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for Central and Eastern Africa
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SUDAN: Fifteen officers dead in plane crash
A Sudanese military aircraft carrying 31 senior army officers from the capital Khartoum to Adar Yill, Upper Nile, crashed at the Adar Yill airstrip on Wednesday. "The plane lost control on touchdown," a Sudanese official at the Nairobi embassy told IRIN. The official said that 15 people had been killed, including Colonel Ibrahim Shams al-Din, the minister of state for defence. Sixteen others were rescued from the aircraft, including the deputy chief of staff of operations, General Ja'far. According to the official, Shams al-Din was a member of the Revolutionary Council that overthrew the civilian government in 1989, and brought the current head of state, President Umar al-Bashir, to power. He said Shams al-Din and the officers were on a "routine visit to a military post".
In a report monitored by the BBC, Sudanese official television said the general command of the Armed Forces had announced "the death of its martyrs... [who] were on an inspection visit in the area". Names of the (remaining) dead released by the government were: Staff Lt-Gen Amir Qasim Musa; Maj Dr Malik al-Aqib al-Hajj al-Khidr; Maj-Gen Bakri Umar Khalifah; Maj-Gen Sayyid al-Ubayd Abd al-Halim; Maj-Gen Kamal al-Din Ali al-Amin; Maj-Gen Ali Arik Kakuwan; Maj-Gen Yasin Arabi Muhammad; Maj Faysal Isa Abu Fatimah; Brig-Gen Engineer Umar al-Amin Karrar; Staff-Brig Ahmad Yusuf Mustafa; Staff-Brig Jimmy Apolo Modeh; Colonel Engineer Uthman Ahmad al-Mustafa; Lt-Gen Umar Uthman Ali Jaramba; and Corporal Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Ya'qub.
The crash of the plane was caused by bad weather, a Sudanese official told IRIN. A government spokesperson in Khartoum ruled out the possibility that a rebel attack had brought the plane down, the BBC said.
SUDAN: Kenyan aid workers released
Two Kenyan nationals working with the US humanitarian agency Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) were handed over to the Kenyan ambassador on 31 March, in Khartoum. The release followed a plea by the visiting Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi to the Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir, a government source told IRIN.
The Kenyans were among the four ADRA workers abducted by a militia group loyal to Gordon Kong Chuol on 8 March. They were released by the militia on 16 March, but were then held in government "safe house" until Saturday. According to official sources, the humanitarian workers were held for being in the country "without proper visas".
SUDAN: Rebels want UN rights observer appointed
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said a UN Human Rights observer should be appointed for Sudan, and should have access to both government and rebel-held areas. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told IRIN that the appointment of an observer was important, "because human rights are being abused frequently". He pointed to the arrest of opposition leaders, including Hasan al-Turabi, and the forced displacement of civilians around the oilfields in south. Kwaje said there had also been a policy of displacement in Bahr al-Ghazal, with the government deliberately settling "non-indigenous" people from northern areas. "We believe the situation needs to be watched very closely." According to Kwaje, the SPLA had held talks with a representative from the UN Human Rights Commission and had called for such an appointment to be made.
Last week, the Sudanese government rejected recommendations by the UN Human Rights Commission for an observer to be appointed for Sudan. The government said it would accept the input of an international human rights expert, but that an observer was "not necessary".
SUDAN: Nuba leader dies of cancer
Yusuf Kuwah Makki, rebel regional governor of the Nuba mountains, died of cancer on 31 March in London, UK. A senior member of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), Kuwah had been replaced as regional governor by Commander Abd al-Aziz Adam al-Hinu, a spokesman for the regional secretariat office told IRIN. Spokesman Yunan Musa Kunda said Kuwah's death had been announced in Nuba on the same day through the radio network. His body would be flown back to "the liberated areas of [the] Nuba mountains", but the time and place would not be announced because of possible security problems, Kunda said. The spokesman described the reaction in the Nuba Mountains as "quiet" as people had been aware of Kuwah's state of health for some time; he had been diagnosed with cancer in 1998.
SUDAN: Nile Basin ministers agree on development
Meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nile Council of Ministers have agreed to cooperate on development projects. The participating ministers approved a number of Nile basin development projects, including projects for irrigation, electricity and the environment, Suna said. Projects to develop research, training and exchange of information on water resources were also approved, Suna said. Nile basin countries include Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The decision was reached at the end of a meeting held from 28 to 30 March.
