African Leaders Stress Humanitarian Aid : Hunger: Civil wars in Sudan, Somalia and other nations in the Horn threaten millions with death by starvation.

In an unprecedented summit, five Horn of Africa leaders met here Thursday to commit themselves to facilitating humanitarian programs in Sudan, Somalia and other places where civil wars have condemned more than 5 million people to death by starvation.

They also pledged to try to force Somali warlords to end their ruinous conflict, possibly by sponsoring a peace conference.

Many of the leaders have met before, but never has humanitarian aid been at the center of the agenda.

“The fact that they came together and discussed these issues was an achievement,” said Abdul Mohammed, one of the Ethiopian organizers of the meeting. “In the past, this was always relegated to minor bureaucrats. The current leaders in the Horn are all coming to the realization that humanitarian relief is not a fringe issue, that the world will judge them by it.”

Thursday’s session, which is to be followed today by meetings among relief officials of the Horn governments and foreign aid donors, was nominally called by Meles Zenawi, the former rebel leader who is now president of the transitional government of Ethiopia. The other leaders attending were presidents Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, Hassan Gouled Aptidon of Djibouti, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir of Sudan and Isaias Afewerki, head of the provisional government of Eritrea.

In a joint declaration, the leaders “reaffirmed . . . the basic rights of the peoples of the region to receive food and other forms of emergency humanitarian assistance” and to allow relief agencies to ship supplies across borders and into conflict zones.

The affirmation may be important because of the warring governments’ record of using food as a weapon, blocking relief in order to starve rebellious populations into submission. Bashir’s government in Sudan has been a leading offender on this score, and before approving Thursday’s communique he insisted that the right of humanitarian access be qualified by limiting it to “authorized” organizations--a loophole that may yet allow his regime to hinder relief operations in his country.

The Horn of Africa is perhaps the most war-torn and famine-stricken region in the world. Somalia has collapsed into anarchy since the forced departure of its longtime dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, in January, 1991. Until a recent truce reduced the level of violence, the factional fighting in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, was so intense that emergency food and medical supplies could not be landed in the city.

In Sudan, Bashir’s Islamic fundamentalist regime has continued a nearly 10-year-old war against Christian and animist rebels in the south and has prevented relief flights from reaching war victims. Sources at the Thursday meeting said Bashir had committed himself in principle to allowing relief flights to resume from Kenya.

Asked if the leaders discussed a cease-fire in southern Sudan, where Bashir’s army has been advancing on rebel positions--reputedly with the help of Iranian-supplied arms and training--Ethiopia’s Meles said the issue was not on the agenda.

“Humanitarian issues are linked with peace,” he said, “but the two things are not necessarily identical.”

Meles also acknowledged that the bulk of humanitarian assistance in the Horn will continue to come from overseas. But he argued that the Horn governments’ acknowledgment that they owe a humanitarian duty to the region’s victims is an important step.

“The financial and material needs at the command of the countries of the region are very limited,” he said. “But we are very close neighbors. We feel our compassion and brotherhood could be fully utilized and perhaps augmented by the endeavors of countries and organizations with more material means.”