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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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Southern Africa

Regions

IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 306 for 17-23 December 2005

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

CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Commission rules on border war claims
HORN OF AFRICA: EU envoy urges rethink on UNMEE restrictions
ETHIOPIA: Concerns about opposition activists' trials
ETHIOPIA: Birds test negative for avian flu
SOMALIA: Two million facing food crisis in the south
SOMALIA: First police academy opens in the northeast
SOMALIA: Needs of thousands of IDPs not addressed - OCHA
SUDAN: Twenty killed as militias raid West Darfur village
SUDAN: Children bearing the brunt of Darfur conflict - UNICEF
SUDAN: UNHCR to begin repatriating refugees from Ethiopia

HORN OF AFRICA: Commission rules on border war claims

Eritrea triggered a two-year war with Ethiopia and violated international law when it invaded its neighbour in May 1998, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (EECC) has ruled.

Both countries are likely to receive compensation for breaches of international law during the fighting, which claimed the lives of 70,000 and cost each country - two of the world's poorest - US $1 million a day.

"The commission holds that Eritrea violated the Charter of the UN by resorting to armed force to attack and occupy Badme, then under peaceful Ethiopian administration ... and is liable to compensate Ethiopia for damages caused by that violation of international law," the commission said in its ruling published on Monday.

"Once the armed attack in the Badme area occurred and Ethiopia decided to act in self-defense, a war resulted that proved impossible to restrict to the areas where that initial attack was made," it said.

The Hague-based EECC was formed to resolve claims between the Horn of Africa neighbours after the war ended in 2002. It comprises five international lawyers chosen by both countries. The claims commission has no bearing on the decision of the independent boundary commission, whose ruling still stands.

Full report

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HORN OF AFRICA: EU envoy urges rethink on UNMEE restrictions

A European Union envoy has urged the international community to continue to press for the easing of tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea in order to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa.

David Triesman, the British minister responsible for African affairs, who visited Ethiopia on behalf of the EU presidency on Saturday, told reporters in Addis Ababa it was important to defuse the situation.

"The decision to order the removal of some detachments of the UNMEE [United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea] forces, the decision to prevent helicopter flights by UNMEE forces, raises tension," he said at the end of a one-day visit to Ethiopia.

"I think that is a mistake, and we have tried to convey that to [Eritrean] President Isaias [Afwerki], although I know at present he is not willing to see representatives from the international community," Triesman said.

UNMEE, he said, was the "best preservation of security" along the increasingly volatile border between the two neighbours.

Both Horn of Africa nations have been massing troops near their common border, raising fears of a reprise of their bloody 1998-2000 boundary war, a dispute that remains unresolved.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Concerns about opposition activists' trials

Rights groups have expressed concern over the trial of 131 Ethiopian politicians, journalists and civil society members for crimes ranging from treason to genocide, and called for the trials to be monitored by an independent body.

The statements were made as Ethiopian prosecutors formally lodged charges against the defendants on Wednesday.

The defendants, who include 10 elected parliamentarians and leaders of the country's main opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), have been given until 28 December to enter their pleas.

Charges include conspiracy, causing armed uprising, trying to subvert the constitution, high treason and genocide. Bail was denied.

"These charges are shocking and outrageous," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). "They strike at the heart of Ethiopia's journalist community by criminalizing essential work of the press."

The trials arise from post-election violence in November in which at least 46 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces. In June, another 42 died in similar protests over the country's 15 May parliamentary elections.

Full report

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ETHIOPIA: Birds test negative for avian flu

Birds that were suspected of having contracted avian flu in Ethiopia have tested negative for the virus, an agriculture official said on Tuesday.

"The results from the bird flu tests we have carried out are negative," said Mulugeta Debalkew, spokesman with the agriculture ministry in Addis Ababa.

"However, we are still remaining vigilant because of the potential threat, and the ban on imports of poultry will remain in place for the time being," he said.

Scientists had flown in from Egypt to carry out the tests on more than a dozen samples because Ethiopia does not have the proper equipment to check for avian flu.

The tests revealed that the birds had died from Newcastle disease, which according to the United States Department of Agriculture is one of the most infectious poultry diseases in the world.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Two million facing food crisis in the south

An estimated two million people in southern Somalia are facing an imminent humanitarian emergency and acute livelihood crisis over the next six months, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

"Somalia is experiencing a dangerous confluence of factors that almost certainly will lead to rapidly plummeting humanitarian conditions throughout southern regions," FAO said in a statement on Wednesday.

Nick Haan, the chief technical adviser for the Food Security and Analysis Unit (FSAU) Somalia, said that as the rainy season came to an end, it was clear that "the situation is going to evolve into a humanitarian emergency that could deteriorate as early as next month".

