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HORN OF AFRICA
IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-Up 292
27 August - 2 September 2005


CONTENTS:

ERITREA: Concerns over impact of possible USAID withdrawal
ERITREA: Foreign Minister dies of heart attack
ETHIOPIA: Prime minister brands EU election report "garbage"
ETHIOPIA: UN envoy calls for greater flexibility in providing aid
SOMALIA: Human rights abuses rampant, says expert
SOMALIA: EU urges leaders to resolve rifts within gov't
SUDAN: New interim parliament convenes
SUDAN: More support needed for returning refugees and IDPs - UNHCR

ALSO SEE:

SUDAN: Coming to terms with Garang's death at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48854


HORN OF AFRICA: Serious funding shortfall in east, south - WFP at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48798

ERITREA: Concerns over impact of possible USAID withdrawal

Humanitarian officials in Eritrea have expressed uncertainty about how 
the probable departure of the US Agency for International Development 
(USAID) would affect food security in the aid-dependent Horn of Africa 
state. In July, Eritrea, one of the world's most food aid-dependent 
countries, asked USAID - its largest donor of food aid - to stop 
operations, saying it was uncomfortable with the agency's work.

"Right now, it is wait and see [whether the UN World Food Programme 
(WFP) would be affected]," said Jean-Pierre Cebron, WFP Country Director 
in Eritrea, echoing the sentiments of other aid workers. A senior US 
State Department and USAID delegation arrived in Eritrea at the weekend 
to discuss food aid and other issues. The Deputy Assistant Secretary for 
African Affairs at the US State Department, Donald Yamamoto, left the 
country on Monday; two senior USAID officials were also expected to 
leave this week.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48864]


ERITREA: Foreign Minister dies of heart attack

Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Said died of a heart attack on Sunday, 
Eritrean Minister of Information Ali Abdu said.

"It's a great loss for this country," he said on Sunday in Asmara, the 
Eritrean capital. Abdu said he died in his sleep at 0600 a.m. (0300 
GMT). In 1965, Said, the son of a Muslim shepherd, received medical and 
military training in Syria before going to the field with the Eritrean 
Liberation Front, one of two groups fighting for independence from 
Ethiopia.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he became a leading military commander with the 
Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which later became the People's 
Front for Democracy and Justice, currently the Red Sea state's governing 
party. In 1992, after Eritrea had won its 30-year war for independence 
from Ethiopia, but had not yet officially declared independence, he was 
appointed secretary for internal affairs in the provisional government.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48795]


ETHIOPIA: Prime minister brands EU election report "garbage"

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described as "garbage" on Monday 
an EU election report that raised doubts over the fairness of the 
country's recently concluded national polls. "The statement, in my view, 
shows that the mission has turned out to be something worse than a 
farce," he said at a news conference in Addis Ababa, the capital. "We 
shall, in the coming days and weeks, see what we can do to expose the 
pack of lies and innuendoes that characterise the garbage in this 
report," he added.

The EU's chief election observer, Ana Gomes, said on Thursday that key 
aspects of Ethiopia's 15 May parliamentary elections had failed to meet 
international standards. She reported widespread human rights abuses and 
said opposition members were arrested and witnesses to election 
violations intimidated.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48819]


ETHIOPIA: UN envoy calls for greater flexibility in providing aid

Greater flexibility in providing aid to Ethiopia is needed to tackle 
widespread hunger and underdevelopment in the region, the Special Envoy 
of the UN Secretary-General for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of 
Africa, Martti Ahtisaari, said on Sunday. "Our difficulties now are in 
the non-food [area]," he said. While donors had provided more than 130 
percent of food needs for the country, he said, vital areas like 
emergency health, water and sanitation were seriously underfunded.

Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, said seven to eight million 
Ethiopians would survive on foreign aid in 2005. He also said the 
government was working to end problems with its flagship safety net 
scheme, which is aimed at ending perennial hunger in the country. Under 
the scheme, five million chronically hungry people are to be given food 
or cash - around six Ethiopian birr (US $0.70) - in return for engaging 
in public works tasks such as road building.

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48796]


SOMALIA: Human rights abuses rampant, says expert

Human rights violations, including harassment of minorities and 
trafficking in human beings, have remained rampant in Somalia despite 
the creation of a transitional government for that country, an 
independent expert said on Thursday.

"The human rights situation has not improved," Ghanim Alnajjar, the UN 
Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia, told a 
news conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at the end of an 11-day 
mission to Somalia.

He said the fledgling Somali transitional federal government lacked the 
capacity to deal with the human rights problem, mainly because it had 
still not established its authority on the ground. That government - led 
by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed - was formed in Nairobi in October 
2004 and relocated to Somalia in June 2005. Alnajjar said minorities 
continued to be harassed and the lack of an authority to police 
Somalia's long coastline had encouraged human trafficking.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48861]


SOMALIA: EU urges leaders to resolve rifts within gov't

The European Union (EU) has urged Somalia's interim leaders to resolve 
wrangles amongst the different institutions of their transitional 
government so that donors can release some aid, an EU official said. 
Derek Fee, acting head of the EU mission responsible for Somalia, said a 
meeting held on Tuesday with the interim Somali Prime Minister, Ali 
Muhammad Gedi, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which discussed the 
wrangles had been "very positive".

Gedi, he added, told the meeting that "dialogue was the way forward" in 
resolving the problems within the Somali transitional institutions. 
"This is what the international community wants to hear," Fee told IRIN 
on Wednesday. "The messages coming from the prime minister are very 
positive. The EU is ready to support [him]."

[Full story at: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48842]


SUDAN: New interim parliament convenes

Sudan's new interim National Assembly, appointed by decree by President 
Umar al-Bashir, held its first session on Wednesday as the country 
reached another milestone in the implementation of a peace agreement 
that ended the country's 21-year conflict. The 450 members of the 
assembly were appointed according to power-sharing quotas agreed under 
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudanese government and 
the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on 9 
January.

In a speech to the joint session of the interim National Assembly and 
the State Council - the two houses of parliament - Bashir affirmed the 
country's commitment to bringing about lasting development to all parts 
of the country. "The setting up of the National Assembly and the State 
Council is [a] new beginning for national unity and accord," he said.

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48866]


SUDAN: More support needed for returning refugees and IDPs - UNHCR

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has urged the 
international community to donate more resources for the reconstruction 
of southern Sudan as one of the world's largest displaced populations 
begins to return home.

"I call on the international community to be strongly involved in the 
recovery of Sudan," Guterres told reporters on Wednesday in the Kenyan 
capital, Nairobi, following a 10-day visit to Sudan, Chad and Kenya.


He said the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, was doing as much as it could - 
with limited funds - to improve life in southern Sudan so people who 
fled their homes during the 21 years of civil war between the north and 
south could go home. "During centuries, very little has been done in 
southern Sudan," he said. "We have not a problem of reconstruction; we 
effectively have a problem of construction. Most things are missing."

[Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48856]


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2005


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