U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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email: irin@ocha.unon.org


Central and Eastern Africa
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 14
1 - 7 April 2000



CONTENTS:

HORN OF AFRICA: Severe food crisis looming
ETHIOPIA: Logistical delays threaten to cause shortfall
SOMALIA: Djibouti conference preparations continue
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Call for JMC "contingency plan"
DRC: Fighting continues in Kasai
DRC: Security Council team expected
DRC: Opposition group rejects election plan
DRC: UN warns of dire humanitarian situation in the east
BURUNDI: Camp closures suspended
BURUNDI: "Huge gaps" remain between negotiating parties
RWANDA: World "still failing" country six years after genocide
RWANDA: Judges reverse Barayagwiza decision
RWANDA: Kagame reaffirms commitment to Lusaka accord
RWANDA: Kagame is first choice for president
TANZANIA: Some 800,000 people "food insecure"
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Government outlines transition plan
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rwandan refugees integrated into local villages


HORN OF AFRICA: Severe food crisis looming

Humanitarian agencies have this week warned that the greater Horn of
Africa region is on the brink of "a major humanitarian crisis", with some
12 to 18 million people (estimates vary depending on the number of
countries included in the region) facing severe food shortages. Ethiopia
faces the most severe crisis, with more than eight million people at risk,
and Acting UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie reflected
relief agencies' concern when she said: "We are facing the real prospect
two months from now of another catastrophe."

An additional two million more were at risk in Somalia, Djibouti and
Eritrea, while six million people more were threatened in Sudan, Kenya,
Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, OCHA stated. The chief cause of such
a dire situation is drought, endemic to the region, but it is compounded
by conflict and a large number of both refugees and internally displaced
persons (IDPs) in many of the countries affected, it added.

ETHIOPIA: Logistical delays threaten to cause shortfall

While there has been "a generally favourable response" to Ethiopia's
January appeal, with over 400,000 mt of food aid pledged by donors, UN
agencies warned that delayed shipments and increasing food insecurity were
combining to create a situation where substantial food needs in some areas
might not be met. Donors have been asked to pledge more food but, in
addition, to advance the shipment of existing pledges in order to avoid
congestion at Djibouti port.

SOMALIA: Djibouti conference preparations continue

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh has held talks with Arab League
officials in Egypt and secured support and assistance for his peace
initiative for Somalia, Somali news organisations reported on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a committee of Somali intellectuals, which met in Djibouti to
work on proposals for the planned Djibouti peace conference on Somalia,
has asked the Djibouti government to delay the conference, which is set to
begin on 20 April.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Call for JMC "contingency plan"

Ugandan Minister of State for Regional Cooperation Amama Mbabazi on
Tuesday called on members of the Joint Military Commission (JMC)
established under the Lusaka ceasefire agreement to "take action" over the
deteriorating security situation in the DRC. Mbabazi called on the JMC,
which met this week in Kampala, to prepare a contingency plan for
implementing the Lusaka accord, "even in the absence of the UN and
international community," Radio Uganda reported.

DRC: Fighting continues in Kasai

The Goma-based rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD)
claimed on Sunday to have killed at least 20 government soldiers in
repelling attacks on Maloba and Kisele in Kasai. "We're fighting every
day. There is no ceasefire," the Associated Press (AP) quoted RCD
spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba as saying. Many of the continuing ceasefire
violations in the DRC at the moment were centred around Kasai, with the
situation around Kananga, Mbuji-Mayi and Kabinda particularly worrying,
independent military sources told IRIN on Monday.

DRC: Security Council team expected

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's ambassador to the UN, Anwarul Karim Chowdhury,
last Friday said a Security Council mission was expected to travel to the
DRC by early May. Council members wanted to see first-hand how the
operations were going, a UN statement quoted him as saying at a UN
Headquarters press briefing at the end of his month-long presidency of the
Council.

DRC: Opposition group rejects election plan

The government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila has set 10 May as the
date for parliamentary elections in the DRC, news agencies reported on
Sunday. However, major opposition parties  have said they will not take
part. "The Kabila government is trying to bypass the Lusaka peace accord,"
Raphael Kashala, an official in the Brussels office of the opposition
Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), told IRIN on Monday.

Meanwhile, three senior RCD-Goma officials were fired this week on charges
of spying for Kabila, news agencies reported. They included Alexis
Thambwe-Mwanba, Jose Endundo-Bonange and Lambert Mende.

DRC: UN warns of dire humanitarian situation in the east

The UN's Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain told donors
and journalists in Nairobi on Monday that the humanitarian situation in
eastern DRC was "dire." Civilians were caught up in a war that involved
national and regional groups vying for control of the territory, which had
left more than 500,000 people displaced, he said. Rather than being 
offered protection, civilians were targeted by all parties to the
conflict, while humanitarian agencies had no access to some 50 percent of
the population in need of assistance, Mountain said.

