR to begin repatriating refugees from Ethiopia


HORN OF AFRICA: Commission rules on border war claims

Eritrea triggered a two-year war with Ethiopia and violated
international law when it invaded its neighbour in May 1998, the
Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (EECC) has ruled.

Both countries are likely to receive compensation for breaches of
international law during the fighting, which claimed the lives of 70,000
and cost each country - two of the world's poorest - US $1 million a
day.

"The commission holds that Eritrea violated the Charter of the UN by
resorting to armed force to attack and occupy Badme, then under peaceful
Ethiopian administration ... and is liable to compensate Ethiopia for
damages caused by that violation of international law," the commission
said in its ruling published on Monday.

"Once the armed attack in the Badme area occurred and Ethiopia decided
to act in self-defense, a war resulted that proved impossible to
restrict to the areas where that initial attack was made," it said.

The Hague-based EECC was formed to resolve claims between the Horn of
Africa neighbours after the war ended in 2002. It comprises five
international lawyers chosen by both countries. The claims commission
has no bearing on the decision of the independent boundary commission,
whose ruling still stands.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50817]


HORN OF AFRICA: EU envoy urges rethink on UNMEE restrictions

A European Union envoy has urged the international community to continue
to press for the easing of tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea in
order to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa.

David Triesman, the British minister responsible for African affairs,
who visited Ethiopia on behalf of the EU presidency on Saturday, told
reporters in Addis Ababa it was important to defuse the situation.

"The decision to order the removal of some detachments of the UNMEE
[United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea] forces, the decision to
prevent helicopter flights by UNMEE forces, raises tension," he said at
the end of a one-day visit to Ethiopia.

"I think that is a mistake, and we have tried to convey that to
[Eritrean] President Isaias [Afwerki], although I know at present he is
not willing to see representatives from the international community,"
Triesman said.

UNMEE, he said, was the "best preservation of security" along the
increasingly volatile border between the two neighbours.

Both Horn of Africa nations have been massing troops near their common
border, raising fears of a reprise of their bloody 1998-2000 boundary
war, a dispute that remains unresolved.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50757]


ETHIOPIA: Concerns about opposition activists' trials

Rights groups have expressed concern over the trial of 131 Ethiopian
politicians, journalists and civil society members for crimes ranging
from treason to genocide, and called for the trials to be monitored by
an independent body.

The statements were made as Ethiopian prosecutors formally lodged
charges against the defendants on Wednesday.

The defendants, who include 10 elected parliamentarians and leaders of
the country's main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and
Democracy (CUD), have been given until 28 December to enter their pleas.

Charges include conspiracy, causing armed uprising, trying to subvert
the constitution, high treason and genocide. Bail was denied.

"These charges are shocking and outrageous," said Ann Cooper, executive
director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
"They strike at the heart of Ethiopia's journalist community by
criminalizing essential work of the press."

The trials arise from post-election violence in November in which at
least 46 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and
security forces. In June, another 42 died in similar protests over the
country's 15 May parliamentary elections

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50820]


ETHIOPIA: Birds test negative for avian flu

Birds that were suspected of having contracted avian flu in Ethiopia
have tested negative for the virus, an agriculture official said on
Tuesday.

"The results from the bird flu tests we have carried out are negative,"
said Mulugeta Debalkew, spokesman with the agriculture ministry in Addis
Ababa.

"However, we are still remaining vigilant because of the potential
threat, and the ban on imports of poultry will remain in place for the
time being," he said.

Scientists had flown in from Egypt to carry out the tests on more than a
dozen samples because Ethiopia does not have the proper equipment to
check for avian flu.

The tests revealed that the birds had died from Newcastle disease, which
according to the United States Department of Agriculture is one of the
most infectious poultry diseases in the world.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50778]


SOMALIA: Two million facing food crisis in the south

An estimated two million people in southern Somalia are facing an
imminent humanitarian emergency and acute livelihood crisis over the
next six months, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has
warned.

"Somalia is experiencing a dangerous confluence of factors that almost
certainly will lead to rapidly plummeting humanitarian conditions
throughout southern regions," FAO said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nick Haan, the chief technical adviser for the Food Security and
Analysis Unit (FSAU) Somalia, said that as the rainy season came to an
end, it was clear that "the situation is going to evolve into a
humanitarian emergency that could deteriorate as early as next month".

Haan said a poor rainy season, localised resource-based conflict, market
disruption and internal tensions had all combined to create the current
situation.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50823]


SOMALIA: First police academy opens in the northeast

Hamdi Hershi Mohamed, a 17-year-old female police cadet, was among the
150 recruits marching on Tuesday around the compound of the newly opened
police academy at Armo, northeastern Somalia.

