ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN prepares peacekeeping
mission
A United Nations reconnaissance team
preparing for the deployment of peacekeepers between Eritrea and Ethiopia,
was visiting Addis Ababa on Wednesday after successfully completing a four-day
visit to the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Major-General Timothy Ford, leading the mission told the BBC, however, that no peacekeeping force would be able to keep the two sides apart if they chose to resumed hostilities. The UN and the OAU have stressed the need to deploy peacekeepers as rapidly as possible. The reconnaissance team said they planned to have the first group of liaison officers in both capitals before the end of the week, even though the deployment of a large multinational force of armed peacekeepers and unarmed military observers was likely to take some months. The UN Security Council is still to announce a timetable, approve the mandate and decide on the size of the peacekeeping force. In his initial report to the Security Council on 30 June, the UN Secretary-General said "It is envisaged that up to a total of 100 United Nations military observers would gradually be deployed to each country over the next two months, pending the report on the implementation of that resolution and on the humanitarian situation in Eritrea and Ethiopia".
Ethiopia has informed the UN that the size of the UN peacekeeping force should be based on the length of the frontier and the topography of the region, Ethiopian newspapers have reported. Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told the UN team to lay the groundwork for the mission in a manner that reflects the length of the 1,000 km border, reported the government-owned Addis Zemen and the Ethiopian Herald. "The size of the peacekeeping force should also take into account the topography of the terrain along the border, and the force should be efficient and effective", Seyoum was quoted as saying. Much of the terrain is mountainous, isolated and without good road access.
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia ready for "direct" talks
At the summit of the Organisation of African nity (OAU) in Lome, Togo, AFP quoted the prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, as saying his country was ready for direct talks with Eritrea. "For us the war is over," he said. "We are ready for direct talks." The two neighbouring countries signed a ceasefire in Algiers last month, formally bringing to an end a two-year border war in which tens of thousands were reportedly killed and many more forced to flee their homes.
"So far, the situation on the ground is quiet," Meles said, adding that Ethiopian forces would remain at their positions in Eritrean territory until a full peace accord is signed. Eritrea has complained since the signing of the agreement that Ethiopian forces occupying western Eritrea have stolen property, including livestock. There have also been complaints, since the signing of the agreement, that the Eritrean government arrested administration officials from Barentu, the regional capital in western Eritrea, accusing them of facilitating the Ethiopian occupation of western towns and villages.
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Algerian president asked to remain as mediator
Meanwhile, the OAU has asked President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria to remain a mediator between Eritrea and Ethiopia. At a resolution passed during the OAU's 36th summit this week, AFP said Bouteflika had been asked "to continue his action with the aim of reaching a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict between the two countries".
ETHIOPIA: People trekking to relief centres
In a visit to Gode, capital of Ogaden and epicentre of Ethiopia's hunger crisis, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie said at a news conference that people she had seen were in a "very serious condition" and that the food problem was not over. On a visit to Gode on Monday, McAskie said she had seen destitute people trekking in from the parched countryside to towns in search of food and medicine, reported AP. Women and children in the Ogaden were walking up to 19 kms to reach locations where relief food and medicine are provided, she told reporters - "What I saw in Gode is that more people are now coming from even farther away, and they are in a very serious condition".
According to McAskie the pledge from donors to Ethiopia was sufficient for the next few months, but additional transport was needed. She also said she was encouraged because some relief food and medicine had been stored in the area, and there was more on the way from both the government and international donors, reported news agencies.
SUDAN: Renewed fighting causes "deep concern"
Carolyn McAskie, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed "deep concern" over resumed hostilities between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and the Sudanese Government in Southern Sudan. In a statement issued from New York, Ms McAskie said reported fighting around Gogrial in Bahr-el-Ghazal and Mabaan in Upper Nile had caused the displacement of at least 4,000 people. It has also been reported that air raids on Rumbek and other locations in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Lakes area and Western Equatoria last week, had resulted in three deaths and the wounding of several others.
The statement said the events were of particular concern because "they not only bring about further deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the area but also jeopardise the crucial humanitarian ceasefire that both parties pledged to respect earlier this year". McAskie urged both parties to respect and extend the provisions of the cease-fire "in order to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to all beneficiaries, and the safety of civilians and the United Nations humanitarian personnel throughout the country". The ceasefire is scheduled to expire on 15 June.
