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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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 160
01 - 07 February 2003


CONTENTS:

CAR: Bangui silent on fighting in northwest
DRC: Tornado toll rises to 164 dead, 1,702 injured
DRC: UN reports "alarming" movements of armed forces in the east
DRC: RCD-Goma offers amnesty to Mayi-Mayi militias
DRC: UK to assist in formation of unified national army
DRC: First commercial cargo barge arrives in Kisangani
BURUNDI: Government, rebel faction meet to discuss ceasefire implementation
BURUNDI: President Buyoya calls for African peacekeeping force
RWANDA: UN General Assembly elects 11 ICTR judges
RWANDA: WFP to give food to provisionally released detainees
KENYA: Nairobi's homeless receive help from City Council
KENYA: Prisons still overcrowded despite new decongestion policy
KENYA: Government reconsidering encampment policy for refugees
TANZANIA: Lack of food leads to ration cuts in refugee camps
TANZANIA: Sweden to provide US $50 million to support primary education
UGANDA: Agencies appeal for emergency aid

ALSO SEE:

DRC: Interview with MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32145]

KENYA: Feature: The challenge of providing free primary education at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32164

CAR: Bangui silent on fighting in northwest

The Central African Republic (CAR) government has remained silent amid
persistent reports that rebels loyal to the former army chief of staff,
Francois Bozize, have retaken the town of Bozoum, 384 km northwest of the
capital, Bangui.

"These are military secrets, and I am bound to preserve official secrets,"
Col Jerome Bouba, the deputy defence minister, told IRIN on Thursday when
asked to comment on the reports.

Government troops and those of their ally from the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), had been occupying
the town. Newspapers in Bangui report that the government has sent
reinforcements of MLC fighters and Rwandan militiamen to try to recapture
Bozoum, which straddles the road linking Bangui with the Cameroonian
seaport of Douala, through which all the CAR's exports and imports pass.
It is still unclear who controls Bozoum, but independent humanitarian
workers told IRIN that Bozize's fighters had been occupying it for two
weeks. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32173

DRC: Tornado toll rises to 164 dead, 1,702 injured

The toll from a tornado that that swept through an area surrounding the
town of Yumbi in the northwest of Bandundu Province in western DRC on 2
February has left 164 people dead, 1,702 injured, 1,664 houses destroyed
and 1,970 families homeless, government officials reported during an
emergency meeting.

"According to information received from emergency teams, we are fairly
certain that the death toll from the tornado will not rise above the
present figure of 164," Leonard Mashako Mamba, the health minister, told
IRIN on Wednesday.

He said 217 of the injured were "serious cases". Emergency relief efforts
have been under way since Monday morning, including an airlift of some 800
mt of medical supplies provided by an alliance of American churches from
the capital, Kinshasa. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32144]

DRC: UN reports "alarming" movements of armed forces in the east

The UN Mission (MONUC) in the DRC reported on 1 February having received
"alarming" information regarding troop movements on the part of the
Kinshasa government, the Kigali government, the Kampala government, and
various armed factions in eastern DRC, and warned of "imminent" attacks.

"It would be shameful for armies that have already withdrawn from the DRC
to return to fight each other, as was the case in Kisangani in 2000,"
Hamadoun Toure, the MONUC spokesman, said. "It would be equally shameful
if Congolese armed factions resorted to fighting at a time when efforts
are being made to bring the peace process to its fruition."

According to MONUC, the Rwandan army is active in the Ituri District of
Orientale Province of northeastern DRC, while the Uganda People's Defence
Forces has battalions supporting various Congolese rebel factions fighting
in Ituri. MONUC also reported the presence of uniformed Rwandan soldiers
in the Kivu provinces in the east. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32069]

DRC: RCD-Goma offers amnesty to Mayi-Mayi militias

The Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma)
armed opposition movement in eastern DRC has announced a general amnesty
for Mayi-Mayi militias, according to an RCD-Goma spokesman, Jean-Pierre
Lola Kisanga. He told IRIN on Tuesday that the offer applied to the
members of all the factions of Mayi-Mayi militias operating in territory
claimed to be under the control of RCD-Goma.

"We are asking the Mayi-Mayi to leave the forests and disassociate
themselves from other armed groups targeted by DDRRR [Disarmament,
Demobilisation, Repatriation, Reintegration and Reinsertion of foreign
armed forces]," he said. "They will not be charged with any crime
whatsoever. Rather, it is out of our hope for reconciliation and an end to
hostilities that we are offering this amnesty." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32112]

DRC: UK to assist in formation of unified national army

The United Kingdom has expressed its willingness to assist the numerous
armed factions of the DRC with their integration into a unified national
army, according to the UK ambassador to the DRC, Jim Atkinson.