The closing session of the meeting also approved the establishment of projects for the eastern Nile group of countries. These are Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, with Eritrea participating as an observer, said Suna. Among the projects to be carried out in the eastern Nile area were the establishment of early warning systems and preservation projects. The Nile group scheduled the first meeting of the International Consortium for Cooperation on the Nile (ICCON) - a donor group led by the World Bank - for 26 June in Geneva, local Sudanese and Ethiopian news agencies said.
SUDAN-KENYA: Moi calls for "acceptable" autonomy
At the end of the visit by the President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya to Khartoum, Sudan, the two governments issued a joint communiqué, the Sudanese News Agency (Suna) said on 30 March. The communiqué said talks between Moi and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir had focused on ways to "re-invigorate" the peace process for southern Sudan. The two sides agreed to hold a summit of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) committee on southern Sudan as soon as possible, Suna said. The two presidents said there was need for progress in the peace initiative to achieve a "permanent and just peace".
During the talks, Moi suggested that the Sudanese government include freedom of religion and worship in its constitution, the government-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) radio said. He also suggested that southern Sudan be granted autonomy, within an "acceptable non-federal or federal structure", KBC said.
Moi also visited the Petroleum Research Centre in Khartoum and the refinery at Al-Jayli, north of Khartoum. He congratulated Sudan on becoming a "leading petroleum producer", KBC radio said. Moi called for the promotion of trade between Sudan and Kenya and within regional trade bodies like the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
SOMALIA: Released UN hostages arrive in Nairobi
The two UN hostages held in Mogadishu, who were released on Wednesday by their captors, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, at 1625 local time. A UN press statement said Roger Carter and Bill Condie of the UN security office were transferred to Jazira airstrip, where they were picked up by a UN plane. Jazira is an airstrip southwest of Mogadishu, jointly controlled by faction leaders Usman Ato and Muse Sudi Yalahow. The two were kidnapped on 27 March by militia loyal to faction leader Muse Sudi. The released hostages arrived in good health, and were met by a physician and a psychologist, the UN said.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Randolph Kent told reporters at the airport that the UN was pleased by the release, and had not been directly involved in the negotiations. "The UN does not pay ransoms," Kent told journalists. On Wednesday, the two security officers were brought from their place of captivity in the north of the city to the house of Umar Muhammad 'Finish', right hand man of Muse Sudi, a Mogadishu-based correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
SOMALIA: People flee tension in Bulo Hawa
The southern Somali border town of Bulo Hawa, Gedo Region, is said to be almost deserted after people fled heavy fighting on Friday. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that most of the town's population of an estimated 25,000 had fled, after at least 30 people were killed in a battle between two sub-clans. Over 30 casualties were admitted to a hospital in the neighbouring border town of Mandera, Kenya, humanitarian sources told IRIN. The NGO Trocaire said it had provided emergency medical supplies to Mandera, and a Trocaire doctor was operating out of Mandera hospital with surgical cases.
Most of the displaced were renting accommodation or staying with relatives in Mandera, Kathleen Fahy of Trocaire said. The Kenya authorities have opened the border to fleeing civilians. No organised assistance had been provided for the refugees, but elders had discussed with Kenyan authorities the possibility of opening a temporary camp, humanitarian sources said. "It is very likely that the displaced will return to Bulo Hawa as tension eases," she told IRIN. Trocaire said it was monitoring the situation closely. Elders and religious leaders are trying to negotiate a settlement between the sub-clans involved in the fighting.
Local sources said the fighting was sparked off after a prominent figure from the Eldhere sub-clan was arrested by the local Rer Hasan-run administration. He was charged with being a member of the Islamic Al-Ittihad group. Eldhere militia attacked the police station and released him, which triggered a surprise attack by Rer Hasan militia. Local sources say that the Eldhere are pushing to regain control of Bulo Hawa, "which they lost because of external support for the Rer Hasan". There had been tension in the town since Ethiopian troops pulled out, the source said. The Rer Hasan administration has used a former Ethiopian base just outside the town, which was described as a well-defended spot with deep trenches.
The Ethiopian government has strongly denied that it had troops in Bulo Hawa at any time. According to statements by the Ethiopian government, it has, however, protected the mutual border against the threat posed to Ethiopia by Al-Ittihad.
