ICC Update

SUMMARY

· "The chances of resumption of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea is almost nil at the moment" Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), Mr. Legwaila Joseph Legwaila

· 26 personnel from Eritrean Demining Agency (EDA), Danish Demining Group (DDG), HALO Trust and other agencies graduated from a five-day mine awareness facilitator course conducted by Danish Church Agency (DCA) at UNMACC during the fourth week of August.

· A national workshop on Community Based Health Care (CBHC) system to strengthen the implementation of primary health care policies was held during the month of August 2001.

· Global malnutrition in some parts of Gash Barka is less than 10% and severe malnutrition is 1.5% according a recently concluded nutrition survey.

PEACE PROCESS

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), Mr. Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, recently stated that the chances of resumption of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea is almost nil at the moment. However, UNMEE said it would continue to be vigilant. Every time there is a reported violation of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities, the matter is immediately brought to the attention of the authorities concerned. UNMEE also said that it would not hesitate to report on any violation of the Protocol Agreement.

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) disclosed in its latest press briefing that there are between 100 and 300 unidentified remain bodies killed during the recent fight in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). It also said that it is very difficult to ascertain their exact number since the areas are heavily mined. Neither side has claimed these bodies.

POPULATION MOVEMENTS

Exchange of Nationals

There has been no reported exchange of civil nationals between Ethiopia and Eritrea between 16 and 31 August 2001. Since the general peace agreement signed between Eritrea and Ethiopia on 12 December 2000, ICRC has facilitated the repatriation of 2,659 civil Eritreans and 21,072 Ethiopians. The exchange of POWs did not proceed since the last exchange in March 2001 where ICRC repatriated 856 Eritrean and 629 Ethiopian POWs to their respective countries.

IDPs

There has been no major movement of IDPs recently. ICC in collaboration with ERREC is working on to identify the IDPs that are staying with host families in the six zones.

Repatriation from Sudan

Repatriation of Eritrean refugees from the Sudan has been slowed down since 12 July 2001 due to rain in Eritrea and high temperature in the Sudan. Preparations are underway to start the second phase of repatriation of about 41,000 Eritrean refugees until the end of this year. Repatriation is expected to resume before the end of September. During the first phase 20,907 Eritrean refugees took advantage of the voluntary repatriation arranged by UNHCR and Governments of Eritrea and Sudan.

MINE ACTION

Mine Awareness workshop was conducted on 23-24 August 2001 at UNMACC conference hall. 26 personnel from Eritrean Demining Agency (EDA), Danish Demining Group (DDG), HALO Trust and other agencies graduated from a five-day mine awareness facilitator course conducted by Danish Church Agency (DCA) at UNMACC. All trainees were members of existing teams and were cross-trained to provide integrated capacity to the Survey and Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) teams in the field.

There are now a total of 76 mine awareness facilitators trained in Eritrea from various mine action agencies and interested agencies.

Meanwhile, Eight Jordanian soldiers, injured when their truck hit an anti-tank mine on 18 August, have been released from the hospital and have returned to their duty stations.

A Slovak demining unit is re-proving the road where the incident occurred. So far, investigators have determined that the mine was buried at a depth of 30-40 cm. Due to the nature of the road surface and the period of the route clearance, the mine clearance roller did not discover the mine.

SECTORAL WORKING GROUPS (SWG)

Education

In order to improve enrolment rates and the nutritional status of children in schools, WFP is making preparations to start school feeding programme in selected areas in the forthcoming academic year scheduled to begin in the second week of September. It is estimated that 40,000 school children returned to their home areas. Most of the schools in the TSZ are destroyed and looted and still not operational to give proper educational service. As such it is expected that classes will be overcrowded due to shortage of teachers and classrooms. Unless, immediate attention and action is taken to rehabilitate and equip the schools the whole pedagogic atmosphere of the teaching and learning process will be affected. Similar attention should be sought for the social service infrastructure of the schools such as provision of clean water and latrines. Out of 85 schools located in the TSZ only 48 were accessed and estimation has been made on the damages inflicted accordingly. Out of the assessed schools, through the assistance of UNICEF, UNDP/PoWER, CESVI, COSV, APS and the French government 37 schools have been rehabilitated.

Food Security

The majority of the crops like wheat barely are at the early seed formation stage. Sorghum and Pearl millet are in the process of second ploughing for aeration and weeding, groundnuts are also at seed development stage in the plains of Anseba zone. Reports from the zones indicate that the crops were in good condition except for some areas damaged by heavy rain. Based on the reports of the zones sawing crops are almost completed. Planting of grass pea and chickpea starts in late August and early September. However, there are large tracts of land that is not planted due to land mines and shortage of manpower.

MoA is conducting countrywide pre-harvest crop assessment and the result is expected this week. The assessment will give a preliminary indication of the food security situation with regard to the season 2001/2002.

Health and Nutrition

MoH and Save the Children jointly conducted nutrition survey in Lailai Gash, Shambiko and Gogne sub- zones of Gash Barka zone during the month of August. A national workshop on Community Based Health Care (CBHC) system to strengthen the implementation of primary health care policies was held at the National confederation of Eritrea workers hall between 2 and 6 August 2001. The broad objectives of the CBHC include: -

· To encourage communities to take responsibility for their own health and to be involved in planning, implementation and evaluation of activities

· To assist in mobilising community assemblies at every level

· To facilitate the involvement of health committees within the community assemblies

The community health workers include Community Health Agents (CHA), Trained Traditional Birth Attendants (TTBA), Malaria Control Agents (MCA) and Hygiene Promoters. It was reported that the out come of the workshop was satisfactory.

