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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 291 for 20-26 August 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

ERITREA: USAID asked to cease operations, says US envoy
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN envoy urges resolution of border dispute
ERITREA: Blocked food aid to be distributed
ETHIOPIA: EU observers criticise elections
ETHIOPIA: Floods displace thousands in the south
SOMALIA: Religious leaders urge interim gov't to end divisions
SOMALIA: Extreme violence part of daily life - MSF
SUDAN: Southern VP appointment to boost reconciliation talks - analyst
SUDAN: UNHCR chief to highlight security problems in Darfur

ALSO SEE:

SOMALIA: Interview with Amb Francois Lounseny Fall, SRSG for Somalia
Full report

ERITREA: USAID asked to cease operations, says US envoy

The Eritrean government has asked the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to cease its operations in the Horn of Africa country, the US Ambassador said on Thursday in the capital, Asmara.

"I'm not going to go into great details about this publicly because we are still talking with [the] government about these issues," Scott DeLisi said. "They have asked us to cease operations."

Noting that he respected Eritrea's right as a sovereign state to make such decisions, the Ambassador added: "I cannot answer for you the question as to why [they made the decision]. The government has told us that they are uncomfortable with the activities of USAID; that is all I know."

Relations between the aid community and the Eritrean government have become strained in recent months, following the impounding of more than 100 project vehicles and the announcement of a new proclamation requiring aid agencies to pay taxes.

The new regulations also require international NGOs to register on an annual basis, to have at least US $2 million at their disposal in the country and to pay taxes on the import of relief aid items, including food.

Full report

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ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: UN envoy urges resolution of border dispute

Eritrea and Ethiopia must resolve the dispute over their common border because it continues to overshadow humanitarian activities and negatively impact development, a UN envoy said on Wednesday. "I cannot help recognising the fact that the border issue has not been solved. [It] has influenced not only on the humanitarian side [but also on] the use of resources by the government," said Martti Ahtisaari, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Humanitarian Crisis in the Horn of Africa.

"If I would hope for one thing to be solved, I would definitely say it is the border issue, because it overshadows everything that we do," he added at the end of a two-day visit to Eritrea. Attempts to resolve the border dispute between the two countries since the end of a bloody two-year war in 2000 are in stalemate.

Full report

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ERITREA: Blocked food aid to be distributed

Some 1,500 tonnes of food aid held up at Eritrea's Massawa Port until last week was due to be distributed to vulnerable people in Zoba Anseba administrative zone, the Red Cross Society of Eritrea said on Monday. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) recently reported that food donations for various NGOs had been blocked at Massawa since early July. WFP said the delays were caused by differences over an 11 May government proclamation on NGO activities in Eritrea requiring them to have at least US $2 million at their disposal and to pay tax on aid imports.

However, Eritrea's Minister of Labour and Human Welfare, Askalu Menkerios, said last week that such differences were not the reason for the delays. She said her ministry had paid roughly $60,000 in costs for the Red Cross shipment, which included 1,320 tonnes of wheat flour, 110 tonnes of lentils, and 91,740 litres of vegetable oil, allowing it to be cleared through customs.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: EU observers criticise elections

Ethiopia's national elections failed to meet international standards for democracy in key areas, the European Union's (EU) chief observer said on Thursday. Ana Gomes said post-polling day irregularities, delays and questionable vote counting, as well as flawed handling of complaints and re-runs of elections in some constituencies had undermined the electoral process.

The ruling party in turn accused Gomes and the EU observer mission of bias. "The report is basically biased and clearly indicates the partisan position she and her mission have taken," said Bereket Simon, Ethiopia's information minister, who regained his seat in a re-run of the election after being narrowly defeated. "She has betrayed bias despite the facts on the ground," he added.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Floods displace thousands in the south

Floods left one man dead and several thousand people homeless after heavy rains caused rivers to burst their banks in southern Ethiopia, an official said on Wednesday. The Awash River - the longest in the country at 1,200 km - burst its banks, flooding farmland and homes in the country's largest region, Oromiya. "The Awash and Meki rivers have overflowed and engulfed the surrounding farmland," Chala Horodow, the head of emergencies in the region, said. "We have helped transport people from the area that was flooded. One man was washed away in the floods."

He said more than 3,000 people had fled their homes to escape the flooding, which took place in the Gara Leman area, some 225 km south of the capital, Addis Ababa. "The water is subsiding now," he said, adding that the situation was being brought under control.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Religious leaders urge interim gov't to end divisions

Senior religious leaders in Somalia have called on the country's interim government to either end the divisions that have paralysed the administration or resign, a spokesman said on Wednesday. "It is almost a year since they [were] elected and up to now they have not accomplished one thing," Shaykh Nur Barud, deputy chairman and spokesman of the Ulama Council of Somalia, told IRIN. "They are all busy attacking each other over the media."

Barud said the country needed leadership to "pull it out of the mess" it was in. The Transitional Federal Institutions have been divided over the location of the government within Somalia following its recent relocation from Nairobi, Kenya.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Extreme violence part of daily life - MSF

Violence against civilians continues to be a major problem in the strife-torn Horn of Africa nation of Somalia, the international humanitarian aid organisation, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), said on Monday. MSF said in a statement that this year alone, it had treated more than 500 cases of violent trauma injuries in its two hospitals in the town of Galkaayo, the regional capital of central Somalia's Mudug region.

Galkaayo is divided into two halves, north and south, which fall in the separate regions of Puntland and Mudug respectively. MSF said it had been forced to operate separate hospitals in north and south Galkaayo because patients could not cross the frontline that splits it in two.

Full report

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SUDAN: Southern VP appointment to boost reconciliation talks - analyst

The appointment of Riek Machar as vice president of the southern Sudan government will boost hopes for a successful conclusion of reconciliation talks between armed groups in the region, an analyst said. Machar, who led a decade-long breakaway movement among his Nuer people before rejoining the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in 2002, was on Friday appointed by Sudan's First Vice President and President of the government of southern Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit.

Kiir, the new chairman of the SPLM/A, was himself sworn into office on 11 August, replacing John Garang who died in a helicopter crash on 30 July near the Uganda-Sudan border. "The accession of two leaders who have a better - or at least less antagonistic - rapport with the SSDF [the government-aligned South Sudan Defense Force] leadership, presents an opportunity to solve the outstanding issue of how to deal with other armed groups in southern Sudan," David Mozersky of the International Crisis Group, told IRIN on Monday.

Full report

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SUDAN: UNHCR chief to highlight security problems in Darfur

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, arrived in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on Monday to urge the government there to ensure security for displaced people living in the strife-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Guterres wwas on a 10-day visit to Sudan, Chad and Kenya, a spokesperson said. Following meetings with Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir and other government officials, Guterres visited Darfur, where fighting has displaced 1.9 million civilians.

"In Darfur, he will be underlining the need for the government of Sudan to provide additional security to its own citizens," Kitty McKinsey, regional spokesperson for UNHCR, told IRIN on Monday. "Security needs to be provided for the displaced people in the camps as well as in the villages where they would like to return to," she added.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 306 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 305 for 10-16 December 2005, 17/Dec/05

UNMEE monitoring tense border despite setbacks, 16/Dec/05

UN relocates expelled staff from Eritrea to Ethiopia, 15/Dec/05

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 304 for 3-9 December 2005, 12/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

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