The announcement came following a mission Atkinson had undertaken to
discuss the matter with the leaders of armed opposition groups throughout
the DRC. "We haven't yet arrived at a stage where I could tell you what
the specifics of any such military cooperation with Great Britain would
be," Atkinson told IRIN on 27 January, upon completion of his mission.

"As soon as the transitional government is in place, we will offer our
assistance in collaboration with Belgium and France in domains in which we
have expertise or experience, including matters regarding demobilisation
[of troops]," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32114]

DRC: First commercial cargo barge arrives in Kisangani

A commercial cargo barge has arrived in Kisangani in northeastern DRC from
Kinshasa, the first to do so after four years of suspended river traffic
due to war, according to MONUC. The pro-Rwanda RCD has been battling to
unseat the government in Kinshasa controls Kisangani, in Oriental
Province.

A priest in the city, Abbe Jean-Pierre Badidike, told IRIN that the barge
had arrived on 27 January with 550 mt of goods for the local Catholic
mission, a bakery and a palm oil factory. The RCD authorities have not
said if others will follow this first commercial barge. Over the past
year, several barges carrying humanitarian goods have made the journey to
Kisangani through territory controlled by the government and rebels. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32058]

BURUNDI: Government, rebel faction meet to discuss ceasefire
implementation

Representatives from the transitional government of Burundi and
Jean-Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense
de la democratie-Forces nationales de liberation (CNDD-FDD) are meeting in
the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, with a view to reaching
an agreement on the implementation of the Arusha ceasefire accord signed
in December 2002.

The meetings, which began on 30 January, between the political and the
defence and security technical commissions from the two sides were
scheduled to last a week. They would focus on ways of implementing the
ceasefire that, so far, has been largely ignored, sources close to the
talks told IRIN on Tuesday. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32090]

BURUNDI: President Buyoya calls for African peacekeeping force

Burundi President Pierre Buyoya called on Monday for an African
peacekeeping force to help resolve the bitter civil war in the tiny
Central Africa state.

He told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that he welcomed
the African Union's (AU) decision in January to deploy a military mission
to oversee ceasefires signed by the Burundi government and rebel groups.
Troops from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa are expected to be sent
until a UN peacekeeping force replaces them.

Buyoya was in Addis Ababa for the first AU summit that ended Monday, a day
ahead of schedule. While welcoming such a peacekeeping mission, he said
Africa was not yet ready for a continental army - a suggestion that has
been floated for decades. "The single army in Africa is an objective for
the future," he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32086]

RWANDA: UN General Assembly elects 11 ICTR judges

The UN General Assembly elected 11 permanent judges to the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on 31 January, UN News reported. The
judges, whose terms begin on 25 May, will serve for four years.

UN News said on Monday that the judges had been elected in five separate
ballots from a list of 22 during the General Assembly meeting in New York.

Those elected on the first ballot were Serguei Aleckseievich Egorov
(Russian Federation), Mehmet Güney (Turkey), Erik Mřse (Norway), William
Hussein Sekule (Tanzania), Andrésia Vaz (Senegal), Inés Mónica Weinberg de
Roca (Argentina) and Lloyd George Williams (Saint Kitts and Nevis). Jai
Ram Reddy (Fiji), Arlette Ramaroson (Madagascar) and Mansoor Ahmad
(Pakistan) were elected in the second ballot, and Asoka de Zoysa
Gunawardana (Sri Lanka) on the fifth ballot.

The elections began on 29 January, but that round was deemed "invalid"
because a country behind in paying its UN dues had participated in the
voting. Five of the judges are already serving on the ICTR. They are Mřse,
Sekule, Williams, Vaz and Ramaroson. The current ICTR president, South
African Navanethem Pillay, did not seek re-election.

RWANDA: WFP to give food to provisionally released detainees

The World Food Programme (WFP) will provide food aid worth US $735,080 for
the Rwandan detainees provisionally released last week. The 43,379
detainees are currently in solidarity camps undergoing two months of
re-education.

A statement issued by WFP said David Stevenson, the WFP country
representative in Rwanda, and Fatuma Ndangiza, the executive secretary of
Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), signed the
agreement for the food assistance on Monday in the Rwandan capital,
Kigali.

The WFP said the food assistance would contribute to the promotion of
unity and reconciliation. WFP will distribute the food in the 22
solidarity camps located throughout the country, under the administration
of the NURC. WFP will distribute food rations of maize, beans, vegetable
oil and salt to the former detainees, "including supplementary rations of
CSB [corn soya blend], vegetable oil and sugar for lactating women". The
assistance is an expansion of WFP assistance to solidarity centres, which
first opened in 1999. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32105]

KENYA: Nairobi's homeless receive help from City Council

About 700 homeless people are being housed in social halls in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi, as the City Council decides how to reintegrate them back
into society.

