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 161
08 - 14 February 2003


CONTENTS:

ROC: Cuvette-Ouest Region quarantined due to suspected Ebola outbreak
DRC: 8,000 Mayi-Mayi accused of cannibalism, disarmed in southern Katanga
DRC: Experts revise figures on Yumbi tornado - only 17 dead
DRC: UN mission finds human remains at Kindu airport
DRC-UGANDA: Kabila, Museveni reaffirm commitment to Luanda accord
DRC-UGANDA: 12 dead, over 3,000 displaced by ethnic clashes in Nebbi District
UGANDA: HIV/AIDS vaccine trials under way
UGANDA: UN says food insecurity in the north likely to worsen
UGANDA: Red Cross considering resuming activities in north
UGANDA-KENYA: Registration of former rebels completed
KENYA: World Bank ready to release funds if conditions met
KENYA: Government pledges to investigate rights violations
CAR: FAO concerned about lack of crop seeds
CAR: African Union appoints special envoy for peace process
BURUNDI: FDD, FNL rebel leaders return from exile
BURUNDI: Warring parties must protect displaced, Global IDP Project says
BURUNDI: Six new parties call for release of political detainees
CENTRAL AFRICA: EC provides over E6 million in support of forests, biodiversity

ALSO SEE: 

KENYA: Feature: Increased public awareness of FGM at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32235


ROC: Cuvette-Ouest Region quarantined due to suspected Ebola outbreak

The government of the Republic of Congo on Thursday quarantined the
Cuvette-Ouest Region due to an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever, suspected
to be the Ebola virus. The epidemic has already caused 51 deaths, Minister
of Health and Population, Alain Moka, told a news conference in the
capital, Brazzaville, on Thursday. The districts of Mbomo and Kelle have
been the hardest hit.  "The conditions are ripe for a rapid, large-scale
spread of the disease, and we have the worst to fear," said Moka. A series
of emergency measures has already been taken by the government in an
effort to contain the situation, and Moka emphasized that additions
measures would be taken. "The situation is far from being brought under
control, because no one wants to be told that their family or village has
been exposed to Ebola," he said. Ebola is a haemorrhagic fever transmitted
through direct contact with body fluids of infected persons or other
primates. There is no cure, and between 50 percent and 90 percent of
victims die. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32314]

DRC: 8,000 Mayi-Mayi accused of cannibalism, disarmed in southern Katanga
 
About 8,000 Mayi-Mayi militiamen accused of cannibalism were disarmed last
weekend in the Haut Lomami District of southern Katanga Province, the
provincial governor, Aime Ngoy Mukena Lusa, told IRIN on Wednesday. The
fighters agreed to lay down their arms on 7 February following
negotiations between Ngoy and their leaders in the village of Musau, home
of one of the most prominent Mayi-Mayi leaders, known as General Lendu,
alias Makabe. "Four factions of the principal Mayi-Mayi groups headed by
someone called Makabe agreed to be disarmed," said Ngoy. "Now only a small
group of Mayi-Mayi remain in the Malemba-Nkulu territory, and Makabe is
trying to persuade them to disarm." According to Ngoy, each group or
faction of Mayi-Mayi comprises about 2,000 men - from which the figure of
8,000 from four factions was derived. The four were operational in an area
about 400 km northwest of the provincial capital, Lubumbashi, in the
Kabongo and Bunda regions. Human rights activists have protested that
authorities disarmed the fighters, who have been widely accused of
cannibalism, without having initiated criminal proceedings against them.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32286]

DRC: Experts revise figures on Yumbi tornado - only 17 dead

The toll from a tornado that swept through an area surrounding the town of
Yumbi in the northwest of Bandundu Province in western Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) on 2 February has been drastically revised, a
delegation of experts reported following a visit to the area. "There were
only 17 deaths," Leonard Mashako Mamba, the health minister, told a news
conference on Saturday in the capital, Kinshasa. Nevertheless, he added,
the situation remained serious, because at least 4,000 people had been
injured, and at least 1,700 families had been rendered homeless. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32195]

DRC: UN mission finds human remains at Kindu airport

Members of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) have discovered human remains
in two separate sites in the grounds of the airport of Kindu, the capital
of Maniema Province in the east, according to MONUC officials. MONUC
spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the team had discovered the remains while
carrying out rehabilitation work at the airport, on Monday. "We do not
know yet if it is a mass grave or not. We have no details on the human
remains, and we are waiting for experts to travel to Kindu to analyse the
site," he said. "We're talking about the remains of three people, who were
not buried, but merely covered with some dirt, still wearing their
clothes," Toure added during a news conference on Wednesday at MONUC
headquarters in Kinshasa. "Vividly-coloured clothing was discovered next
to the remains, which could indicate that other bodies might be found."
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32247]

