U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN Weekly Round-up 46
11 - 17 November 2000



CONTENTS:

UGANDA: Ebola fever still spreading
UGANDA: Museveni denies Congolese resource plunder
DRC: Fighting resumes in Bunia
DRC: Need for continued assistance stressed
BURUNDI: Army-rebel clashes continue
BURUNDI: Rebels accused of having "foreign support"
RWANDA: Kagame calls on Italy to return adopted children
RWANDA: Refugee returns this year almost 20,000
RWANDA: Government, donor meeting stresses regional peace
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Bangui tense after strikes and clashes
GREAT LAKES: Rural emergency needs underfunded - FAO 


UGANDA: Ebola fever still spreading

The international medical aid agency Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) has
confirmed the outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in a third Ugandan
district. In a statement issued on Monday, MSF said it had sent a team to
Kiryandongo in Masindi District - 180 km northwest of Kampala - to assist
in containing the new outbreak. Two staff members were helping to set up
an isolation ward after two people died from Ebola symptoms towards the
end of lat week, it said. A third person in Masindi had tested positive
for the disease. This new outbreak was on Monday linked to a woman who
fled from a hospital to her home town once she had been suspected of
having contracted the disease, Ugandan media reported. Dr Sam Okware, head
of the National Task Force on Ebola, said the woman had died two weeks
earlier, but officials had not immediately known of her case. Three
relatives of the woman had also died in Masindi. 

Uganda's Director-General of Health Services, Dr Francis Omaswa, said on
Tuesday he had spoken to his Kenyan counterpart, who had already located
those Kenyans who attended the funeral in Masindi. The seven had shown no
signs of Ebola, but were quarantined in their homes and would be monitored
for 42 days before being declared free of infection, a Kenyan health
ministry statement cited by local media stated. In all, some 150 people
who attended the funeral in Masindi were under medical surveillance,
Omaswa said. 

The Ugandan Ministry of Health reported just one new laboratory-confirmed
case of Ebola (in an undisclosed location) as of Monday. This was reported
by the WHO on Wednesday. No further deaths had been reported as of 14
November, it said. The ministry reported cumulative figures of 321 cases,
including 104 deaths, for Gulu District in the north, where the outbreak
was first confirmed, WHO added. It did not disclose any new figures for
Mbarara and Masindi districts. 

UGANDA: Museveni denies Congolese resource plunder

President Yoweri Museveni on 11 November met the UN expert panel
investigating illegal use of Congolese resources, telling them that Uganda
had entered the DRC for security reasons and not to exploit its natural
resources. Museveni said the exploitation of minerals was a business that
required enormous investment, which Uganda did not have, Radio Uganda
reported. Although there was "booming trade along the border between
private Ugandan citizens and private Congolese citizens", that was
something which had always existed and was healthy for the people of
Africa, he added.

The Parliamentary Committee on Presidential and Foreign Affairs told the
UN resource panel that the only resources coming from DRC through Uganda's
involvement there were the Congolese wives of members of the Uganda
People's Defence Forces (UPDF), whose dowries had been paid in full by the
Ugandan soldiers. Committee chairman Toskin Johnston said Uganda's
involvement in DRC had made the country poor, and that the Ugandan economy
would not be in a mess if the country were exploiting Congolese resources
as alleged. 

DRC: Fighting resumes in Bunia

After a brief lull, tension was reportedly "very high" in the northeastern
Congolese town of Bunia with more gunfire reported on Thursday, the
governing Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de
liberation (RCD-ML) said. Fierce fighting resumed on Wednesday between
troops loyal to RCD-ML leader Prof Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and those of his
rival and former deputy, Mbusa Nyamwisi, resulting in an unknown number of
deaths and injuries, RCD-ML officials said. "Thursday's attack lasted
about 10 minutes and the Presidential Private Unit (PPU) contained it,"
RCD-ML spokesman Jean-Ernest Louis Kayiviro told IRIN. Uganda's
presidential adviser on Congo, Colonel Kahinda Otafiire, flew into Bunia
on Thursday with a message from the Ugandan authorities. "He delivered a
message from Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni informing Wamba that a
meeting between the professor and his rivals would take place in the next
two days," Kayiviro said. [For full story see separate IRIN item of 16
November, headlined "DRC: High tension in Bunia after renewed fighting"]

Tension eased slightly on Friday after the reported arrest of a militia
commander. Kayiviro said "the coup" against Wamba was over. [For full
story, see separate IRIN item of 17 November headlined "DRC: Tension
easing in Bunia"]. 

