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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 304 for 3-9 December 2005

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

CONTENTS:

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Staff expulsion may cripple operations, warns UNMEE
ERITREA: Government rejects religious report
ETHIOPIA: Dead birds tested for bird flu
ETHIOPIA: Main opposition party calls for dialogue
SOMALIA: Somaliland, Puntland exchange detainees
SOMALIA: Leaders appeal for food aid following crop failure
SUDAN: Darfur situation becoming increasingly hostile - aid workers
SUDAN: Campaign to focus on HIV/AIDS affected children
SUDAN: Southern constitution signed as SPLA forces enter Juba

ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Staff expulsion may cripple operations, warns UNMEE

The Eritrean government decision to expel 180 members of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) may cripple peacekeeping operations in the Horn of Africa, a senior UN official said. The expulsion, announced on Tuesday, will affect all aspects of the peacekeeping mission, including supplies, transport, finance and communications, Joel Adechi, deputy head of UNMEE told reporters on Thursday.

Staff from 18 of the 44 countries that make up the 3,300-strong peacekeeping force will be affected, Adechi said via video link from Asmara. They included staff from Europe, Canada, the United States and the Russian Federation. All those expelled were given 10 days to leave Eritrea.

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ERITREA: Government rejects religious report

The Eritrean government has rejected a claim by Amnesty International (AI) that it engages in religious persecution.
In an AI report released on Wednesday entitled, "Eritrea: Religious Persecution", the agency accuses the Horn of Africa nation of denying people their right to freedom of religion. The report maintains many people in the country are detained and subjected to physical punishment - including having their hands and feet tied together behind their backs for hours - on the basis of their religious beliefs.

"We do not want to dignify this politicised report disguised in the name of defending religious freedom, but I can tell you that Eritrea is one of the very few countries in the world where there has been no religious conflict," said Ali Abdu, Eritrea?s acting minister of information.

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ETHIOPIA: Dead birds tested for bird flu

Ethiopian authorities have launched an investigation into the recent deaths of nonmigratory birds to rule out the possibility of an avian flu outbreak in the Horn of Africa nation. Dead birds from the Somali region in eastern Ethiopia and the capital city of Addis Ababa have undergone initial tests, but further analysis is needed, officials said on Friday.

"Before we can rule out avian flu we have to complete our investigations," said Dr Seleshi Zewdie, the head of the animal health department at the agriculture ministry. Scientists had carried out preliminary tests on eight birds from three different locations.

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ETHIOPIA: Main opposition party calls for dialogue

Ethiopia's main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), called on Wednesday for dialogue with the government as its detained leaders entered the 10th day of their hunger strike. Dialogue, the CUD said in a statement, was the only option for resolving their bitter dispute with the ruling party. Lawyers who visited the CUD members in prison on Wednesday said the detainees had lost a considerable amount of weight but were in good spirits. The leaders said they were in good health.

The call for dialogue came as more than 50 CUD members ended their boycott of parliament. The party had refused to assume the 109 seats it won in the 15 May parliamentary elections, claiming the vote was rigged in favour of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, the ruling party.

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SOMALIA: Somaliland, Puntland exchange detainees

Authorities in the self-declared republic of Somaliland and the self-autonomous region of Puntland have exchanged detainees who were captured 12 months ago during clashes over the disputed Sool border region. The exchange, which was organised and coordinated by aid agencies, took place on Monday at Ariade area in Sool, a flash point during previous flare-ups.

Some 24 detainees from Somaliland and 12 from Puntland were exchanged. Military officials from the two territories witnessed the event. The prisoners said they had been treated well during detention. A local analyst who did not want to be named said the trade signalled a thaw in relations between the neighbouring territories.

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SOMALIA: Leaders appeal for food aid following crop failure

Leaders in Somalia have urged the international community to help feed inhabitats of the southern region, where rain failure has led to the lowest cereal production in a decade and cattle dying for lack of water and pasture. "I wish to appeal for emergency food aid. Any food that is sent to the Somali people reaches them," Hassan Muhammed Nur, popularly known as "Shatigudud", the minister for agriculture in Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), told IRIN on Friday.

According to the Food Security Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSAU), cereal production after the gu (long) rains from April to June in southern Somalia was the lowest in a decade at 73,000 tonnes, or 44 percent of the average yield during the years of instability that followed the collapse in 1991 of the Muhamad Siyad Barre regime.

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SUDAN: Darfur situation becoming increasingly hostile - aid workers

The humanitarian environment in the western Sudanese region of Darfur is becoming increasingly hostile and clashes between various groups continue to flare up, aid workers warned. "There has been a huge increase in the number of attacks and robberies [on humanitarian workers]," said Mike McDonagh, senior humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Khartoum, on Thursday.

"Harassment is too weak a term," he added. "The physical danger aid workers have been exposed to over the last four months is a huge concern. We are very lucky that none of our staff has been killed so far."

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SUDAN: Campaign to focus on HIV/AIDS affected children

The Sudanese National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP), the UN Children?s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other partners have launched a campaign focusing on the impact of the disease on children.
They said as many as 300,000 people under age 25 in Sudan were living with the HI virus.

"Sudan is at a general epidemic state - the disease is spread all over the population. This problem must be addressed immediately, especially now with the end of war and peace returning," said Severine Leonardi, HIV/AIDS officer for UNICEF.
The five-year global Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS campaign has identified some countries around the world as "champion countries", including Sudan.

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SUDAN: Southern constitution signed as SPLA forces enter Juba

The signing on Monday of a new constitution for south Sudan marks an important milestone in the implementation of the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement, an analyst said. Salva Kiir Mayardit, the Sudanese first vice-president and president of southern Sudan, signed the document in Juba, two days after the official arrival of two full battalions of southern troops in the region's capital.

It was signed in the presence of thousands of people, and copies were given to Chief Justice Ambrose Riink and James Wani Igga, the speaker of the southern assembly. Additional copies were sent to the ministry of justice in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent HORN OF AFRICA reports:

UN envoy urges quick response to drought crisis, 21/Feb/06

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 314 for 11- 17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 313 for 4 - 10 February 2006, 10/Feb/06

EC gives €5 m for drought-affected people, 9/Feb/06

Millions facing critical food shortages, 6/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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