DRC-UGANDA: Kabila, Museveni reaffirm commitment to Luanda accord

Presidents Joseph Kabila of the DRC and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda ended a
two-day summit in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on
Monday with a pledge to abide by the Luanda accord of 6 September 2002.
Their reaffirmation came in recognition of the "deteriorating security and
humanitarian situation" in the northeastern district of Ituri in the DRC,
where Uganda still has troops. The accord provides for the total
withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the DRC and the normalisation of
relations between Kinshasa and Kampala. Museveni, who acknowledged the
continuing presence of 2,000 Ugandan troops in the DRC, said he and his
DRC counterpart would persevere in their efforts to achieve peace. Kabila
said he was "optimistic" that, this time, the Ugandan troops would
withdraw fully. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32223]

DRC-UGANDA: 12 dead, over 3,000 displaced by ethnic clashes in Nebbi
District

Twelve people were killed, at least 3,000 displaced, and more than 1,000
grass-thatched houses torched last week in Nebbi District of Uganda's West
Nile area following an attack by the Ugandan Alur people on the Lendu of
neighbouring DRC, The New Vision, the Ugandan government-owned newspaper,
reported on Wednesday. It reported that the northwestern regional police
commander, Geoffrey Erach, had appealed to the government to boost
security in the area as fighting in the DRC had been spilling into Uganda.
Erach also appealed to relief agencies to aid the affected people, noting
that the police had restored some order in the area. The paper reported
that the clashes in the Zeu sub-county of Nebbi had been sparked when a
Lendu stole 25 pieces of timber belonging to an Alur. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32250]

UGANDA: HIV/AIDS vaccine trials under way

Trials of a preventive HIV/AIDS vaccine began on human volunteers on
Monday in Entebbe, Uganda. The vaccines are currently the only ones being
tested on humans that are tailored for the subtype of HIV most common in
eastern Africa - subtype A. Most other vaccines focus on the B strain,
which is found in the US and Europe. Scientists do not yet know whether
separate vaccines will be necessary for the different strains. "The
vaccines do not contain HIV, and cannot cause HIV infection," said the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), which is conducting the
trials with the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI). They are intended
to boost the immune system to allow it to produce cells which can destroy
others which have contracted the HIV virus. The first phase of the trials
needs a total of 50 volunteers, only some of whom have come forward. "We
will need many more men and women from all walks of life to come forward
to help find a vaccine to prevent AIDS," said Seth Berkley, President of
IAVI. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32243]

Meanwhile, the health ministry announced this week thatb a total of 10,000
people, or one-third of the 30,000 anti-retroviral (ARV) users in
sub-Saharan Africa, were in Uganda. "Uganda has been able to achieve this
because it has made a marathon roll out of Voluntary Counselling and
Testing or VCT's, which is necessary if drug misuse, and eventual
resistance is to be avoided," Minister of State for Health Mike Mukula
told IRIN on Wednesday. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32265]

UGANDA: UN says food insecurity in the north likely to worsen

Persistent insecurity and funding shortfalls are hampering humanitarian
operations in northern Uganda, placing the already vulnerable displaced
populations there at great risk, the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned. OCHA said this
week that the insecurity caused by fighting between the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) and government forces in the area had resulted in a
"bleak" food and sanitation situation, under which internally displaced
persons (IDPs) were suffering from severe malnutrition and had become
vulnerable to a host of communicable diseases such as malaria and
diarrhoea. "The civilian population of northern Uganda remains almost
totally isolated from the rest of the country. Due to persistent
insecurity, IDPs have almost totally lost access to their fields, hence,
the dismal August/September 2002 harvest," OCHA aid in a statement. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32268]

UGANDA: Red Cross considering resuming activities in north

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is
considering a resumption of activities in northern Uganda just days after
announcing a suspension following a rebel ambush on one of its convoys.
The Federation suspended activities in Pader, Kitgum and Gulu after six of
its employees were ambushed on 8 February by the LRA, in Paiula, Pader
District. All six were injured, including three critically, and are being
treated in Kitgum hospital. "We definitely plan to resume our activities
in the north, although we have to get enough guaranteed security to our
staff, and in addition all our staff have to be in good health," the
secretary-general for the Federation in Uganda, Robert Kwesiga, told IRIN.
He added that a date had not yet been finalised. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32271]