DRC: Need for continued assistance stressed

While the situation in the eastern town of Goma appears calm and
relatively stable, the story in the surrounding forests and remote
villages is completely different, with people literally running for their
lives. According to humanitarian workers who recently visited these areas
and spoke to local residents, the Rwandan Interahamwe militia were
carrying out a "massive campaign of intimidation". Villagers said they
were so afraid that they went to sleep in the forests at night, when most
of the attacks usually took place. "The pressure in the villages is so
great that people can't live their lives," Nigel Marsh of the NGO, World
Vision, told IRIN. Villagers, victims of both sides in the DRC conflict,
also spoke of reprisal attacks carried out by soldiers of the governing
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma). Marsh underlined
the huge number of displaced people in eastern DRC. "A massive amount of
work still needs to be done," he stressed. "The donors should not stop
giving to Congo as we have to keep these people alive." [For full story,
see separate IRIN item of 16 November headlined "DRC: People running for
their lives in the east"]

BURUNDI: Army-rebel clashes continue

Fighting between the army and rebels is ongoing in different parts of the
country, with the intensity of clashes varying between regions and from
day to day, army spokesman Colonel Longin Minani told IRIN on Monday. 
"There has been fighting going on since last week and it is still
continuing now. We have launched an operation in different areas and will
go on until we are satisfied that we have displaced the rebels completely,
or until we do not see them any more," he said. Minani said he had no
statistics of casualties for the ongoing operation, but that the forces
being engaged by the army were believed to be Burundi rebels working with
Rwandese ex-FAR (former Rwandan army), Congolese Mayi-Mayi and some
Ugandan rebels. "We are attacking them everywhere, whenever we get
information of their presence... The intensity changes every day," Minani
said. News organisations reported towards the end of last week that some
30 rebels and seven soldiers had been killed in recent clashes. 

Rebels killed at least six civilians in an attack on a displaced people's
camp in Kabizi, Kayagoro commune, Makamba Province, southeastern Burundi,
news organisations reported on Wednesday. The Associated Press quoted the
governor of Makamba Province, Gabriel Gunungu, as saying on Wednesday that
rebels fired on the camp at the weekend, which is home to some 2,500
people. Army spokesman Colonel Longin Minani could not confirm the number
of casualties, but said the incident took place. He told IRIN many houses
had been burnt and cattle driven into Tanzania.

BURUNDI: Rebels accused of having "foreign support" 

The leader of the pro-Tutsi ABASA party, Therence Nsanze, on Monday
accused the rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) and the
Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) of obtaining support from "countries
opposed to the signing of the peace agreement". "You are aware that FDD
has been operating from DRC and that it is being misled with money and
arms from Congo," the BBC Kirundi service quoted Nsanze as saying. "They
cannot participate in the talks because they have bosses," he said. In his
view, the Burundi war was no longer taking place between Burundians only.
"It has also become a Congolese war, because those assisting FDD and FNL
to kill Burundians are also involved in the Congo-Kinshasa fighting," he
said.  "Therefore, the Burundi war has gone beyond its borders and spread
into our entire region."

Meanwhile, an adviser to the rebel CNDD-FDD movement, Jean-Marie
Ngendahayo, said the group did not need any support to "determine why we
are fighting and what are our objectives". "If there are people who need
to be supported by foreign heads of state to determine their objectives,
that is their problem," he said. 

RWANDA: Kagame calls on Italy to return adopted children

A diplomatic dispute is simmering between Rwanda and Italy over the
latter's reluctance to return a group of Rwandan children evacuated during
the 1994 genocide. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has accused an Italian
mayor of "contempt" over comments he made to the British 'Guardian'
newspaper in explaining his refusal to send the children home. According
to a press release received by IRIN on Tuesday, Kagame told a news
conference in Kigali he could not understand why parents and relatives
"can be denied the right to these children because Rwanda is poor. Poverty
is not a crime." 

Kagame was replying to comments by the mayor of Castenedolo in Italy,
where 41 Rwandan children are living with adoptive parents, who stated
that the proposal to return the children to their homes was "absolutely
irresponsible". "You can't transfer children who have become accustomed to
life in a western country to a country that has nothing," the mayor was
quoted as saying. During the genocide, 59 children - now aged between six
and 10 - were sent to Italy, Belgium and France. Kagame said Rwanda would
be prepared to take legal action over the matter. [For full story see
separate IRIN item of 14 November, headlined "RWANDA: Growing dispute with
Italy over adopted children"]

Italy's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was willing to help the
children make contact with relatives, the Associated Press reported. The
ministry's undersecretary, Rino Serri, said Italy was willing to work with
Rwanda to establish "contact between the children's new Italian families
and their families in Rwanda". He stressed that any contact would,
however, depend on the "wishes of the children themselves".  He noted that
he had discussed the issue with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame last week. 

