Nairobi/Brussels, 27 November 2006:
The draft resolution the U.S. intends to present to the UN
Security Council on 29 November could trigger all-out war in
Somalia and destabilise the entire Horn of Africa region by
escalating the proxy conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea
to dangerous new levels.
Instead of siding with one party in the civil
conflict – the weak and fragmented Ethiopia-backed
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) – the Council should
apply maximum pressure on both it and the Eritrea-backed
Council of Somali Islamic Courts (CSIC) to resume
negotiations without preconditions
ASMARA, Nov 27 (Reuters) -
The United States said on Monday it was temporarily suspending visa
services in Eritrea until the Red Sea state let its new consular
officer enter the country.
The current U.S. consul is
set to leave Eritrea early next month, but in a sign of worsening
diplomatic relations the U.S. embassy said it had been unable to get a
visa for her replacement.
"The bottom line is we need
someone to provide these services. We can't do the work if we don't
have the personnel," U.S. embassy spokeswoman Carol Herrera told
Reuters.
Eritrean government
officials were not immediately available for comment.
Somali militia puts troops near Ethiopia
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN,
Associated Press Nov 26, 2006
MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Islamic militia that controls much of southern
Somalia dispatched thousands of troops Sunday to within nine miles of
the border with Ethiopia, heightening fears that fighting would break
out between the two sides.
A local reporter also said the Islamists were recruiting people for a
holy war against Ethiopia, a largely Christian nation that is concerned
about the emergence of a neighboring Islamic state and supports
Somalia's fragile government.
East Sudan
ex-rebels vow peaceful future
Monday 27 November 2006 00:55.
Nov 26, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Former rebels from eastern Sudan on Sunday vowed
to lay down their arms and pursue the path of politics as they held
their first ever news conference in Khartoum after signing a peace deal
last month.
"We have decided to return home, stop fighting against the government
and begin operating as a political party," said Abdullah Musa, spokesman
for the Eastern Front rebel grouping.
Eritrean
National Youth Soccer Team beats Zambia 1-0 Asmara,
25 November 2006 –
The Eritrean National Youth Soccer Team beat its
Zambian counterpart 1-0 in the match that was held today at Asmara
Stadium. In this first round game, the Eritrean under 17 youth team beat
the Zambian team 1-0.
The Islamic
Courts and the parliament members in Mogadishu have agreed on at least
six articles that are supposed to facilitate the resumption of Khartoum
peace talks.
Both groups have called on the Ethiopian government to withdraw its
troops from Somali. Islamists accused Ethiopia of deploying thousands of
military troops to Somalia, a blame Ethiopia denies.
24 Nov 24, 2006, 18:24ABUDWAQ,
Somalia Nov 24 (Garowe Online) - Islamic Courts gunmen aboard more than
30 battlewagons arrived Friday and
took full control of Abudwaq, a town in western Galgadud region near the
Ethiopian border.
The Islamist militia, led by the group’s
central regions spokesman, were welcomed by traditional elders and local
politicians in Abudwaq, residents reported.
...As if to reinforce Zenawi’s words, the
Ethiopian military build-up within Somalia continues, as fresh armored
vehicles and troops were reported to have arrived in one of the Somali
government’s military camps near Baidoa, the government seat.
Mohamed Olad Hassan Mogadishu - Hundreds of Ethiopian troops reinforced
Somalia's transitional government on Friday, hours after Ethiopia's
prime minister said his country was ready for war with an Islamic
movement that had become the most powerful force in Somalia.
Residents of Baidoa, the government's headquarters, said 138 trucks
carrying Ethiopian troops arrived early on Friday Nunay Selah said:
"They parked their trucks around the town. They are digging trenches."
Ethiopia had acknowledged sending military advisers to Somalia, but had
repeatedly denied sending a fighting force.
Somalia:
Many concurrent proxy wars in Somalia
Thu. November 23, 2006 11:33 am.
(SomaliNet)
Mr. Meles Zenawi accused the courts of being a
threat to his country and told the parliamentarians that his government
is planning all out war with the enemy.
..Ethiopia and much smaller Eritrea have unresolved border issues after
Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia and have been fighting ever since.
Both countries and many Middle Eastern countries have been implicated in
Somalia’s arms-inflow by a UN report earlier this month. While Middle
Eastern counties and Hezbollah were accused of arming the Islamic
Courts, Eritrea on the Islamic Courts side , and Ethiopia and Uganda on
the government side are said to have military and intelligent personnel
inside Somalia.
If Ethiopia carries out its threat and wages a large scale war on the
courts, Eritrea will not sit on the sidelines and the border dispute
between these two countries will be settled on Somali soil and blood.
Meles Zenawi
Thursday said that his country
had
completed preparations for war
Emmanuel Goujon
AFP November 23, 2006
ADDIS ABABA -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Thursday
said that his country had completed preparations for war with
neighboring Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, after efforts for
dialogue failed.
