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Tuesday 21 February 2006 |
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IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 309 for 7-13 January 2006[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]CONTENTS: ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Less tension on disputed border, says UNMEE Tension along the disputed Ethiopia-Eritrea border has eased following the withdrawal of eight Ethiopian troop divisions from the frontier, a senior United Nations official said on Wednesday. "We have had some reduction in tension because the force levels on the border have reduced," said Maj-Gen Rajender Singh, force commander for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). "We have not seen any large scale troop deployments inside the TSZ [Temporary Security Zone] at all," he added. "The tensions have reduced but I am not saying there are no tensions." On Monday, the United States launched a diplomatic initiative to encourage the two neighbours to demarcate their contested border, where both countries have massed troops. Full report SOMALIA: Twenty killed, thousands displaced in renewed fighting At least 20 people have been reported killed and 40 wounded in renewed interclan fighting in Galinsoor town in the Galgadud region of central Somalia. Sources said the clashes had displaced the entire population of the town, or about 10,000 people. Fighting that began on Wednesday pitted militiamen from two sub-clans of the main Hawiye clan, the Saad and Seleeban, against one another. Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting. "No one seems to know why or how it started," said Dahir Aflow, a resident of Galkayo town, 70 km north of Galinsoor. The two groups have fought over grazing land and water points sporadically since 2004. Full report SOMALIA: Thousands may starve due to drought, says TFG The Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has appealed for international food aid, saying thousands of people in parts of southern Somalia may starve unless urgently needed help arrives. "The information we are getting is that thousands, if not tens of thousands, are on the verge of starvation," Abdirahaman Dinari, TFG spokesman, said on Thursday. "If help does not arrive soon, it may be too late for many of them." Dinari compared the current drought to that experienced in Somalia in 1992, which claimed the lives hundreds of thousands of people and led to the American-led Operation Restore Hope. The situation is most serious in the Gedo and Bakool regions in south-central Somalia, he said. Full report SUDAN: Main southern militia joins SPLA South Sudan's largest militia group has announced that it will join the Sudan People's Liberation Army, formerly a rebel group and now a partner in Sudan's national unity government. Under the agreement, called the Juba Declaration of Unity and Integration, the armed forces of the two groups will merge, reducing the number of disparate armed groups in the south that have caused much insecurity. The leader of the South Sudan Defence Force, Paulino Matip, and Sudan's First Vice-President, Salva Kiir, confirmed they had reached an agreement during a ceremony in the southern capital of Juba on Monday, where they were marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Sudan's 21 year civil war. Full report SUDAN: AU condemns killing of peacekeeper in West Darfur An African Union (AU) peacekeeper in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has been killed, and ten others injured, the chairman of the 53-nation AU block said on Saturday. Alpha Oumar Konare said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack at lunchtime on Friday close to the border with Chad, with accusations from Sudan that its neighbour was behind the attack. Chad has categorically denied it was to blame. Relations between Sudan and Chad are at a low ebb, with each blaming the other for rebel attacks within their borders. The AU said they did not know who was behind the attack against them. A 30-strong Senegalese force was traveling from the town of Tine to their base in Kulbus in West Darfur, when they were ambushed, the AU said in the statement. Full report SUDAN: Landmines taking heavy toll on population Bdr Aldeen Ahmed was 25 years old the day he and a group of Sudanese soldiers walked into a booby-trapped farm in Kapoeta, a town in the southern Sudanese state of Eastern Equatoria that had been surrounded by rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). Now 36 and confined to a wheelchair, Ahmed described the day his life changed forever. "We were walking through a big farm. We could see the SPLM taking food and fuel for their people. We never saw it coming and didn't expect anything. Four officers died immediately; six others were injured," he said. The detonation of the first mine set off a network of other explosions. Ahmed was hit in the spine by a small piece of metal. Full report [ENDS]
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