Meanwhile, UNHCR would this week close the refugee transit centre in
Luozi, Bas Congo Province, after more than 52,000 people who fled the
civil war in the neighbouring Republic of Congo returned to their country
during the past nine months, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski stated on
Tuesday.

BURUNDI: Camp closures suspended

The government has postponed plans to dismantle nine more regroupment
sites in Bujumbura Rural province due to prevailing insecurity in the
area, Burundi's Radio Umwizero reported on Wednesday. The second phase of
the dismantlement programme had been due to start on Wednesday.  A UN
official in Bujumbura confirmed the postponement. "The security situation
is not improving and in fact is worsening in Bujumbura Rural, so we don't
know what this means" for future dismantlement operations, the official
told IRIN on Thursday. An estimated 320,000 people remain in the
province's camps under precarious humanitarian conditions.

BURUNDI: "Huge gaps" remain between negotiating parties

Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has praised Nelson Mandela
for reinvigorating the Arusha peace process for Burundi, but cautions that
unless several outstanding issues are "comprehensively dealt with", there
is little chance of a lasting settlement. Apart from the immediate concern
of a ceasefire, three "huge gaps" between the parties still need to be
bridged before a final accord could be reached, Evans told IRIN on Tuesday
after touring the Great Lakes region, as head of the Brussels-based
International Crisis Group (ICG). The three gaps were: the reintegration
of rebel forces into the army and civil society, the question of
accountability of those guilty of crimes against humanity, and the
management of the political transition, he said.

RWANDA: World "still failing" country six years after genocide

The architects and perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide are still
roaming the world's capitals unhindered, the Embassy of Rwanda in Nairobi
said in a statement marking this week's genocide remembrance and memorial.
The statement, received by IRIN on Thursday, said the world had abandoned
the country at its most trying time and was today "still failing Rwanda".
It said the memory of the genocide victims should not be relegated to
history. "We must share the sorrow and console and support the survivors,"
it stated.

RWANDA: Judges reverse Barayagwiza decision

The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
(ICTR) has reversed its decision to release genocide suspect Jean-Bosco
Barayagwiza on procedural grounds. "The appeals chamber decided today that
Barayagwiza will stand trial for genocide and related charges brought
against him," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said last Friday. In its revised
decision, the appeals chamber still found that the accused's rights had
been violated, but "on a considerably smaller scale than it had deemed" in
its 3 November 1999 decision ordering his release, the independent
Hirondelle news agency reported. Rwanda's representative to the
Arusha-based ICTR said the chamber's ruling was a "victory" for genocide
victims.

RWANDA: Kagame reaffirms commitment to Lusaka accord

Acting Rwandan President Paul Kagame has reaffirmed his commitment to the
Lusaka peace accords, saying a resolution of the DRC conflict is the only
way to ensure an end to more killing of innocent civilians. "My advice to
everyone involved in this war is to work for the implementation of the
Lusaka agreement. I do not think there is likely to be any serious
changes on the ground," he said in an interview with IRIN on the eve of
the sixth anniversary of the 1994 genocide. Kagame said it would be
"costly" for people to think they could now alter the military balance on
the ground. "Let's implement the agreement and stop wasting time," he
said. for full interview, access
<http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/cea/glfp.htm>

RWANDA: Kagame is first choice for president

The political bureau of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has proposed
acting President and Defence Minister Paul Kagame, as well as RPF General
Secretary Charles Murigande, as its presidential candidates to succeed
Pasteur Bizimungu, who resigned on 23 March. Within eight days of the
names being presented to parliament and the cabinet, a joint session of
the two bodies is scheduled to elect the fifth Rwandan president since
independence.

TANZANIA: Some 800,000 people "food insecure"

The overall food supply situation in Tanzania is stable as a result of
large maize imports in the second half of 1999 and the government's ban of
maize exports, the latest report from FAO's Global Information and Early
Warning System (GIEWS) stated on Monday. However, poor rains during the
growing season were expected to reduce yields substantially (especially in
Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Tanga Regions) in the short 'Vuli' season now
underway, and food assistance was required for almost 800,000 people
identified as food insecure, the report said.

REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Government outlines transition plan

The Congolese government has presented a three-step plan to achieve
sustainable peace in the country. A public memorandum recently presented
to the international community stated that, first, a national dialogue on
reconstruction would be organised. A transitional period would then
include institutional rehabilitation and the adoption of a new
constitution. The third phase would be the holding of free and fair
elections.

REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rwandan refugees integrated into local villages

About 2,500 Rwandan refugees have been integrated into the town of
Loukolela and 16 villages of northern Congo, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN
on Wednesday. The refugees arrived in the country in 1997 and had been
staying in the Loukolela refugee camp, which was officially closed last
month, the spokesman said.

Nairobi, 7 April 2000, 16:00 gmt

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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