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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Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 167
22 - 28 March 2003


CONTENTS:

CAR: CEMAC asks international community to help CAR
CAR: Bozize appoints prime minister
CAR: Eight labour unions offer support to Bozize
CAR: Former president wants to go home
CAR: WFP receives US $1 million for the displaced
ROC: Ebola death toll rises
GREAT LAKES: WFP predicts food shortages
BURUNDI: Government, AU sign deal on Peacekeeping force
RWANDA: ICTR hopes to mobilise international support through Swiss
exhibition
DRC: IMF approves $36 million development loan
DRC-UGANDA: Some 400 rebels in northeast surrender to Ugandan army
UGANDA: Rebels kill government peace envoy
UGANDA: 23 dead in cholera outbreak
KENYA: Industrial unrest on the increase

ALSO SEE:

TANZANIA: Focus on tuberculosis at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33024

KENYA: Feature - Cost of free education at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33040

UGANDA: Feature - Vicious circle of famine and insecurity in Karamoja at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33011

CAR: CEMAC asks international community to help CAR

The leaders of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African
States (CEMAC) have recognised the self-declared president of the Central
African Republic (CAR), Francois Bozize, and encouraged him to continue
his plans to restore peace to his country.

In a final communique issued after a special summit on 21 March in
Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo (ROC), the CEMAC heads of
state condemned the coup that brought Bozize to power, but also noted his
"commitments to restoring peace, democracy and security for people and
goods, and national reconciliation".

The summit leaders agreed to maintain the CEMAC peacekeeping force, whose
303 men were deployed to CAR in late December 2002 to protect the ousted
president, Ange-Felix Patasse. They also made an urgent appeal to the
international community to help the CAR to rebuild.

On 19 March, Chad sent 300 soldiers to Bangui to help restore calm
following Bozize's coup. The integration of the Chadian troops into CEMAC
is due to be decided at the community's next regional summit, whose date
is yet to be fixed. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33012]

On Wednesday, the Chadian troops in Bangui recovered 1,300 firearms and
270 vehicles in a disarmament campaign. The Chadian ambassador, Maitile
Djoumbe, handed over the recovered weapons on Monday to the CAR chief of
staff, Antoine Gambi, the spokesman of the CEMAC force, Augustin Bibaye,
told IRIN.

Bibaye said the Chadians recovered the firearms, of all kinds, from former
rebel supporters of Bozize, and youths, who had armed themselves with
stolen weapons after the 15 March coup. According to Bibaye, some of the
vehicles recovered are in good condition while others are damaged. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33044]

CAR: Bozize appoints prime minister

Bozize appointed Abel Goumba as prime minister of a transitional
government on Monday. Goumba, 76, who is one of the founding fathers of
the CAR in the 1950s, said it would take him at least a week to form his
government.

"I cannot form a government without first having consultations with all
the political forces, all the stakeholders, and the diaspora," he told
IRIN on Sunday, just hours after his appointment.

He said the Concertation des partis politiques d'opposition, an alliance
of 12 opposition parties, should perform an important role in the new
administration. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33018]

CAR: Eight labour unions offer support to Bozize

Eight labour union confederations in the CAR have offered their full
support to Bozize, at the same time accusing Patasse of having neglected
their social demands.

"Today we reaffirm solemnly that we are going to offer the support
necessary so that your noble mission cannot fail," Sandoz Oualanga,
chairman of the Centrale nationale des travailleurs centrafricain, told
Bozize during a meeting on Tuesday.

Oualanga said a peaceful demonstration would be organised soon to show
that support. A similar march organised by Goumba's Concertation des
parties politiques d'opposition of Prime Minister Abel Goumba is scheduled
to take place on Friday in Bangui. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33071]

CAR: Former president wants to go home

CAR former President Andre Kolingba is ready to go home from exile in
Uganda, an official of his political party said on Monday.

The vice-chairman of Kolingba's Rassemblement democratique centrafricain,
Louis Pierre Gamba, told IRIN that Kolingba wished to cooperate with the
new administration of Bozize. "He is determined to return home, but what
still blocks him is the issue of amnesty," Gamba said.

Kolingba, president of the CAR from 1981 to 1993, fled to the Ugandan
capital, Kampala, following his unsuccessful attempt to regain power
through a coup on 28 May 2001. Kolingba and his three sons were sentenced
to death in absentia by CAR's criminal court in August 2002. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33042]

CAR: WFP receives US $1 million for the displaced

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has received US $1 million from
multilateral donors to buy food for thousands of internally displaced
people and vulnerable groups in the country, David Bulman, the WFP
representative in the CAR, told IRIN on 22 March. "It is part of a US $6.6
million project for an overall tonnage of 8,816 mt," he said.

WFP, he said, already had $500,000 for the project. He said the funds
would now enable WFP to buy 1,200 mt of food from Cameroon and other
countries. He said 1,700 mt of food was stored in the Cameroonian seaport
of Douala. "We will borrow from other projects while waiting for the road
from Cameroon to be reopened," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33010]

ROC: Ebola death toll rises

The number of deaths from the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the
ROC has risen to 113, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on
Monday. Since Ebola was confirmed early in 2003, 123 people in the
northern region of Cuvette-Ouest are known to have contracted the virus.