RWANDA: Refugee returns this year almost 20,000

The UNHCR has repatriated 19,641 Rwandans refugees from neighbouring
countries since the beginning of the year, officials in the agency's
office in Kigali told IRIN on Monday. Officials said that 17,866 of these
returned voluntarily from the DRC, 1,226 from Tanzania, 119 from the
Republic of Congo, 247 from Uganda, 45 from Kenya, 61 from Burundi and 77
from other countries. Just over 25,000 Rwandan Hutus still remained at the
Ngara refugee camp in Tanzania, a UNHCR official at the agency's Nairobi
office said. New arrivals to this location this year were fleeing
continued instability in Kibungo, southeastern Rwanda, he said.
"Departures from Rwanda to Tanzania outstrip returnees," the official
added. From September, 2,238 refugees had returned to Rwanda, while 572
fled Rwanda, reflecting the localised nature in the movement of refugees,
the agency stated. 

RWANDA: Government, donor meeting stresses regional peace

A meeting between Rwandan government officials and representatives of
donor agencies and NGOs last week in Kigali noted that the success of
poverty reduction depended on regional stability in general and Rwanda's
security in particular. In a joint communique, participants said that the
war in the DRC and the delayed implementation of the Lusaka peace accord
remained a "major hindrance" in the fight against poverty in Rwanda. The
development partners urged the government to "intensify" the search for
peace within the Lusaka process. The government, for its part, called on
the partners to bring their influence to bear on other parties to the
conflict to abide by and advance the Lusaka process. It urged them in
particular to commit the needed resources to the Joint Military Commission
(JMC), responsible for monitoring the process under the Lusaka peace
accord. 

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Youths clash with police

The Central African Republic (CAR) capital, Bangui, is reported tense
after security forces dispersed protests by groups of young people earlier
this week. Sources in the capital said the heightened tension was sparked
by a civil servants' strike over pay arrears which began on 2 November.
Although the strike call was suspended on Tuesday, "social tension"
remained in the city. The demonstrations were organised by a youth group
named 'Flambeau centrafricain' (Central African Torch). On Tuesday, they
attempted to block one of the capital's main arteries - l'avenue Boganda -
and looted several cars. They set up barricades and burnt tyres, prompting
police and presidential guard units to use tear gas against them. The
running battles with the police and army units on Tuesday resulted in a
provisional toll of five demonstrators seriously wounded and over 10
arrested. Analysts said the demonstrations were incited by the opposition,
which was trying to exploit the social crisis in the country. The name of
Jean-Paul Ngoupande, leader of the opposition Parti de l'unite nationale
(PUN), has been mentioned in connection with the unrest. [For full story
see separate IRIN item of 16 November headlined: "CAR: Bangui tense after
strikes and clashes"]. 

GREAT LAKES: Rural emergency needs underfunded - FAO

The volatile security situation made it difficult to carry out a
comprehensive needs assessment in the Great Lakes and Central Africa in
order to meet the challenge of humanitarian assistance, the FAO said in a
report on Monday in which it estimated that about 15 million people in
rural areas were in need of assistance. The dry season, which was normally
from June to August in the region, had "lasted much longer than usual",
and drought meant that the agricultural season had not begun in September
in many parts of Uganda, southern Rwanda, eastern Burundi, northern
Tanzania and the Kivu provinces of eastern DRC, the October update from
the FAO's special relief operations stated. The FAO had managed to
mobilise 52 percent of some US $21.2 million it requested for the Great
Lakes and Central Africa, but this did not cover the entire agricultural
emergency needs of any one of the individual countries concerned, the
report added.

Among the 15 million rural people in need of assistance were refugees,
returnees, internally-displaced people (IDPs), communities hosting
displaced people and returnees, and families headed by orphans or widows
without support, FAO said. The number of rural dwellers in need of
assistance was highest in DRC at over 43 million (25 percent), but the
proportion of the rural population needing help was highest in Republic of
Congo at 69 percent; roughly one million rural people (or 17 percent of
the rural population) also needed assistance in Burundi, it added.

Nairobi, 17 November


[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
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