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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 292 for 27 August-2 September 2005

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

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
Full report

HORN OF AFRICA: Serious funding shortfall in east, south - WFP
Full report

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 report

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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 report

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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 report

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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 report

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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 report

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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 report

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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 report

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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. "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 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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