JEDDAH, 6 April 2003 — Somalia’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osman Mahmoud Dufle, has confirmed an outbreak of cholera in Mogadishu, according to Ayamaha newspaper. The minister, who was opening a cholera treatment center, urged international aid agencies to take steps to combat the disease.

“Ninety-nine stool samples were collected and checked by an AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation) laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya, where they confirmed 46 samples are positive for cholera,” an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) told a UN humanitarian website. Media reports said that the cholera task force was activated by the local authorities in collaboration with WHO and other UN agencies involved in health to monitor and contain the situation.

The country director of Action Contre La Faim (ACF), Florence Gillette, said that 18 severe cases had been reported.

“The Somali Red Crescent Society in collaboration with ACF had opened four oral rehydration points to treat the less severe cases. Initial indications show that the epidemic will be moderate, but we will continue to monitor the situation,” Gillette said.

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A United Nations panel of experts has recommended imposing sanctions on violators of the UN arms embargo on Somalia, press reports have said. Last August, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had named a three-member panel of experts to investigate violations of the arms embargo on Somalia.

The UN imposed the embargo in 1992, following the outbreak of civil war in Somalia.

“As the arms embargo has been consistently violated since its imposition, it has no normative value, and none of the Somali faction leaders or their regional sponsors has been held accountable. A feeling that business as usual will continue indefinitely prevails,” said the report to the UN Security Council, issued late last week.

The panel said the arms market in Somalia was also supplied by external sources.

“The report cites Ethiopia as one such country that has played an overt military role in Somalia,” the UN said. “Eritrea is also said to have been a major supplier of arms and ammunition. Yemen and Djibouti, among other nations in the region, are reported to have helped provide weapons to Somalia, mainly to the Transitional National Government.”

“An effective implemented arms embargo can cut the flow of arms to Somalia and concomitantly limit the level of armed conflict,” the report said.

“This may then create the political space necessary for the successful completion and implementation of a Somali peace agreement,” it added.