ICC Update

SUMMARY

Eighth Military Coordination Commission (MCC) meeting was held on 28 July 2001 in Nairobi, Kenya. The United Nation has launched a major mine awareness campaign in Eritrea as thousands of IDPs returned to their villages.

PEACE PROCESS

The Eighth MCC meeting, which discussed ways to build confidence between the two countries, was held on 28 July 2001 in Nairobi, Kenya. UNMEE Force Commander emphasised the importance of establishing contact at the local level as a means of reducing tensions and facilitating the return of the remaining displaced people. During the meeting the delegations were asked to identify some of their key objectives in the peace process, despite the objections over the existing TSZ; both sides had emphasized the importance of reaching formal agreement on it. The statement released by UNMEE following the MCC meeting stated that progress has been made regarding cooperation for the recovery, identification and repatriation of unburied remains of bodies in areas controlled by either party. In this regard, the Eritrean and Ethiopian delegations agreed on a draft document prepared by UNMEE on procedures of removing the remains, based on discussions at earlier MCC meetings.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General Legwaila J. Legwaila met the heads of the UN agencies in Asmara on 1 August 2001. They discussed the peace process, militia and police, restrictions of movements of UNMEE, direct flights between the two capitals and the status of Forces Agreement between UNMEE and Eritrea. As of 6 August UNMEE has 4,070 personnel in the mission area from 89 countries-3632 troops, 217 military Observers and 221 international staff.

CONSOLIDATED APPEAL PROCESS (CAP)

Donor response to the 2001 CAP has now reached 55%. Preparations for CAP-2002 are underway. A CAP working group has been established. Sub-groups on assessments, drafting of the CAP, and development of guidelines to review last year's CAP, have held meetings and progress is being made. Letters have also been written to all agencies and SWG to review their sections in the CAP and provide their inputs by 23 August 2001. As donors have indicated their appreciation of the 2001 CAP appeal document, a similar format will be used for 2002 appeal.

POPULATION MOVEMENTS

Exchange of Nationals

ICRC has repatriated a total of 204 civil Ethiopians from Eritrea to Ethiopia on 10 August 2001. Since the signing of the peace agreement between the two countries ICRC has facilitated the repatriation of 21,072 civil Ethiopians from Eritrea and 2,659 civil Eritreans from Ethiopia.

IDPs

There has been no major IDPs movement recently. About 70,000 IDPs including expellees are not able to return home and are accommodated in 10 camps in Gash Barka and Debub zones. The figures for IDPs who returned to their home areas stands still at 170,000 persons.

ICC field team visited three newly established camps in Tsorona sub zone from 31 July to 2 August 2001. The objective of the visit was to monitor population movement and prevailing humanitarian situation in the newly established camps. Major highlights from the report are as follows:

· Tsorona Camp- accommodates 4,152 population originally from areas of Sarda, Maichena, and Gobele in Tsorona sub zone who where relocated from Alba camp. The reason they could not return to their original villages is due to landmine problem. In the camp basic services are provided except sanitation facilities.

· Maiwuray Camp- is located approximately 8km north east of Tsorona town. The camp accommodates 4,812 originally from Hadish Adi, Knin and Sebo villages. The reason for not returning is because of security concerns. 107 new tents and 270 plastic sheets were distributed but shelter remains a major problem for the camp.

· Aiba camp- is located about 15 km northwest of Tsorona town. It has 3545 people who are

originally from village administrations of Dibi and Endabastifanos. The problem, which hindered them from returning to their villages, is the existence of landmine and UXOs.

The common problems found prevailing in the camps are shelter, sanitation, water supply and cooking fuel.

MINE ACTION

The Commission for Coordination with Peace Keeping Mission (CCPM) decided on the location of the National Training Center (NTC) for mine action. The Asha Golgol camp was chosen over the Keren camp. The EMAP and MACC have commenced planning the development of a suitable facility that will be developed into a national training center with all appropriate training facilities and capacities. The design will include lecture/class rooms, accommodation, and medical aid post, warehouse, and office space, upgrading the kitchen, explosive store and training area. The German Government has allocated US$ 412,000 for the development of the facility. It is intended to train 15 trainers to take up various posts in the NTC. EMAP will manage the facility and recruit the staff for the NTC. So far Eritrean Demining Agency has 234 staff of which two teams of 60 manual clearance staff each are based in Shilalo, one team of 60 manual clearance staff are under initial training in Asha Golgol, two four person team located in Barentu and two three person team located in Adi-Keih. It was reported that there are about 880 Humanitarian deminers in the whole country almost half of them are with HALO Trust, a British demining NGO.