Haan said a poor rainy season, localised resource-based conflict, market disruption and internal tensions had all combined to create the current situation.

Full report

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SOMALIA: First police academy opens in the northeast

Hamdi Hershi Mohamed, a 17-year-old female police cadet, was among the 150 recruits marching on Tuesday around the compound of the newly opened police academy at Armo, northeastern Somalia.

"I have experienced the effects of the collapse of my government. I decided to come here to defend my country, advise my people [about] peace and revive the sovereignty of my country," Mohamed said.

"I have no fear, I�m ready to defend my dignity and that of the people of my country," she added.

The khaki-clad recruits were encouraged by hundreds of enthusiastic people waving twigs and small posters bearing pictures of Somalia's interim leaders, including Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi, who was among the guests.

"The opening of the academy is a historic moment. It is the first such national institution that has been built in Somalia for a long time," said Maxwell Gaylard, UNDP Somalia resident representative and UN humanitarian coordinator.

The recruits, 130 male and 20 female, who joined the academy on 10 December were the first recruits. They were drawn from all over Somalia, Gaylard said.

Full report

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SOMALIA: Needs of thousands of IDPs not addressed - OCHA

Between 370,000 and 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) across Somalia are in urgent need of assistance and protection, a senior humanitarian official has said.

The IDP populations were living under appalling conditions in public spaces and buildings, reported the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Somalia. As most IDPs lived outside their clan area, they lacked their traditional coping and protection mechanisms.

"This IDP issue has been neglected for a very, very long time," Philippe Lazzarini, head of office for OCHA Somalia, said on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, very little has been done," he added. "It is important to show visible progress to the community. We have to act."

Many settlements were overcrowded, and even though most shelters were built from recycled garbage, many IDPs had to pay rent to the owners of the land, Lazzarini noted.

Some groups had been displaced since the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, while others were forced to relocate as a result of natural disasters such as drought and floods.

The most recent group of IDPs had been attracted by the relative stability in certain areas of the country, such as Somaliland and Puntland in the North.

Full report

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SUDAN: Twenty killed as militias raid West Darfur village

Militias riding on camels and horses attacked Abu Sarouj village in the West Darfur state of Sudan on Monday, killing 20 people and wounding 16 others, according to a United Nations official in the area.

"The attackers also burnt 50 shelters, temporarily displacing several thousand people," Andy Pendleton, the West Darfur coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN on Wednesday.

Fifteen men, three women and two children were killed. Two of the victims were burnt alive when their homes were torched. Those wounded included five policemen, Pendleton added.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people affected by the raid on Abu Sarouj brought the bodies of the victims to the provincial hospital in West Darfur's capital, El-Geneina, where the crowd ran riot and stoned a policeman to death.

"Hundreds of people gathered to protest the insecurity and beat people at random," said Pendleton. The demonstrators also stoned and damaged vehicles, including one belonging to the African Union�s mission in Darfur and another owned by the UN.

Full report

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SUDAN: Children bearing the brunt of Darfur conflict - UNICEF

At least one million children affected by the ongoing conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur are beyond the reach of current relief efforts due to insecurity, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF).

These children, it said, are living in an environment that exposed them to malnutrition, illness, violence and fear.

"Relief efforts have significantly improved the overall situation in Darfur since 2004, but persistent instability and a political stalemate mean that children have little hope for any meaningful future," said Ted Chaiban, the UNICEF country representative in Sudan, at the launch of a report on the state of children in Darfur on Thursday.

"Darfur�s children deserve the same dividends of peace which children affected by Sudan�s north-south conflict are beginning to see," he said, referring to the peace accord that was signed by the Sudanese government and rebels in January to end a 21-year war in southern Sudan.

According to the report, 80 percent of children living throughout the 200 IDP camps and surrounding areas in Darfur now have access to clean water and 65 percent have access to sanitation.

Full report

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SUDAN: UNHCR to begin repatriating refugees from Ethiopia

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to begin repatriating some 14,000 Sudanese refugees out of the 73,000 hosted in the five camps in Ethiopia next year, the head of the agency said on Monday.

The voluntary repatriation exercise is part of the planned return of some 500,000 refugees who fled southern Sudan during two decades of civil war that formally ended early in 2005 with the signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and former rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army.

Refugees will return to southern Sudan from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. The repatriation exercise is expected to cost US $60 million and take about two to three years to complete.

"This will be entirely voluntary, because there is no government pushing us to say these refugees must go home," said Antonio Guterres, head of UNHCR.

He said the repatriation would be large and complex because of the total absence of infrastructure in southern Sudan. Landmines in the region would further complicate matters.

Civil war in southern Sudan claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people and displaced an estimated four million others.

Thus far some 15,000 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia have asked to go home. They will return during the dry season which starts soon by road, while others will be flown home.

Full report

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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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