The WHO reported that a new Congolese team of three doctors and seven
nurses was trained last week in clinical management and safe burial
practices. A mobile medical team is visiting villages in the affected
region, carrying out information and surveillance activities. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33043]

GREAT LAKES: WFP predicts food shortages

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday that Burundi, Rwanda
and Tanzania would face shortages in essential food commodities between
March and September 2003.

In its "Operations Pipeline and Outlook" report for the period, the UN
agency said it would require donor contributions to be able to distribute
approximately 49,000 mt of cereals needed in the region.

It would also require donor contributions to meet distribution needs of
14,000 mt of pulses, 4,000 mt of corn-soya-blend (CSB), 3,500 mt of oil,
740 mt of salt, 83 mt of sugar and 98 mt of biscuits. [Full story at
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33095]
[Related story for Burundi at
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33047]

BURUNDI: Government, AU sign deal on Peacekeeping force

The African Union (AU) and the government of Burundi signed an agreement
on Wednesday on the statutes for the AU peacekeeping force due for
deployed to Burundi, the country news agency, APB, reported.

It reported on Thursday that the agreement on the statutes related to the
rights and duties of the peacekeeping troops and the logistic details of
getting the mission's equipment into Burundi.

The AU force is expected to supervise the implementation of the ceasefire
accords and help with the stabilisation of the country, ABP reported. It
will also help in disarmament and reintegration of displaced people and
refugees.

Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa have offered contingents for the
force. [Full story at http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33120]

RWANDA: ICTR hopes to mobilise international support through Swiss
exhibition

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is holding an
exhibition in the United Nations offices in Geneva on the theme of
"challenging impunity". The tribunal says the exhibition is to convey its
efforts to "put an end, through international justice, to impunity of
those responsible for genocide and contribute to national reconciliation
in Rwanda".

The exhibition is intended to "inform the international community of the
ICTR's mandate and achievements and to mobilise more concrete and active
support from the international community to the work and endeavours of the
ICTR".

The exhibition, which opened on 17 March and runs until 4 April, is part
of the tribunal's Outreach Programme for the Rwandan population and the
international community, and coincides with the 59th annual session of the
UN Commission for Human Rights. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33065

DRC: IMF approves $36 million development loan

The IMF has given the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) access to $36
million for development spending, the fund's executive board stated on
Monday. The measure follows the completion of an IMF review of the DRC's
performance under an economic programme "supported by a Poverty Reduction
and Growth Facility arrangement".

The facility is the Fund's concessional mechanism for low-income
countries. The Fund approved the DRC's three-year growth facility
arrangement in June 2002 for about $786 million, of which the country has
already drawn $569 million. [Full report at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33072]

DRC-UGANDA: Some 400 rebels in northeast surrender to Ugandan army

The Ugandan army has said between 401 and 425 fighters of Thomas Lubanga's
rebel Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), which it expelled from Bunia on
6 March, have surrendered because they want to participate in the peace
process.

AFP and The New Vision Ugandan government-owned newspaper reported that
representatives of the group, which had been active in the Ituri District
of Orientale Province, in the DRC had announced their surrender after
meeting officials of the Uganda People's Defence Forces in Bundibugyo in
southwestern Uganda last weekend. Those surrendering included "Major"
Kyaligonza, the UPC's overall commander in Bunia.

The New Vision reported on Wednesday that the rebels had defected because
they believed that Lubanga was misleading them. The UPC refused to sign
the Ituri Cessation of Hostilities Agreement reached on 18 March between
rival governments, political, ethnic and militia groups. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33069]

UGANDA: Rebels kill government peace envoy

Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have reportedly killed a
government peace envoy, dampening hopes for a peaceful end to the 17-year
insurgency in northern Uganda.

Media reports said Okech Kuru, a Ugandan army officer, was killed on
Monday at Lapul sub-county of Pader District, during a peace mission.

He had established contact with the rebel group to deliver a message and
some communications equipment to an LRA commander, Charles Tabuley,
Uganda's independent Monitor newspaper reported.

The killing comes only days after President Yoweri Museveni extended a
ceasefire in two locations in Pader - one of the districts most affected
by the insurgency - to allow peace talks to go ahead. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33067]

UGANDA: 23 dead in cholera outbreak

An outbreak of cholera has hit Bundibugyo District, killing 23 people over
the past month, according to a senior health official in the district.

The Bundibugyo district director of health services, William Sichauna,
told IRIN on Wednesday that 235 cholera cases had been received in the
local hospital over the past month. Of these, 23 had died. Sichauna said
the epidemic had its origins in neighbouring DRC and was being spread by
civilians who were crossing the border into Uganda.

He told IRIN that the district had received crucial supplies from the
government, but efforts to control the outbreak were frustrated by the
inability to reach the source in eastern DRC. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33068]

KENYA: Industrial unrest on the increase

Rising incidences of industrial unrest following Kenya's December
transition are threatening the country's economy, already shattered by
decades of corruption and mismanagement, an expert has warned.

A programme officer at the Nairobi-based Institute of Economic Affairs,
Kwame Owino, told IRIN that demands for higher wages -"some of which are
unreasonable" - by workers in the country, could not be supported by
national industries.

Owino said unrest was increasing as there was "more democratic space",
created in the aftermath of the December elections, which brought the
opposition National Rainbow Coalition to power. "The trade union movement
was very weak under [ex-ruling party] KANU [Kenya African National
Union]," Owino said. "With the transition, organisations representing
workers are beginning to flex their muscles." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=33005]


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