UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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for Central and Eastern Africa
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SOMALIA: New government formed
Somali Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galayr announced on Friday the formation of his government. The cabinet consists of 25 ministers, drawn from different clans and sub-clans, news agencies reported. Thirteen of the ministers and Galayr were sworn in on Friday, in the presence of interim President Abdulqasim Salad Hasan in Mogadishu.
Uthman Jama Ali 'Kalun', from northwest Somalia, was appointed first deputy prime minister, and Hasan Abshir, from northeastern Somalia, second deputy prime minister. Abdullahi Baqor Musa 'King Kong' - also from the northeast - was appointed defence minister. The foreign minister, Isma'il Muhammad Hurreh 'Buba' had been appointed earlier, on Sunday, and was sworn in on the same day. Also on Sunday, Idris Hasan Diriyeh, was appointed government spokesman.
The administration in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwest Somalia, has declared its opposition to the new government, which was elected in August in Djibouti-hosted peace talks. Other leaders who oppose the new government include Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, Mogadishu faction leaders and Colonel Muhammad Hasan Nur 'Shatigudud', the military head of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), which operates in Bay-Bakool, southern Somalia.
SOMALIA: committee set up to investigate killing
A special committee has been set up by the interim government to investigate the killing of General Yusuf Talan. Talan, recently appointed to head a demobilisation commission, was shot dead in Mogadishu on Wednesday. Government sources told IRIN that the commission was set up "to get to the bottom of this... but we don't want to rush to conclusions". According to 'Xog-ogaal' a south Mogadishu newspaper, Talan was buried on Thursday, at Ceel Cirfeed cemetery, in the presence of interim President Abdiqasim Salad Hasan and members of the Transitional National Assembly. Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galayr announced a six-day mourning period, from Thursday.
Meanwhile, 'Ayaamaha' a south Mogadishu daily, reported that demonstrations had been held close to the Sahafi Hotel, where the general was killed, to protest against the killing. Demonstrators demanded the immediate arrest of the perpetrators. No one has so far claimed responsibility, but the killers are said to be allied to faction leader Uthman Ali Ato, diplomatic and political sources told IRIN.
SOMALIA: Hungriest country says UN
The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, FAO, rates Somalia the hungriest country, along with Afghanistan and Haiti. The FAO published a "depth of hunger" measurement in its annual food security report, which compared the average dietary intake of the undernourished in a country with the minimum requirement needed to maintain body weight under light activity. The FAO found that hungry Somalis were missing 27 percent of their minimum requirement, compared to 26 percent in Afghanistan and 24 percent in Haiti.
Meanwhile, USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), in its monthly food security update, raised concern over the livestock ban announced on 19 September this year. The ban was imposed by Saudi Arabia and later by all the Gulf countries. The report says that if it was "a comprehensive ban involving all livestock species and all Gulf markets, the implications for the economy and food security are very grave". This was especially so for the central and northern Somali regions, where the economy depended almost entirely on livestock exports.
ETHIOPIA: Rift Valley Fever impact
A report produced by the UN Country Team in Ethiopia has said the Rift Valley Fever (RVF) ban imposed by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states will have far-reaching implications in the Ethiopian Somali National Regional State. According to the UN Emergency Unite in Ethiopia's (EUE} October report, more than two-thirds of household incomes are based on livestock production and trade. Somali "blackhead" sheep are in high demand by consumers in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It said Somali State livestock shipped through the ports of Berbera, in the self-declared state of Somaliland (northwestern Somalia), and Bosaaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland (northeastern Somalia) in 1997 was nearly three million head, valued at US $120 million. During the period of the Saudi RVF ban in 1998, livestock prices dropped by about 30 percent, while consumer products increased by about 25 percent. See http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/cea/countrystories/somalia/20000922.phtml for special report on ban).
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: New mission for the displaced
A UN-led inter-agency mission will visit Ethiopia and Eritrea to look into the problems of internally displaced persons (IDPs), particularly in the light of the recent fighting during the two-year border conflict. The mission will be led by Dennis McNamara, the UN Special Coordinator on Internal Displacement, and will include representatives from humanitarian agencies and NGOs. In a press conference in Nairobi, McNamara said that once the mission reached Ethiopia and Eritrea it would be joined by representatives from WHO, UNICEF, FAO and Human Rights, as well as the Red Cross. He said it was a new setup, which would create a network of all the agencies concerned with internally displaced people. Although the problem of IDPs was "enormous", no single UN organisation with a specific mandate for IDPs existed at present, he explained, in spite of the fact that the population of IDPs worldwide was probably double that of refugees, most of the IDPs being in Africa. There were big displacements in Eritrea and Ethiopia as a result of the war, and Sudan alone "has about four million displaced people", he pointed out.
SUDAN: Vice-president dismissed
President Umar al-Bashir dismissed his second vice-president, George Kongor Arop, on Sunday. A statement released by the government gave no reason for the surprise decision, news agencies reported. George Kongor, who is southern Sudanese, has been a close assistant to Bashir since he was appointed to the post in 1992. The day before his dismissal, Kongor had been on an inspection tour of Khartoum teaching hospital, after which he was summoned by Bashir, who informed him of the decision, press reports said. The Sudanese constitution provides that the country's second vice-president be a southerner.
SUDAN: Condemnation for renewed bombing
Sudanese government planes bombed two civilian targets in Ikotos and Parajok in eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, on 15 October. The US Committee for Refugees said in a press release on Monday that the bombings "appear to indicate that Sudanese officials are prepared to intensify their bombing campaign against civilians and international humanitarian aid workers in southern Sudan now that their bid for a Security Council seat has been defeated". It said there had been four bombings of civilian or humanitarian sites this week, following "a three-week bombing lull that preceded the 10 October vote by the UN General Assembly to select new members to the Security Council". Sudan was defeated in the final vote, with the US leading a campaign against its bid on the basis of its human rights record and alleged involvement in terrorism.
The US Committee for Refugees called on the US government, the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to officially condemn each aerial bombing in southern Sudan. "Occasional criticisms of the bombings voiced by foreign policy makers are insufficent," it said.
SUDAN: British government "must respond"
Little attention has been paid to the development needs of the people of southern Sudan, where chronic conflict has "systematically destroyed the social fabric of institutions sustaining food security, education and health care". In a joint statement, Christian Aid and Oxfam said despite humanitarian efforts in the war-affected south, underdevelopment had become institutionalised. "Southern Sudan now represents one of the most glaring examples of development failure in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa", the statement said. It criticised British government policy for "reducing development assistance while war continued", saying it had done little to further the pursuit of peace.
British non-governmental organisations working in southern Sudan called on the British government to step up efforts to secure a negotiated settlement to the conflict, sustain the provision of humanitarian assistance and respond urgently "to the development disaster in the Sudan".
Nairobi, 20 October
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