The numbers had fluctuated since last week, as some of the homeless had
returned to the streets, but overall they had increased from over 500 to
about 750 by Monday afternoon, Charles Amunga, an administrator and social
worker with Nairobi City Council told IRIN. Pumwani social hall was
housing between 350 and 400 people on Monday, with a further 200 in
Bahati, and 150 in Kariokor, Amunga said. While social workers were
holding discussions on how to reintegrate the homeless, the question of
financing their school fees, training and living expenses - promised by
Nairobi City Council - remained unanswered, Amunga said.

"They haven't realised the complexity of the problem," commented Sister
Mary Killeen, director of the Kenya support office of an Austrian donor,
Drei Koenigs Aktion (DKA). "A child who is high on glue can't learn to be
a driver - he or she is not fit to attend courses." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32120]

KENYA: Prisons still overcrowded despite new decongestion policy

Kenya's prisons are still congested despite the implementation of a new
policy aimed at reducing the number of prisoners serving jail terms
throughout the country, according to government sources.

The new policy, known as the Community Service Orders Programme, had been
launched in December 1999, and up to 120,000 offenders had served their
sentences under the programme, which provided for their being allowed to
carry out community service while living within their own communities, a
prison spokesman, who declined to be named, told IRIN.

However, Ali Korane, the immediate former permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Home Affairs, which governs the prisons, said on Monday that
the prisons were still overcrowded. Korane, who has been transferred to
another ministry, said at a handover ceremony for his successor that the
prisons were currently holding 40,000 prisoners, although they only had a
capacity to accommodate 14,000. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32099]

KENYA: Government reconsidering encampment policy for refugees

The Kenyan government is reviewing its policy of keeping the country's
refugee population in camps in the north of the country.

"The indications from the government [Ministry of Home Affairs] are that
they will review the encampment policy so that refugees will become
producers, not just consumers," Emmanuel Nyabera, a spokesman from the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told
IRIN on Tuesday.

The much-criticised encampment policy has placed about 220,000 people in
two camps in the extremely arid regions of Kakuma (Turkana) and Dadaab
(Garissa). They are denied the right to own cattle or cultivate, move
freely, work, or integrate with local people, thus rendering them entirely
dependent on humanitarian hand-outs.

"The government has indicated that it would be willing to review the
policy with a view to allowing refugees to farm and produce goods," said
Nyabera. This could refer to them being resettled in more productive areas
than those they were currently in, he said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32097]

TANZANIA: Lack of food leads to ration cuts in refugee camps

Starting this week, refugees in Tanzanian camps will have their rations
cut by up to 50 percent due to the lack of any "major food contributions"
over the last six months, an employee of the WFP said on Monday.

"Our pipeline is running on empty," Mario Leeflang, WFP pipeline officer,
told IRIN from the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

The only major contributor, he said, was the US, which had donated of
16,000 mt last week. The ration cuts, which amount to a 50-percent
reduction for all cereals and 25 percent for the CSB, are the second stage
of ration cuts which began in November 2002, and which WFP has described
as "extremely serious" and likely to lead to a decline health levels.

Rations were cut to extend the supplies in country, Leeflang said, "when
we see nothing coming on the horizon - and that is the situation we have.
Even the contribution from the US will take up until June to arrive, so
what we have in the country is extremely limited." [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32067]

TANZANIA: Sweden to provide $50 million to support primary education

The governments of Sweden and the United Republic of Tanzania signed an
agreement on 31 January under which Sweden will provide 455 million kronor
($50 million) to support Tanzania's 2003-06 Primary Education Development
Plan.

A joint statement by the governments said this had been the largest-ever
sum approved by Sida, Sweden's international cooperation and development
arm, to any partner country in the field of education. It added that
Sweden had supported Tanzania in the field of education since the 1960s,
since which time it had provided at least $110 million for a wide range of
projects, including vocational training centres, teacher training, and the
import of printers and paper for the production of schoolbooks.

The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Finance in Dar es Salaam, by
Swedish Ambassador Sten Rylander and Tanzanian Finance Minister Basil P.
Mramba, in the presence of Tanzanian Education and Culture Minister Joseph
Mungai. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32074]

UGANDA: Agencies appeal for emergency aid

The Ugandan government and humanitarian agencies have appealed to donors
for emergency food relief to help up to a million people threatened by
food shortages in the war-affected northern part of the country.

Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global alliance of churches and
relief agencies, said it needed US $219,393 to provide relief food, seeds,
tools, and non-food items such as medicines and blankets in parts of
northern Uganda affected by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
insurgency.

In its appeal dated 30 January, ACT said the emergency assistance was
aimed at curbing the devastating impact of LRA attacks on protected camps
in Northern Uganda. According to ACT, the rebels have so far burnt down
3,103 houses in 13 camps in Gulu District alone. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32060]


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