"I have experienced the effects of the collapse of my government. I
decided to come here to defend my country, advise my people [about]
peace and revive the sovereignty of my country," Mohamed said.

"I have no fear, I'm ready to defend my dignity and that of the people
of my country," she added.

The khaki-clad recruits were encouraged by hundreds of enthusiastic
people waving twigs and small posters bearing pictures of Somalia's
interim leaders, including Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi, who was
among the guests.

"The opening of the academy is a historic moment. It is the first such
national institution that has been built in Somalia for a long time,"
said Maxwell Gaylard, UNDP Somalia resident representative and UN
humanitarian coordinator.

The recruits, 130 male and 20 female, who joined the academy on 10
December were the first recruits. They were drawn from all over Somalia,
Gaylard said.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50802]


SOMALIA: Needs of thousands of IDPs not addressed - OCHA

Between 370,000 and 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across
Somalia are in urgent need of assistance and protection, a senior
humanitarian official has said.

The IDP populations were living under appalling conditions in public
spaces and buildings, reported the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somalia. As most IDPs lived outside
their clan area, they lacked their traditional coping and protection
mechanisms.

"This IDP issue has been neglected for a very, very long time," Philippe
Lazzarini, head of office for OCHA Somalia, said on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, very little has been done," he added. "It is important
to show visible progress to the community. We have to act."

Many settlements were overcrowded, and even though most shelters were
built from recycled garbage, many IDPs had to pay rent to the owners of
the land, Lazzarini noted.

Some groups had been displaced since the collapse of the Somali
government in 1991, while others were forced to relocate as a result of
natural disasters such as drought and floods.

The most recent group of IDPs had been attracted by the relative
stability in certain areas of the country, such as Somaliland and
Puntland in the North.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50822]


SUDAN: Twenty killed as militias raid West Darfur village

Militias riding on camels and horses attacked Abu Sarouj village in the
West Darfur state of Sudan on Monday, killing 20 people and wounding 16
others, according to a United Nations official in the area.

"The attackers also burnt 50 shelters, temporarily displacing several
thousand people," Andy Pendleton, the West Darfur coordinator for the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN on
Wednesday.

Fifteen men, three women and two children were killed. Two of the
victims were burnt alive when their homes were torched. Those wounded
included five policemen, Pendleton added.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people affected by the raid on Abu Sarouj
brought the bodies of the victims to the provincial hospital in West
Darfur's capital, El-Geneina, where the crowd ran riot and stoned a
policeman to death.

"Hundreds of people gathered to protest the insecurity and beat people
at random," said Pendleton. The demonstrators also stoned and damaged
vehicles, including one belonging to the African Union's mission in
Darfur and another owned by the UN.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50798]


SUDAN: Children bearing the brunt of Darfur conflict - UNICEF

At least one million children affected by the ongoing conflict in the
western Sudanese region of Darfur are beyond the reach of current relief
efforts due to insecurity, according to the United Nation's Children's
Fund (UNICEF).

These children, it said, are living in an environment that exposed them
to malnutrition, illness, violence and fear.

"Relief efforts have significantly improved the overall situation in
Darfur since 2004, but persistent instability and a political stalemate
mean that children have little hope for any meaningful future," said Ted
Chaiban, the UNICEF country representative in Sudan, at the launch of a
report on the state of children in Darfur on Thursday.

"Darfur's children deserve the same dividends of peace which children
affected by Sudan's north-south conflict are beginning to see," he said,
referring to the peace accord that was signed by the Sudanese government
and rebels in January to end a 21-year war in southern Sudan.

According to the report, 80 percent of children living throughout the
200 IDP camps and surrounding areas in Darfur now have access to clean
water and 65 percent have access to sanitation.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50797]


SUDAN: UNHCR to begin repatriating refugees from Ethiopia

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to begin
repatriating some 14,000 Sudanese refugees out of the 73,000 hosted in
the five camps in Ethiopia next year, the head of the agency said on
Monday.

The voluntary repatriation exercise is part of the planned return of
some 500,000 refugees who fled southern Sudan during two decades of
civil war that formally ended early in 2005 with the signing of a peace
agreement between the Sudanese government and former rebels of the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement/Army.

Refugees will return to southern Sudan from the Democratic Republic of
Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. The
repatriation exercise is expected to cost US $60 million and take about
two to three years to complete.

"This will be entirely voluntary, because there is no government pushing
us to say these refugees must go home," said Antonio Guterres, head of
UNHCR.

He said the repatriation would be large and complex because of the total
absence of infrastructure in southern Sudan. Landmines in the region
would further complicate matters.

Civil war in southern Sudan claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people
and displaced an estimated four million others.

Thus far some 15,000 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia have asked to go
home. They will return during the dry season which starts soon by road,
while others will be flown home.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50776]


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