UN Mine Action Coordination Centre will hold a mine awareness education workshop on 23-24 August 2001. This will focus on the situation of mine awareness activities in Eritrea. All concerned partners will participate. The workshop will analyse lessons learnt and constraints, and define strategies and mechanisms for better implementation, coordination and monitoring in the Mine Awareness Education (MAE).

For further information contact UNMACC at Tel.150444.

SECTORAL WORKING GROUPS (SWG)

Health and Nutrition

Concern Worldwide issued out a report on nutrition survey on 13 August 2001 that was conducted in Hagaz and Asmat sub zones of Anseba zone, recently. 898 children were included in the survey; the prevalence of global acute

malnutrition, using weight to height was found to be 21% of this 3.5 % were severely malnourished. The results from the survey indicated that malnutrition rate varied with the sub-zones and that the highest level of malnutrition was in Asmat sub zone (23.1%) but closely followed by Hagaz sub-zone (20%). Malnutrition rate in the target children by age and sex showed that more malnourished children were in the age category of 13-59 months of age (21.2%) than in 6-12 months (15.4%). More boys were malnourished than the girls at the rate of 22.7% and 19% respectively. The survey indicated that inadequate food intakes due to drought which is prevailing in the zone for three consecutive years, insufficient food aid, high morbidity rates, poor hygiene and environmental sanitation, severe water shortages, and inaccessibility to health facilities are the major factors contributing to the high malnutrition level within the sub zones. Finally, the survey report recommended for the establishment of therapeutic feeding center and a target supplementary feeding Programme should be started and supported by a strong community based intervention such as growth monitoring. General food rations should be distributed on regular basis and this distribution should continue until the beneficiaries have planted and have a good harvest. Moreover the report highlighted the need for multi-sectoral collaboration to curb the underlying causes of malnutrition such as water shortage, education on Hygiene and environmental sanitation and construction of access roads.

Rainfall Report

July has been the second month of rain in Eritrea. According to Metrology Department at Eritrean Civil Aviation the highlands and western lowlands have received "above normal" rainfall with more than 125% of the average of the last three years. Northern parts of Gash Barka and Anseba received only scattered rainfall (with 50-70% area coverage). However, the rains of this month are characterized by "normal" to "above normal" as it continues to rain into the month of August. On the ground, early-planted crops such as Taff and Barley are flourishing in the highlands. Planting of sorghum, millet and sesame is ongoing in Gash Barka and is expected to continue into September. Parts of Anseba zone (one of the severely drought affected areas in the country) have received good rainfall. However, it is not clear how much it will alleviate the drought in terms of crop production and pasture for livestock.

Shelter and Non-food Item

Shelter continues to be a major concern for returning populations. Rehabilitation of damaged houses is going on Debub supported by Dutch funding. A pilot scheme identified 3,000 houses to be rehabilitated in Tsorona sub-zone (one of the most damaged areas) for emergency rehabilitation and so far 100 houses have been completed. Local authorities in cooperation with UNDP are implementing the project. Similarly, the agreement for rehabilitation of 2400 houses in Gash Barka is on process. In addition UNDP/PoWER will sponsor a package for rehabilitation works in Omhajer consisting of 400 houses, market area, health center and schools. INTERSOS has distributed 800 Agudo structures in Laelay Gash and Shambuko sub zones in Gash Barka. It is recalled that the shelter and non food item SWG had launched a project proposal in May 2001 to deal with temporary shelter solutions for returning IDPs on an emergency basis and reminded the donors and humanitarian community to respond to the NFI presented in the UN interagency appeal for the current year. Out of the total requirement amounting US $7,488,075 appealed to the donors and humanitarian community so far US $2,925,000 has been granted. The distribution and responses will be monitored by the SWG of which the secretariat (ERREC/UNDP assisted by ICRC and other volunteers from the SWG membership) is particularly charged with the systematic tracking of responses and updating of needs.

WatSan

A report from the G-5 team members of the CIMIC visited the eastern sector from 6-10 August 2001 and reported that there is acute water shortage and problems in the existing water system in the areas they visited.

There are water wells in Harsile approximately 15 kms from Assab. These wells provide water for whole Assab town. But due to silting, some of the wells need to be drilled and equipped so as to further improve the water supply in the area. UNMEE CIMIC has already spoken to the authorities and is preparing a project proposal to rehabilitate some of these wells, however due to restrictions in terms of the budget for Quick Impact Project it is not possible to rehabilitate all the wells but are working on some. People in Makaka village near Assab are facing problem of drinking water, as there is no source of water in the village. The health station in Wade village is facing problem of water. There is a need to install a pump at the nearest well.

SCHEDULE FOR NEXT SWG MEETINGS

SWG	Date	Time	Venue
Education	Will be communicated
Food security	Will be communicated
Health	06.09.2001	15:00	MoH
Shelter & NIF	Will be communicated
WatSan	31.08. 2001	08:30	WRD

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