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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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 174
10 - 16 May 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: Bunia in crisis
DRC: Death toll in plane disaster will "never beknown"
DRC-BURUNDI: Nearly 5,000 Congolese flee rebel offensive in South Kivu
DRC-UGANDA: Refugee influx could worsen cholera epidemic
BURUNDI: 127 killed in clashes, army spokesman says
UGANDA: Army pursuing LRA rebels
UGANDA: Alert over Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Sudan
UGANDA: Donors and civil society groups slam corruption
KENYA: Constitutional review bogged down by "political interests"
KENYA: Floods due to "degraded water catchments"
CAR: Bozize appoints provincial military commanders
ROC: UNDP meets parties to discuss reintegration of rebels

ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: Feature - Winning back Burundi's child soldiers
Full story

BURUNDI: Feature - Civilians losing the war
Full story

RWANDA: Interview with presidential hopeful Faustin Twagiramungu
Full story

DRC: Bunia in crisis

The UN Security Council is exploring "all options" to see how it can best
respond to the crisis in Bunia, UN News reported on Monday. "The Council
is seized of this very serious matter," Security Council President
Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan said, adding that "all options were
being explored" and the risks and challenges were being weighed in an
effort to see how the Council should respond.

On Monday, forces of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a rebel
group drawn from the Hema community, seized Bunia, the principal town of
the northeastern district of Ituri, following several days of fighting
between rival Hema and Lendu militias. The UN Mission to the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, said Lendu militiamen who had
been holding Bunia withdrew after a two-hour battle. Aid groups have
called on the UN to strengthen the mandate of MONUC troops in Bunia, who
currently number around 700.

Full story

Fighting in Bunia resumed on Tuesday afternoon, Patricia Tome, the MONUC
spokeswoman, told IRIN. "As we speak, they're using artillery, mortars.
You can hear the exchanges of gunfire," Tome said from the UN base in
Bunia. "The town is practically empty. The population has sought refuge
where MONUC is. There is no water or electricity in the town, which has
been looted over and over again," she said.

France has indicated that it was prepared to send troops to calm the
situation, so long as there is a clear Security Council mandate and that
other governments join in. "France is ready to contribute to the
stabilisation of Ituri and right now we are studying ways of taking part
in an international force," a French foreign ministry spokesman, Francois
Rivasseau, told AFP.

Full story

Humanitarian officials said subsequently that movement around the town was
almost "impossible", although MONUC was reported to have secured the
remaining limited humanitarian aid supplies. Humanitarian workers, along
with thousands of Bunia residents, have sought refuge in the MONUC
compound in Bunia.

Leaders of humanitarian organisations, who left Bunia over the weekend,
convened in the eastern DRC town of Goma in an effort to determine what,
if any, action could be taken under conditions of such insecurity. "You
have to reckon with crossfire wherever you go. None of the militias are
able to control their troops. Humanitarian supplies and humanitarian
workers are at constant risk, and MONUC cannot provide adequate security
in order to access civilian populations," said one of them. "MONUC is
barely able to protect the airport and their own bases."

On Tuesday, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) sent two planeloads of relief
items from Goma to Bunia to assist the victims of the. It said it feared
that "hundreds of thousands" of people, mainly children and women, were
fleeing the violence. In a statement on Tuesday by World Vision
International, a member of the NGO's Uganda Emergency Response and
Disaster Mitigation support team, Wycliff Kyamanywa, was quoted as
estimating the number of refugees who had crossed over to Bundibugyo
district in Uganda to be 20,000.

Full story

The UN on Wednesday said that departing Ugandan troops had left behind
weapons which were seized by militias fighting in Bunia. Amos Namanga
Ngongi, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in
the DRC, told reporters that "on the ground, various armed groups have
confirmed it." However, the Ugandan army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza,
strongly denied that Uganda had left behind any weapons. "We left behind
not even a bullet," Bantariza told IRIN on Thursday. "How can we leave
anything behind when we need more heavy weapons ourselves. Would we leave
them with passers-by? No way."

Full story

By Thursday, the international NGO World Vision (WV) was reporting that
about 50,000 people were fleeing southwards on foot to escape the fighting
in Bunia. UN officials warned of a humanitarian disaster unless the
international community stepped in to stop the bloodshed. The people,
mostly women and children, were walking along the Bunia-Beni road were
heading for Eringeti, 143 km south of Bunia. Together with other NGOs in
Eringeti, WV said it was already helping people displaced by earlier
fighting in the region.

"International NGOs need to try their best, as soon as possible, to save
thousands of lives that are at risk of starving in the equatorial jungle,"
Dieudonne Kasonga, a water engineer for WV, said.

Full story


DRC: Death toll in plane disaster will "never be known"

The number of victims in an air disaster on 8 May, which occured when the
rear doors of a cargo plane flew open shortly after takeoff from the
capital, Kinshasa, sucking passengers out to their death, "will never be
known", the government spokesman, Kikaya Bin Karubi, told IRIN on Monday.

