HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs

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Title: [SW News] (UN Integrated Regional Information Network) HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs
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Date :[26 April 2000]

HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs

Story Filed: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 9:33 PM EST

Nairobi (UN Integrated Regional Information Network, April 26, 2000) - ETHIOPIA: UN envoy warns supplies to the Horn could run out

WFP director and UN special envoy Catherine Bertini has said the UN is "reviewing its needs" for humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa, because original assessments were "based on the assumption that rains would have arrived by now". In a BBC television interview she said supplies could run out by June. Bertini - who insists the present disaster is not a famine - said if additional assistance was not forthcoming then "the consequences will be dire".

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday told journalists in Paris that famine could still be avoided in the Horn of Africa. "If those who have the capacity to help do so, we might be able to avert a disaster," he said. He made the comments after meeting Bertini on her return from the region. Annan said he had talked to leaders in Ethiopia and Eritrea about the border conflict and warned that the fighting was hindering assistance to drought victims.

ETHIOPIA: Large shipment of food arrives

A US vessel, carrying over 85,000 mt of relief commodities, has arrived in Djibouti - the largest shipment ever to arrive in the port, according to USAID officials. They said the bulk of the consignment is wheat and the unloading - which involves smaller ships - is expected to last until 4 May. According to the Ethiopian newspaper 'The Reporter', over 400 trucks a day are needed to transport the food to Ethiopia. Some 30,000 mt of the food is expected to replenish Ethiopia's Food Security Reserve, and the remainder is to be distributed by a consortium of NGOs. WFP will also receive 7000 mt to distribute to Sudanese and Somali refugees in the country, USAID officials said.

On Tuesday, the Israeli government flew in 30 mt of food and medicine to Ethiopia in two Israeli Air Force Hercules planes. The deputy director general in the Israeli foreign ministry, Haim Divon, accompanied the planes.

However, a joint statement made by Ethiopian religious leaders appealed to the international community to speed up humanitarian assistance. "We, religious leaders of Ethiopia, are worried that the assistance is not enough and is arriving too late", said the statement, which was posted on the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information Centre web site.

SOMALIA: Aideed complains of Ethiopian military activities

Mogadishu-based faction leader Hussein Aideed has charged that Ethiopian troops are providing military training and logistics in Bakool region to a rival warlord, Mohamed Hirsi Morgan. In a statement, he appealed to the UN, the Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Organisation of African Unity to intervene and investigated Ethiopia's "illegal military activities" inside Somalia. Aideed claimed there was an Ethiopian training camp in Wajiid town, Bakool. A source in the area told IRIN that training camps were known to exist and that Ethiopian backing of militia in the southern region was "an open secret". Sources in the region have also confirmed the presence of General Mohamed Hersi Morgan.

SUDAN: Sudan and Ethiopia pledge cooperation

Government delegates from Sudan and Ethiopia meeting in Gedaref, southeastern Sudan, have pledged cooperation in fields of security, trade and agriculture, Sudanese state media reported. Senior officials of Sudanese and Ethiopian provinces along the border signed on Tuesday "the Gedaref Declaration" after three days of talks. The two sides agreed on reactivating border trade, health, farming and veterinary agreements, and said feasibility studies would be conducted for building roads linking Sudanese and Ethiopian towns in the neighbouring provinces. Regular meetings every six months have been agreed, with the next one scheduled to be held in Gondar, Ethiopia, in October.

Ethiopia-Sudan relations deteriorated over issues of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in the mid-1990's but improved dramatically with the onset of the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict which flared up in 1998. Sudan subsequently withdrew logistical support that had been given to Ethiopian opposition groups.

SUDAN: US cautious of presidential ban on air raids

The US has reacted cautiously to orders issued by President Omar Bashir that air raids in the south should halt. State Department spokesman James Rubin said the ban was "generally welcomed" but that the presidential order carried a number of qualifications and ambiguities. The US is in the process of re-establishing consular functions in Khartoum, which were suspended last August.

SUDAN: IGAD opposed to Security Council talks on southern Sudan

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has rejected moves to bring the issue of southern Sudan to the UN Security Council, an executive for the regional body said in remarks published by the 'Al- Sahafi Al-Dawli' newspaper on Tuesday. IGAD Executive Director Atalla Hamad Beshir said IGAD was "strongly opposed to raising the problem at the Security Council" and said such calls were only used as pressure on the warring parties. Beshir, a Sudanese who recently took up his position, said IGAD is not opposed to an Egyptian-Libyan initiative to bring peace to the two sides. AFP reported that Beshir, based in Djibouti, is currently visiting Khartoum to prepare for a meeting of IGAD foreign ministers in the Sudanese capital next May.

This item is delivered by the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit (e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org; fax: +254 2 622129; Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN), but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.

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