SOMALIA: UN prepares "post Djibouti" situation
The UN is planning a "post Djibouti" strategy, in the event that some kind of transitional authority may be successfully elected in the peace process and established in Somalia, UN sources told IRIN. According to the sources, UN policy would be dramatically affected if a recognised authority was established in Somalia. In the absence of a government, the UN has been confined almost exclusively to a presence in the self-declared state of Somaliland, and has run extremely costly operations out of Nairobi - it has been estimated that at least 60% of funding goes on overheads rather than assistance to Somalia.
UNDP Somalia said it was putting together a team of consultants in a technical planning team to build scenarios of post-Djibouti, outline the implications for UN operational agencies and advise on potential future aid structures and operations. The Country Office, on 7 July, submitted a US$760,000 proposal which included "support for urgent needs to respond to a post-Djibouti scenario".
The UN officially supports the process - which has the backing of the Secretary General - but differing views have been expressed within the various UN organisations over the possible outcome and impact of the Djibouti-held conference. These include fears of increased insecurity in areas where faction leaders have rejected the process. David Stephen, UN Special Representative for Somalia, told IRIN it would be "unrealistic to expect any elected Somali government to control all of the territory from day one" but that there should be understanding that the process was unique to "an exhausted country without institutions, in a post-conflict, post-state collapse, post-intervention situation". He said the work of a new government would be "incremental" and would concentrate on a transition to constitutional rule.
Meanwhile, the Somali National Peace Conference is behind schedule and "very unlikely" to conclude on 15 July, sources in Djibouti told IRIN. After agreeing on a new charter, the conference aims to elect a Transitional National Assembly, a prime minister and a president.
SOMALIA: Somaliland Bank signs agreement
The Bank of Somaliland and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia have signed a letter of credit agreement, reported Jamhuriya, an independent Hargeisa-based newspaper. According to the report, the Letter of Credit, signed 30 May, covers the import and export of goods and facilitation of commercial transactions abroad. Credit and banking facilities for the Somaliland business community previously required arrangements made in neighbouring countries and the Arab states. The deal is the first since Somaliland's declaration of independence in 1991. The United Nations Development Program-Somalia, through its Capacity Building Facility program, provided the technical support to the bank of Somaliland to facilitate the agreement.
Somaliland officials have also recently held talks with the IMF and World Bank in Nairobi. In a purely fact-finding mission, officials from the IMF and World Bank held talks with representatives from Somalia for the first time in ten years, reported AP. "It seems the security situation in some areas is improving, and there is generally more economic activity", Milan Zavadjil, division chief of the IMF's Middle Eastern department told AP. He said the IMF felt the fund should "discuss economic development and the situation in all of Somalia".
A regional analyst told IRIN that international bodies, like the World Bank and IMF, would be increasingly pushed to use "creative approaches" in areas like the Horn of Africa where authority and economic growth may not necessarily lie with recognised governments and institutions.
SOMALIA: Somaliland NGO exports to Body Shop
A local Somaliland NGO, Candlelight, has become the supplier of henna to UK-based Body Shop International, an ethical trading company specialising in body and skin care products. Candlelight, sister organisation to Asli Grinding Mills, received start-up support from the Danish Refugee Council, and Progressive Interventions,(Pi) an Irish NGO. Pi provided technical assistance to establish local and overseas market links. Somalia's business "buysomali" website said since January 2000 Alsi Grinding Mills, through Candlelight, supplied 4.62 tons of red henna powder to the Body Shop, and that approximately 70 new jobs had been created to date by the new business. Many of the beneficiaries are women pastoralists and nomads who now earn incomes by collecting henna leaf for grinding. According to the the "buysomali" website, henna powder is primarily imported from Yemen and Ethiopia despite "the abundance of henna trees in Somaliland".
UNDP said it supported the venture by offering transport for Body Shop representatives to Hargeisa. According to UNDP, Candlelight hopes to expand production further with the assistance of the European Commission-funded Marketing Assistance Product Promotion project, being implemented by Pi. For details www.buysomali.com
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