The DRC has launched an investigation into the accident, which involved a
Ukrainian plane carrying military personnel, policemen and their families
to the DRC's second city, Lubumbashi. The death toll has been put at
anything between 60 and 170, but the passenger list was incomplete and
survivors say the plane was overloaded. Karubi said he had been informed
by the Air Force of 60 people who had disappeared, but state television on
9 May reported a figure of 170.

"Apart from the police there were about 100 women with children aboard the
plane, who were joining their husbands already in Lubumbashi," Mukalayi
Mwamba, a policeman who survived, said. "There were also about 100 more
people who'd got on the plane." Mwamba, like others who survived, clung to
ropes and netting to stop himself from being sucked out of the plane.


DRC-BURUNDI: Nearly 5,000 Congolese flee rebel offensive in South Kivu

Nearly 5,000 people were forced to flee across a river to Burundi to
escape a rebel offensive last weekend in South Kivu Province, eastern DRC,
the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on
Monday. UNHCR said 4,860 Congolese had swum across the Ruzizi river,
pushing belongings on rafts and herding cattle through the water to the
village of Nyamintanga in the border commune of Buganda, 35 km north of
the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, following an offensive by the rebel
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma).

"This influx was not really a surprise", the UNHCR representative in
Burundi, Stefano Severe, said. "Things have remained quite volatile in
eastern DRC and there had been rumours recently that there would be more
of the usual abuse of the civilian population by different groups."

The refugees told UNHCR that RCD-Goma had warned the inhabitants of three
villages, Kiryama, Cimuka and Ntunda, in South Kivu, to leave their homes,
because it planned a large-scale operation against other rebel groups. The
refugees said 21 people were killed in the three villages, although the
UNHCR said it was not clear who was responsible for the deaths.

Full story


DRC-UGANDA: Refugee influx could worsen cholera epidemic

A cholera epidemic which has affected parts of western Uganda since
January is persisting amid fears that a fresh influx of refugees from
neighbouring DRC could exacerbate the situation. Collins Mwesigye, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) official in charge of cholera in Uganda,
told IRIN up to 20,000 Congolese refugees, fleeing fighting in Bunia, had
crossed into Uganda. He said this had worsened the already critical levels
of sanitation responsible for the cholera outbreak in the region.

The local media this week reported 52 fresh cases and three deaths in the
western district of Kasese alone. In the neighbouring border district of
Bundibugyo, at least 44 people are said to have died. "The situation could
improve," Mwesigye said. "But in this dynamic situation of population
movement, one does not see it as being controlled very quickly. If the
political situation was stable in the DRC, then we would be able to
control it, but now the fighting in Bunia is complicating the problem."

Full story


BURUNDI: 127 killed in clashes, army spokesman says

A total of 123 Forces pour la defence de la democratie (FDD) rebels and
four government soldiers were killed in military offensives launched by
the army in central and northern Burundi from 5 May, the army spokesman,
Col Augustin Nzabampema, told IRIN on Tuesday. "One hundred FDD rebels of
Peter Nkurunziza were killed in heavy clashes at Ndubura and Ruce in
Bubanza Province last week," Nzabampema said. Ndubura and Ruce are near
Kibira forest, which is an FDD stronghold. According to Nzabampema, the
FDD "has chosen the way of violence by shelling the civil population",
even though it has signed a ceasefire agreement.

However, an FDD spokesman, Gélase Daniel Ndabirabe, dismissed the army's
claims, accusing it of intensifying its offensive against FDD positions,
especially in Bubanza. "We did not lose fighters during the army
offensive, only civilians died, and they were killed by the army," he
said. "The army has an objective of driving FDD rebels away from the
country, this is not possible..." He added that the army was against the
integration of FDD rebels into the security forces under the transitional
government.

Newly inaugurated Burundi President Domitien Ndayizeye declared on Sunday
that the government could not "weakly watch" the FDD attacks,
"particularly when they are directed at innocent people".

Full story


UGANDA: Army pursuing LRA rebels

The Ugandan army on Tuesday said it was still pursuing members of the
rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who abducted 44 young people from a
Catholic seminary in northern Uganda. LRA fighters on the morning of 11
May attacked the St Mary Lacor Junior Seminary in Gulu and abducted 44 out
of the 136 students at the institution. One student was reportedly shot
dead by the rebels.

The army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN that a military force
had been dispatched immediately after the attack and had intercepted the
rebels group, which had then scattered in smaller groups. He said the
operation was further complicated by heavy rains that have been pounding
the region. "The rains are heavy and some rivers are full. But you know
they [LRA] have their own little crossing points."

Full story


UGANDA: Alert over Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Sudan

The Ugandan government is urging against all nonessential travel across
the country'Òs northern border after a fresh outbreak of the deadly Ebola
virus killed 45 people in southern Sudan. In particular, residents of
Kitgum District - the region with the longest and most porous border with
Sudan - have been warned that frequent trips between the two countries
carry the risk of spreading the virus to Uganda.