SOMALIA: Editor released over women's death sentence
An editor jailed for reporting that two women had been sentenced to death has been released in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia. Abdishakur Yusuf Ali was released on Sunday, 1 April, after spending 36 days in detention on charges of publishing false information. He told IRIN in a telephone interview that he had been released for lack of evidence. According to Abdishakur, he was first brought before the court on 25 March, when the police asked for more time to bring witnesses. He was brought back to court on 1 April, but police failed produce any witnesses. Abdishakur told IRIN the court dismissed the case and "gave me the right to sue the authorities for unlawful detention".
He was arrested in late February when the Puntland administration accused him of publishing "false assertions". He had reported that two women living together had been sentenced to death for "unnatural behaviour".
ETHIOPIA: Poor donor response to drought
The UN has received only 2.4 percent of the funds requested from international donors to tackle the effects of drought in the Horn of Africa. Catherine Bertini, Special Envoy for Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, praised the response of the donor community to last year's food crisis, but said more was needed. Speaking at the International Livestock Research Institute in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, she asked: "Do we have to continue to scream that the sky is falling in to be well funded?"
The appeal for funds was launched in January, aiming to provide clean water, health care, seeds and tools, and to rebuild livestock populations throughout the region.
Bertini, who is also Executive Director of the World Food Programme, highlighted problems in the pastoralist areas of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti. She said these had borne the major burden of regional drought, and some had lost over 50 percent of their livestock. She said up to 70 percent of pastoralist communities in Somalia had been badly affected by the drought. Food insecurity in the region had been exacerbated by the ban on animal exports to the Gulf, imposed in September 2000 when the first outbreaks of Rift Valley fever outside Africa appeared in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Bertini emphasised that many pastoralists relied on the livestock export market to survive, particularly in times of drought in the Horn. [See also SOMALIA: IRIN Special - The Berbera Lifeline, Part I and Part II].
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Deployment of troops will continue
Eritrea will resume rearranging its armed forces on 5 April so that the process of establishing a buffer zone on the contested Ethiopian-Eritrean border can continue. The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said the Eritrean commissioner for coordination had made it clear that the decision to rearrange forces was "unconditional and would be completed shortly after 5 April". Eritrea suspended its rearrangement of forces because of objections regarding the southern boundary of the proposed Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The Eritrean Commissioner, Amdeberhan Giorgis said that Eritrea nevertheless "expected UNMEE to make adjustments regarding the southern boundary... to address Eritrean objections and permit the return of Eritrean displaced persons".
An UNMEE statement on 30 March said the commissioner announced the decision at a meeting in Asmara with UNMEE's Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ian Martin, and UNMEE's Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert.
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Military meeting to be held in Djibouti
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) will hold its Military Coordination Committee (MCC) meeting on Friday in Djibouti, UNMEE spokeswoman Angela Walker told IRIN. The meeting had earlier been scheduled to take place on 28 March, but was postponed. Walker said the force commander had decided to postpone the MCC meeting until 6 April "so that talks with both parties on political and military levels could continue". The MCC meeting is scheduled to bring together Eritrean and Ethiopian senior military officers, under the chairmanship of UNMEE Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert. The meeting comes after Eritrea announced it would resume the withdrawal of its forces from the proposed Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) on the border. UNMEE complained in March that Ethiopian units were back inside the TSZ.
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Special Representative visits operation area
Special Representative for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) Legwaila Joseph Legwaila toured the western sector of UNMEE's area of operations on Tuesday. Legwaila was briefed by UN peacekeepers and local authorities in Barentu and Om Hajer, western Eritrea, and in the Humera region, in northwestern Ethiopia [Humera was incorrectly described as being situated in western Eritrea in IRIN's 5 April Update] and Badme (on the disputed border) on "military and humanitarian priorities", an UNMEE statement said on 4 April. There are approximately 900 Jordanian peacekeepers and 90 military observers currently deployed in the western sector, which was the scene of heavy fighting during the recent border conflict.
Legwaila, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG), was accompanied by UNMEE Force Commander Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert and other senior UNMEE and UN officials. UNMEE personnel reported that they were engaged in a de-mining operation in the area, and that a western sector mobility study was under way. At a luncheon hosted by senior local administrators in the Humera region, Legwaila said he hoped "people... would soon be able to cross the Humera bridge that connects the two countries and resume normal relations as neighbours", UNMEE said.
Nairobi, 6 April 2001
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