According to the report of MoH and Save the Children a survey was carried out to monitor that the global malnutrition rate does not exceed 10%, the crude mortality rate is below 1 death/1000/day, the under five-mortality rate is less than 2/1000/day and epidemics and diseases are under control. If any of these indicators exceeds the set limit, further interventions might be needed. The findings of the survey are indicated as under: -

· The malnutrition rate, determined using weight/height, was in an accepted normal level. Global acute malnutrition and sever malnutrition were 8% and 1.5% respectively,

· The crude mortality rate was found to be 0.3/1000/day and the under five children mortality was 0.5/1000/day,

· The morbidity rates were in a normal range for the country, except for fevers, where it is the beginning of the rainy season making suitable environment for mosquito breeding, hence increasing the prevalence of malaria,

· The low malnutrition rates, morbidity and mortality rates can be attributed to the fact that most of the sample was coming from IDPs camps where there was a sufficient package of services including WFP/ERREC general ration distribution, supplementary feeding programme, free health care, water and adequate hygiene and sanitation services.

Finally the report has recommended the following to maintain and further develop the health situation of the people:

· Repeat nutrition survey every three months, to monitor closely the nutritional status of the under five and use the findings to inform any necessary nutrition interventions,

· Continue general food ration distribution at least until the harvest in November/December,

· Provide sufficient water at least 15 litres/person/day and distribute water containers to ensure that every household has enough water storage equipment,

· Ensure that there is access to health care specially preventative for all villagers by providing mobile clinics that cover the villages, allocating a health assistant and providing enough medicines to all health stations,

· Strengthen nutrition and health knowledge by training the MoH staff as trainers on simple practices who will then train the mothers and carers of their villages.

The nutrition report is available at ICC

Improve emergency preparedness in health and nutrition by improving surveillance and response through capacity development of the MoH staff

WatSan

IDPs in camps are receiving water either from water trucking or from new or previous existing water sources that have been rehabilitated, and in some places sanitation, including latrines and hygiene promotion is already established or is being established.

Many of the water systems previously serving IDPs in camps have been handed over to the local communities, and training of pump operators have taken place in both Debub and Gash Barka zobas.

In-accessibility because of the heavy rain as well as the lack of mine clearing are major constraints on the activities. Another factor causing difficulties is the lack of fuel in the sub-zobas, occasionally causing interruptions in the operation of motor pumps, generators and water trucks

In Debub zone the main actors in the sector are UNICEF, ICRC, OXFAM, MSF-H, UNDP/PoWER, and CESVI. Major towns and many villages in Senafe and Tsorona are receiving water, however more needs to be done in Tsorona town. UNICEF plans to drill new boreholes in Tsorona area. Water trucking is taking place in several locations, and more work is needed to ensure sustainable long-term solutions. The new camps in Debub are all having sufficient water and sanitation work is ongoing. Only few activities are undertaken in Adi Quala area.

The main actors in Gash Barka zoba are UNICEF, ICRC, OXFAM, MSF-H, Mani Tese, COSV, ICMC and Intersos. The major villages in Guluj, Molki, Lalay Gash and Shambuko areas have sufficient water supplies, although some are experiencing problems with break-down of pumps etc. Korokon camp apparently has a very big population again as

IDPs from other camps have been moved there. ICC last figures indicate that the camp population was 15,132.

At the moment the water situation is under control but it is recommended that some of the IDPs be moved to other camps with better water supplies such as Adi-Keshi camp. Only few organisations are active in the TSZ in Guluj and Om Hajer area, and the high influx of returnees from Sudan is putting increased pressure on the water sources.

The new generator and water stands in Omhajer installed by UNICEF were inaugurated.

Not much has been done in the Southern Red Sea so far to alleviate water problems. Only very few NGOs are so far interested in undertaking water and sanitation activities in the zone. The MoLG with assistance of UNICEF have initiated some studies, but more assistance is still required. The UNMEE Civil Military Cooperation (CIMIC) has organised a fact-finding mission for NGOs to the Southern Red Sea Zone in order to sensitise them to intervene in the poor humanitarian condition prevailing in the region.

In Gash Barka the focus International Catholic Migration Committee (ICMC) has organised a training course for village water committees on the establishment of water management, operation and maintenance to ensure the sustainability of water projects.

SCHEDULE FOR NEXT SWG MEETINGS

SWG	Date	Time	Venue
Education	Will be communicated
Food security	Will be communicated
Health	4.10.2001	15:00	MoH
Shelter & NIF	Will be communicated
WatSan	14.09. 2001	08:30	WRD
General Humanitarian coordination	14.09. 2001	15:00	Selam hotel

NB: NGOs and Aid agencies are encouraged to share pictures of their recent activities with ICC.

For further information relating to the ICC Update please contact ICC Information Officer Sirak Gebrehiwot

Tel: 182923, 185154 or email icc@gemel.com.er