U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
email: irin@ocha.unon.org
Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


Central and Eastern Africa
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 23
3 - 9 June 2000



CONTENTS:

DRC: Humanitarian disaster looming in Kisangani
DRC: Fierce fighting in South Kivu
DRC: Masire postpones inter-Congolese talks
BURUNDI: Buyoya, Mandela agree on key conditions
BURUNDI: FDD dismissive of Buyoya-Mandela accord
TANZANIA: UNHCR unaware of 45,000 seeking repatriation
RWANDA: Tribunal orders release of internal UN memo
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Victory statements and accusations continue
ERITREA: Displaced from Assab arriving by sea in Massawa
ERITREA: Refugees arriving in Sudan caught up in clashes
ERITREA: Ethiopians held in security camps
HORN OF AFRICA: UN appeals for $378 million for drought victims
SUDAN: Sudan sends first export of oil
SOMALIA: Investigation into murder of aid worker in Somaliland
SOMALIA: Djibouti peace conference must decide "old or new" delegates


DRC: Humanitarian disaster looming in Kisangani

The humanitarian situation in the northern Congolese town of Kisangani is
worsening day by day following the fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan
forces.  hundreds of people reported dead and others wounded according to
news agencies and humanitarian sources. "Following an estimated 2,000 bomb
shells falling on the town we expect more deaths than what is being
reported," the head of MSF in Goma told IRIN on Friday. "At the moment
nobody knows the actual number of causalities due to the continued
fighting as MSF and ICRC staff remain indoors." Fierce fighting continued
in the town on Friday, despite Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda reaching agreement on ceasefire on Thursday, following
a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  [Please
see IRIN-CEA daily bulletins for detailed reporting on the Kisangani
fighting.]

DRC: Fierce fighting in South Kivu

Fierce fighting has been reported in parts of South Kivu between Mayi-Mayi
militia and the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma).  According to the BBC Kinyarwanda service, the fighting is in
two areas - the Hauts Plateaux area near Uvira, and the Kalehe area north
of Bukavu. In Kalehe last week, 60 civilians were killed in an attack by
the Mayi-Mayi and Interahamwe against the villages of Nyabibwe and Numbi,
the BBC said. It added that RCD fighters killed 20 of the attacking
forces. The radio quoted South Kivu deputy governor Benjamin Serukiza as
saying that in the Uvira region, the RCD launched a third attack against a
Mayi-Mayi stronghold in the Rugeje mountains on Tuesday. Six civilians and
25 Mayi-Mayi have reportedly been killed, with 20 militiamen captured. 

DRC: Masire postpones inter-Congolese talks

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, on
Wednesday postponed the preparatory talks which were being held in
Cotonou, Benin "until such a time as full representation could be
reached". Masire regretted that the DRC government "not only chose not to
send a delegation to the Cotonou meeting, but also prevented other
participants from leaving Kinshasa, confiscating their passports and
tickets", a statement from his office said.  Masire's office told IRIN
that a tentative date for another round of preparatory talks had been set
for 3-7 July in Gaborone, Botswana. 

BURUNDI: Buyoya, Mandela agree on key conditions

Agreement has been reached on two key conditions for ending the civil war
in Burundi, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on
Wednesday. Mediator and former South African President Nelson Mandela made
the announcement in Johannesburg on Wednesday after meeting Burundian
President Pierre Buyoya. He said they had agreed that Burundi's
Tutsi-dominated army would be restructured to include an equal
representation of the country's Hutu majority. In addition, all Hutus in
regroupment camps are to be allowed home by the end of next month. Mandela
said the agreements cleared the way for the first face-to-face talks
between Buyoya and Hutu rebel leaders at regional peace talks, scheduled
in Tanzania next month. 

BURUNDI: FDD dismissive of Buyoya-Mandela accord

Following the agreement between President Pierre Buyoya and mediator
Nelson Mandela to divide the army 50-50 between Tutsis and Hutus, rebel
CNDD-FDD leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye reacted by saying it was not a
question of figures. He told the BBC Kirundi service he had never
discussed figures with the mediator. "You are the first to tell me about
the percents," he told the interviewer. "Our main concern is not figures. 
Our main concern is to find a solution to the cause of the war in Burundi. 
The most important issue is to study how the Burundi army will always
respect the view of the people." 

TANZANIA: UNHCR unaware of 45,000 seeking repatriation

UNHCR Kigoma on Wednesday said it was not aware that some 45,000 Burundi
refugees had reportedly registered for repatriation. An official in
Kigoma, Marion Roche, told IRIN that a few weeks ago, some refugees
approached UNHCR officers in Karago camp saying that 80 of them wanted to
be repatriated.  "The number later increased to 400," she noted. "Our
officers in Kibondo asked the refugees to go and make a list of all those
who wanted to be repatriated but by last Friday, there was still no list
presented."  The private Burundi news agency Net Press on Tuesday reported
that more than 45,000 Burundi refugees had registered for repatriation. 

RWANDA: Tribunal orders release of internal UN memo

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Thursday ordered
the release of a document written by a former UN employee concerning the
circumstances surrounding the 6 April 1994 plane crash in which the former
president of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burndian counterpart
Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed. An ICTR statement said that the three-page
internal memorandum was written in 1997 by Michael Hourigan, a former
member of one of the investigative teams of the office of the prosecutor
for the Tribunal. It said that Hourigan wrote the memo "on his own
initiative", while on a short-term contract with the Office of Internal
Oversight Services at the UN headquarters in New York. The memo was found
in a file at the headquarters earlier this year and transmitted to the
Tribunal, whose president then placed the document under seal. 