The deaths occurred in Ikoto, a small town about 45 km north of the
Ugandan border and 126 km from Gulu - northern Uganda^Òs largest town and
scene of the last recorded Ebola outbreak in the country, in which over
200 people died out of 487 infected.

There are also fears that Ugandan soldiers stationed in locations across
the Emotong mountains - as part of Operation Iron Fist to destroy LRA's
bases in Sudan - could become infected and bring the virus back into
Uganda. The nearest Ugandan border post with Ikoto is Agoro - a major
trading centre which exports large quantities of goods into Sudan.

Full story


UGANDA: Donors and civil society groups slam corruption

Donors and civil society organisations have joined together to deplore
corruption in Uganda^Òs government, which, they say, is endemic from the
top right down to local administrative levels.

A statement issued by Uganda^Òs Development Partners at the annual donor
conference in Kampala, read by Netherlands Ambassador Matthieu Peters,
referred to the "widely held perception in Ugandan society that corruption
is pervasive, institutionalised and on the increase".

Citing the findings of a Uganda Debt Network investigation into government
accounts, Peters noted that some 200 billion Ugandan shillings (US $40
million) "is lost or misused each year", leaving 7.5 percent of the budget
unaccounted for. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for us, as donors,
to explain this to our taxpayers at home, who currently provide just under
half of the government of Uganda budget," he warned.

Frances Akello, chairwoman of the Teso Anti-Corruption Organisation, read
out a statement on behalf of the "grassroots people from 10 districts in
Uganda". "The very organs meant to implement, enforce and promote the rule
of law, such as the judiciary and the police, are ranked amongst the
highest corrupt institutions. If the very lawmakers and enforcers are
corrupt, who then can promote the rule of law?" the statement said.

Full story


KENYA: Constitutional review bogged down by "political interests"

Major human rights groups in Kenya have warned that the ongoing
constitutional review process is being undermined by powerful political
interests to deny Kenyans the changes they wanted when they voted in the
opposition National Rainbow Coalition last year. The National
Constitutional Conference, which has been under way in the capital,
Nairobi, for the past two weeks, has been marked by sharp disagreements
among the 629 delegates, who have so far failed to agree on the contents
of the draft constitution due to ethnic, political and religious
differences. Delegates have also been accused of demanding "unrealistic"
increments in their allowances.

The delegates have been divided over issues such as the creation of a
prime minister's post to dilute the powers of the president. Muslim and
Christian delegates have also differed over proposals to retain Islamic
kadhi (family) courts in the constitution.

Four rights groups - the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Federation of
Women Lawyers, the League of Kenyan Women Voters and the Institute of
Education in Democracy - said a new constitution was needed to end massive
corruption, mismanagement and poor human rights associated with the
previous Kenya African National Union regime.

Full story


KENYA: Floods due to "degraded water catchments"

The Kenyan government has said the current floods in the country are not
just due to the ongoing heavy rainfall, but to degraded water catchments.
The government and the UN held a meeting on 8 May to discuss ways of
coping with the devastating floods, particularly in the west.

According to a UN briefing paper, the Meteorological Department has
described the current rains as "normal or slightly above normal", but says
the degraded water catchments can no longer handle even normal rainfall.
In this regard, the government stressed the need to rehabilitate dykes and
dams, as well as the water catchment areas, including reforestation using
community participation.

Over 40 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced by the
floods. In a statement, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies said it had been asked by the government to coordinate
the delivery of non-food assistance to the victims.

Full story


CAR: Bozize appoints provincial military commanders

In an effort to improve security across the Central African Republic
(CAR), the new CAR leader, Francois Bozize, on Tuesday appointed
commanders for the country's seven military regions, government-run Radio
Centrafrique reported. The appointments were made following reports,
mainly from humanitarian workers, that armed robbers had been roaming most
of the CAR countryside since 15 March when Bozize ousted the then
president, Ange-Felix Patasse, in a coup.

In Tuesday's appointments, Bozize, who is also the defence minister,
retained Antoine Gambi as the CAR army chief of staff.

Full story


ROC: UNDP meets parties to discuss reintegration of rebels

Representatives of the government of the Republic of Congo and "Ninja"
rebels, who recently signed an agreement to end fighting in the Pool
region, have held talks with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the
capital, Brazzaville, to discuss a reintegration programme for the rebels,
the minister of state for transport, Isidore Mvouba, told IRIN.

The EU is channelling some $801,000 through UNDP to launch
income-generating activities to help former combatants return to their
villages over a six-month period. The rebel fighters have been emerging
from the forests of the Pool region since the government and the "Ninja"
leader, Pasteur Frederic Bitsangou, alias Ntoumi, signed an agreement on
17 March to end hostilities. The UNDP acting representative in
Brazzaville, Jacques Bandelier, said after the meeting on 9 May that UNDP
had already made contact with relevant bodies and he hoped that together
they could start activities in Pool "very quickly".

There is no official figure for the number of "Ninja" fighters, but
according to sources in the Conseil national de la resistance, the rebels'
political wing, about 14,000 young men are enrolled in the militia.


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