Mai-Dema, 25 November 2006 – A potable
water supply project built at a cost of 1.6 million
Nakfa in Mai-Dima town, Areza sub-zone, has been
finalized. The project was undertaken in collaboration
with the local inhabitants, the regional administration
and its partners.
afrol News, 22 November
-At a mini-summit on Sudan in
Libya, Eritrea's unpredictable President Issayas
Afewerki was urged to mediate in the Darfur conflict and
its spillover into Chad and the Central African
Republic. Eritrea earlier supplied arms to Darfuri
rebels, but has now reconciled with the Khartoum regime.
While Sudan's allies favour this mediation, others fear
it is a trick to swap mediations on Somalia and Darfur.
Deki-Gebru gets electricity supply
By Shabait.com
Oct 23, 2006, 17:37
Deki-Gebru, 23 October 2006 - As part of the efforts
exerted by the Eritrean Electricity
Corporation to expand electricity supply to
all parts of the country, Deki-Gebru in
Adi-Tekelezan sub-zone has now got electricity
supply.
In the meeting, both sides held in-depth
discussions on the prevailing political situation
in the Horn of Africa. Indicating that Norway is
interested in the region, Mr. Johansen lauded the
mediation role Eritrea has played in the East
Sudan issue.
Nacfa, 17 October 2006 - In
continuation of efforts to expand telecommunication
services in all corners of the country, the residents
of Nacfa sub-zone in the Northern Red Sea region have
now access to mobile phone service.
Asmara, 8 October 2006 – President Isaias Afwerki
conducted a three days tour of inspection in the Gash Barka region, sub-zones of Golij, Tesseney, Haikota,
Shambuko and Molki beginning from the 6th of October to
observe the overall agricultural progress and
infrastructural development programs thus far implemented.
Access to potable water supply in Shakat administrative area
By Shabait.com
Sep 29, 2006, 17:40 Shakat,
29 September 2006 - The inhabitants of Shakat
administrative area in Karora sub-zone have now access to
potable water supply thanks to the construction of a new
facility to that effect. The project comprises the digging of
a new well, installation of solar energy power, construction
of a water tanker, as well as distribution of pipelines and
stations.
President Isaias holds talks with French
Development Minister
,
shabait.com
Sep 23, 2006, 17:23
President Isaias Afwerki today
received and held talks with the French Development Minister,
Ms. Brijit Jirardin at the Denden Hall here. The talks focused
on the development of Franco-Eritrean relations, the
prevailing situation in the Horn of Africa, the role Eritrea
is playing to promote peace and stability in the region, as
well as the current global politics and the negative US
interference in the internal affairs of different countries.
Opinion
Somalia: Defend the Motherland!
26 Nov 26, 2006, 00:35
By Mohamoud A Gaildon
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has just delivered to the parliament of
his country worrisome words pregnant with peril for Somalia.
Ostensibly, the Union of Islamic Courts, not Somalia, is the source
of a “clear and present danger.” But to deal with this “clear and
present danger,” Ethiopia will have to invade and occupy Somalia.
The words of the Ethiopian Prime Minister are, therefore, nothing
but a declaration of war on Somalia.
Historic
and religious factors, and US backing, shaping Ethiopia's aggression
in Somalia
by Mahmoud Ahmed Shaikh (Friday November 24 2006)
"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Ethiopian regime is corrupt and
oppressive. But despite this the US government, which claims to be
working for the entrenchment of democratic rule in the African
continent, is a strong ally of Addis Ababa and of Zenawi."
Intelligence Brief: Rebels
Advance on the Central African Republic Drafted By: http://www.pinr.com
..The rebels are joined together in the Union of
Democratic Forces for Unity (U.F.D.R.) and claim to be former
fighters who helped install President Francois Bozize into power in
2003. They have demanded that Bozize agree to power sharing talks
with the rebel movement. The leader of the group, Michel Detodia,
has accused Bozize of only empowering those within his ethnic group
and of excluding the rest from power. Bozize seized power in a coup
with the help of Chad in 2003 and won elections in 2005. Before the
elections, C.A.R. experienced 11 attempted coups in just ten
years....
Letter dated … November
2006 from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee established
pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia addressed to
the President of the Security Council
Secretary-General
SG/T/2523
17 November 2006
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New
York
Somalia in
mid-November: Sparring and Waiting for Someone to Strike Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein http://www.pinr.com ,
13 November 2006
...With increasing militarization on the ground, other interested
external actors were constrained to take positions, most of them
following dual-track strategies of backing one of the sides while at the
same time calling for the I.C.C. and T.F.G. to engage in dialogue and
enter reconciliation talks. An emerging trans-regional polarization
pitted Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Sudan and
Eritrea, which backed the I.C.C., against
Uganda and Tanzania, which backed the T.F.G., Ethiopia and Kenya.
The north-south divide reflects a
convergent interest of the North African and Near Eastern states in
gaining a sphere of influence in the Horn of Africa through a unified
Somalia that would check Ethiopia, and the interest of the East African
states and Ethiopia in preventing the push south and, consequently, in
keeping Somalia relatively weak, if not divided....
Outraged, and in
response, Amnesty International has launched a new campaign that
will fight to restore our traditional American values of
justice, rule of law, and human dignity.