"); NewWindow.document.close(); return false; } // end hiding from old browsers -->

Tuesday 20 December 2005


Search

Regions

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 298 for 8-14 October 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Asmara imposes more restrictions on peacekeepers
ETHIOPIA: Fresh cabinet faces as Meles starts new term
ETHIOPIA: Opposition MPs stripped of parliamentary immunity
ERITREA: Demining activities halted following helicopter flight ban
SOMALIA: TFG seeks help to police coastline as pirates strike again
SOMALIA: Pirates commandeer another ship off Somali coast
SOMALIA: Arms embargo violations on the rise, UN team says
SUDAN: Aid delivery hampered by road closures in West Darfur
SUDAN: AU to refer Darfur situation to UN Security Council

ALSO SEE:

SOMALIA: Interview with Mark Bradbury, Somaliland poll observer
Full report

SUDAN: Violence forces many to flee North Darfur
Full report

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Asmara imposes more restrictions on peacekeepers

The Eritrean government has imposed more restrictions on the movement of United Nations peacekeepers in the country, days after grounding UN helicopter flights, a spokesperson said. The spokesperson for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Gail Bindley Taylor-Sainte, said the new restrictions limited night vehicle patrols. Given the new restrictions, the UN could not rule out the possibility of a renewed military build-up along the tense Ethiopia-Eritrea border, she added.

"Because there are areas we cannot see, we cannot categorically rule out the fact that there might be a military build up," she told reporters from the Eritrean capital, Asmara. Since the restrictions of flights, UN peacekeepers have had their "operational efficiency" and reconnaissance cut by more than half in the 1,000 km-long border region.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

ETHIOPIA: Fresh cabinet faces as Meles starts new term

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced a sweeping cabinet reshuffle this week, pledging to overcome weaknesses in government and implement policies to end poverty. The new team is expected to cement Meles’s 14-year legacy of power by pushing through reforms and improving governance. Critics, however, say many of the new ministers will not be accountable to parliament because they were not elected by the people and do not reflect the ethnic diversity of the country.

In the changes, some of Meles’s closest supporters and senior ministers lost their jobs. In all, 11 ministers were replaced and one incumbent moved to a new post. The team was unanimously approved by parliament on Tuesday. Those who were dropped included Education Minister Genet Zewdie, Health Minister Kebede Tadesse and Information Minister Bereket Simon.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

ETHIOPIA: Opposition MPs stripped of parliamentary immunity

Opposition members of parliament in Ethiopia could face prosecution after their immunity was lifted following a boycott of the opening session of the legislature, MPs loyal to the government decided on Tuesday. The decision sparked a mass walkout by around 40 opposition law makers who had taken up their seats despite an increasingly hostile stand-off between the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and the largest opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD).

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told parliament the CUD had committed "serious crimes" by threatening to take power through street demonstrations and insurrection during bitterly contested May elections dogged by allegations of fraud and vote rigging. "If they take illegal actions then this government has to see to it the constitution is protected," Meles told parliament on its second day.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

ERITREA: Demining activities halted following helicopter flight ban

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Friday that it had suspended its mine clearance activities in Eritrea after the government imposed a ban on the mission's helicopter flights. "According to the agreement that we have signed [with Eritrea] we cannot carry out demining activities without a helicopter on standby because if there is an accident we would have no way of taking that person out," Gail Bindley-Taylor-Sainté, UNMEE spokeswoman, told the UN News Service.

Eritrea demanded that with effect from 5 October, all UN helicopters cease using its airspace. Bindley-Taylor-Sainté said helicopter access was a mandatory safety requirement during mine clearance. "One of the things that we're concerned about is the need for a medical evacuation in case a deminer steps on a mine," she added.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SOMALIA: TFG seeks help to police coastline as pirates strike again

Amid escalating incidents of sea piracy, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has urged its neighbours and the international community to help police the Somali coastline. The appeal followed the hijacking on Wednesday of a ship chartered by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to deliver food aid to the Lower Juba Valley in southern Somalia.

On Friday, however, WFP announced that the ship had been released by the hijackers.

It was the second WFP-chartered vessel to be commandeered within four months. On 27 June pirates commandeered the MV Semlow, which was loaded with 850 tonnes of rice for tsunami survivors. It was released on 4 October after being held for almost 100 days. Wednesday's hijacking occurred as the ship off-loaded its cargo in the beach port of Merka, 100 km south of the capital, Mogadishu.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SOMALIA: Pirates commandeer another ship off Somali coast

One week after a vessel carrying food aid to tsunami survivors in Somalia was released by pirates, another ship has been commandeered off the coast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a local source said on Wednesday. "I can confirm that the MV Torgelow was hijacked by pirates off the Mogadishu coast," Ali Beerey Adow, spokesman for the El-Maan Port authority in northern Mogadishu, said.

The Mombasa-based, St Vincent and The Grenadines-registered ship had been expected to dock at El-Maan on Sunday, Adow said. It was not yet clear where the hijackers seized the ship and where they had taken it. "All I can tell you is it was headed north," added Adow. Inayat Kudrati, of the Motaku Shipping Agency, which runs both vessels, said the vessel, with a crew of nine Kenyans and a Sri Lankan captain, was chartered by Somali traders and was carrying a cargo of 1,000 tonnes of "different merchandise".

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SOMALIA: Arms embargo violations on the rise, UN team says

Violations of a UN arms embargo by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), its opponents in the capital, Mogadishu, and certain parties in the region have recently taken a "sustained and dramatic upswing", a monitoring team said. In its most recent report released on 4 October, the team said the increased arms inflow was a manifestation of "highly aggravated political tensions between the TFG and the opposition".

This, it added, had given rise to increased militarisation of both sides, resulting in a severely elevated threat of widespread violence in Somalia. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a four-member panel of experts to investigate violations of the embargo against Somalia in September 2002.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SUDAN: Aid delivery hampered by road closures in West Darfur

Rampant insecurity has led to the closure of roads out of El Geneina, the capital of the strife-torn Sudanese state of West Darfur, hindering the work of humanitarian agencies, aid workers said. "With each passing day we are in a race against time to get assistance to over half a million people to whom we have lost regular access," Andy Pendleton, area coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in West Darfur, said in El Geneina on Sunday.

"The situation is desperate, more desperate than ever before," he warned. With the roads closed since mid-September, a single helicopter was the only means left to humanitarian agencies to deliver assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SUDAN: AU to refer Darfur situation to UN Security Council

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has decided that the issue of the "deteriorating security situation" in the western Sudanese region of Darfur be refered to the UN Security Council. The decision, taken at the end of an emergency meeting on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, came after the killing and kidnapping of AU peacekeepers in the region.

Togolese ambassador Esaw Koffi told journalists the AU unreservedly condemned the weekend violence against its personnel.

The AU also asked the Sudanese government to process the paperwork for the delivery of 105 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) "necessary for the protection of our personnel" in Darfur, which were currently in Dakar, Senegal, Koffi said.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

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

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 303 for 26 November-2 December 2005, 2/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Volume of food aid causes transport bottleneck, 19/Dec/05

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

MIDDLE EAST: Appeal to Arab world to give more to world’s poorest, 16/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 16/Dec/05

ZIMBABWE: Health budget fails to address brain drain, 16/Dec/05

[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about IRIN's Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2005
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.