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Victory statements and accusations continue

Ethiopia and Eritrea traded accusations of fighting as talks continued in
Algeria. Eritrea accused Ethiopia of launching attacks on the Assab front,
the latest on Thursday. Fighting was still continuing on Friday morning,
Eritrean radio reported. A statement by the Eritrean foreign ministry
called the fighting at Assab "a flagrant violation of the Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) agreement" as Eritrea had withdrawn two weeks ago
according to the requirements of the peace plan. Eritrea also claimed a
"major defeat" of Ethiopian troops in Tesseney in western Eritrea, on
Monday, and said "most of the western towns that were occupied in the
early days of Ethiopia's invasion" had been liberated, including Barentu,
Haikota, Tesseney, Guluj and Tokombia. The Ethiopian government said
Eritrea had "incited hostilities" at the Assab/Bure front and that there
had been intense fighting during Tuesday night, but that Ethiopia had
"thrashed"  Eritrean troops. 

ERITREA: Displaced from Assab arriving by sea in Massawa

A new wave of displaced people from the recent fighting on the eastern
Bure front, near the Red Sea port of Assab, has been arriving by sea in
the port of Massawa. WFP spokesperson Lindsey Davies, who visited Massawa
on Monday, told IRIN that about 4,000 people had arrived by boat in the
port. About 1,000 of these had been absorbed by the local community; the
remainder were at a local school, sleeping in classroom and corridors or
under tarpaulins.  Davies said the numbers of displaced people in Eritrea
could not be accurately verified, because the situation was "very fluid"
and people were still on the move. Many people were hiding in hills and
mountains, where aid agencies had no access; an estimated 50,000 were
gathered in pockets south of Tesseney, along the Sudanese border. These
displaced were in the path of withdrawing Ethiopian troops and
consequently extremely vulnerable, said humanitarian sources. The UN was
working on a planning figure of 750,000 displaced people. 

ERITREA: Refugees arriving in Sudan caught up in clashes

The renewed fighting between Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in western
Eritrea led to a fresh wave of refugees crossing the border into Sudan on
Monday. A UNHCR spokesman told IRIN that at least 3,000 had crossed by the
end of the day, with more expected overnight. The new arrivals in Sudan
included at least two wounded civilians, the first recorded by UNHCR since
the fighting began on 12 May, indicating that the refugees had been caught
up in the actual fighting, rather than fleeing ahead of it. The spokesman
said gunfire and shelling was clearly audible on the Sudanese side of the
border throughout the day. 

ERITREA: Ethiopians held in security camps

Eritrean officials acknowledged some 7,500 Ethiopians were being held in
four camps, in Massawa, Dekemhare, Mendefera and Keren, citing "security
breaches" and "protective custody" as reasons for their internment. The
Shiteki camp was opened on 29 May after Ethiopia bombed the international
airport on the first day of peace talks in Algeria. Ethiopians are now
being officially invited to sign up to return to Ethiopia, which may be
preparations for repatriation, according to diplomats. An international
journalist who visited Shiteki camp, 23 km south of Asmara, said the
mostly male population of the camp was being held "under light guard in
good conditions". Journalists said Ethiopians in the camp felt they had
"some degree of choice" as to whether they remained there. 

HORN OF AFRICA: UN appeals for $378 million for drought victims

The UN on Wednesday launched an emergency appeal for US $378 million to
avert the effects of drought in Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Somalia and
Djibouti.  The appeal aims to address the immediate needs of 13.4 million
people, following three consecutive years of poor rains and the total
failure of rains last April throughout the Horn of Africa. In a forward to
the appeal, WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini, the UN Special Envoy
for the Drought in the Greater Horn of Africa, said that for many of these
people, timely assistance was the difference between survival and death. 

SUDAN: Sudan sends first export of oil

Sudan exported its first shipment of oil products, sending some 20,000 mt
of gasoline to Malta on a Turkish tanker that left Port Sudan on the Red
Sea on Monday, reported the official newspaper Al-Anbaa. Energy and Mining
Minister Awad el-Jazz was quoted saying that the government planned to
expand its gasoline export to some 600,000 mt annually.  A 1,610 km
pipeline carries crude oil from southern oil fields to the Red Sea and is
constantly threatened by rebel activity. 

Meanwhile, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said in a statement
that an upsurge of fighting has forced the Sudan government to stop work
at six key oil wells in the southwest of the country.  Government army
spokesman Mohamed Osman Yassin denied the SPLA had launched attacks in the
area and told reporters that there was "no presence of the rebel forces
that jeopardizes the petroleum operations in those areas". 

SOMALIA: Investigation into murder of aid worker in Somaliland

The Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB) expressed its "deepest regret"
over the death of project manager Dieter Krasemann of German Technical
Cooperation (GTZ) in Somaliland on Tuesday. SACB comprises donors, UN
agencies and NGOs working in Somalia, and works in concert regarding
security issues - particularly kidnappings and killings of aid workers -
in Somalia. GTZ and the German embassy requested that the Executive
Committee meet on Wednesday to discuss the incident, which was the first
killing of a foreign aid worker in Somaliland. A statement released by the
SACB said Krasemann was stabbed while sitting in his car in Burao, and
died almost instantly. His assailant was immediately arrested and an
investigation was underway by the Somaliland authorities. 

SOMALIA: Djibouti peace conference must decide "old or new" delegates

The Somali peace conference held in Djibouti is coming to the end of its
consultative phase, after composition of the predominantly clan
delegations was slowed down by disagreement, diplomatic sources told IRIN
on Friday.  Debate focused particularly on numbers regarding sub-clans,
women and minorities. The final composition of the delegations is likely
to be four groups of 160 representatives, with smaller groups representing
minorities.  There are "hundreds of former politicians" at the conference,
the source told IRIN. "It will be interesting to see which delegates are
chosen; old or new." 

Nairobi, 9 June 2000

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



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