UGANDA-KENYA: Registration of former rebels completed

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi, has registered 588 adults wishing to take advantage of an amnesty
offered to former rebels by the Ugandan government. This brings to a close
the registration process which began on 20 January. Of the total 930
applicants, 299 were females, 289 males and 342 under 18s, IOM's regional
project development officer, Charles Kwenin, told IRIN on Tuesday. The
applicants included 12 former child combatants, he noted. The IOM was
currently analysing the data taken on each applicant to establish how many
were genuine former members of the LRA, or any of its factions, he said.
"A lot of those who have come forward are likely to be economic migrants,"
he said. Those found eligible will receive medical screening and
repatriation assistance in early March. Once in Uganda, they will be
handed over to the Amnesty Commission and will receive rehabilitation and
reintegration support from IOM and other NGOs. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32229]

KENYA: World Bank ready to release funds if conditions met

The World Bank is prepared to release millions of dollars of suspended
funding for economic and public sector reform if the Kenyan government
meets certain conditions by the end of June 2003, Callisto Madavo, World
Bank Vice-President for Africa, told a press conference on Wednesday.  
"We are working closely with the International Monetary Fund to see if we
can provide budget support by releasing pending money that was held up
before," Madavo told journalists in Nairobi. Key conditions for the
government, led by President Mwai Kibaki, included the formation of a
policy on the reform of parastatals, the introduction of a sustainable
macroeconomic framework, the reform of the judiciary and legal system, the
privatisation of Telkom Kenya, and the introduction of bills curbing
corruption and improving transparency (Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes
Bill and the Public Ethics Bill), he said. "We are very struck by how much
is changing in Kenya, and is under way, how much is actually happening,"
he said. He wanted to "signal strongly the readiness of the World Bank to
engage with the new government". [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32269]

KENYA: Government pledges to investigate rights violations

A section of the human rights fraternity in Kenya has welcomed the new
government's intention to open up fresh inquiries into human rights
violations attributed to the previous Kenya African National Union (KANU)
government. Gitau Wanguthi, the coordinator of the grass-roots pressure
group, Release Political Prisoners (RPP), told IRIN on Thursday that the
government's decision to set up a new commission to inquire into past
human rights abuses by KANU since independence from Britain in 1963
indicated the commitment of the current National Rainbow Coalition
government to beginning the process of eradicating impunity in order to
heal the country. "I think it is a very positive move, because it gives us
hope that no-one will ever do that to other people," Wanguthi said.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi said at the
weekend that his ministry would establish such a commission. The alleged
violations include torture, extrajudicial killings and the unsolved
murders of prominent politicians such as the opposition MP, J.M. Kariuki,
in 1975 and former Foreign Minister Robert Ouko in 1990. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32285]

CAR: FAO concerned about lack of crop seeds

Faced with a chronic lack of seeds, the Central African Republic (CAR) is
facing a potentially disastrous agricultural season, a local official of
the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Bangui, the capital,
warned on 7 February. The agency's acting representative, Gana Diagne,
said hungry rural people had eaten almost all their seeds reserved for
crop planting. The country's major food crops are cassava, groundnuts,
maize and rice. The national agronomy research institute - the Institut
centrafricain des recherches agronomiques (ICRA) - used to collect seeds
from the agricultural north of the country, but which is now under the
control of the rebels loyal to the former army chief of staff, Francois
Bozize. The FAO is considering importing seeds if the research institute
fails to provide farmers with seeds before the planting season begins in
April/May. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32203]

Meanwhile, the, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on 8 February that it
was unable to reach almost 5,400 IDPs targeted for emergency relief in the
north. In an emergency report, it said "virtually no information" was
available from the affected area. It said the UN system was negotiating
access to rebel-controlled areas, and that a planned needs assessment
mission would visit Kabo and Batangafo. "WFP intends to resume assistance
as soon as access is granted," WFP reported. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32198]

CAR: African Union appoints special envoy for peace process

The interim chairman of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Amara
Essy, on Wednesday appointed Sadok Fayala of Tunisia as special envoy to
the CAR. The AU said Fayala's mission would include establishing regular
contacts with CAR authorities and other stakeholders, and supporting on
behalf of the AU efforts aimed at enhancing peace, stability and concord
in the CAR, including initiatives of the Economic and Monetary Community
of Central African States, which is deploying a peacekeeping force in the
CAR aimed at bringing about the normalisation of Chad-Central African
relations. In discharging his mission, the AU said, Fayala would work
closely with the leaders of the countries of the region and UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan's representative in the CAR, Lamine Cisse. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32255]

BURUNDI: FDD, FNL rebel leaders return from exile

Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurikiye, leader of a faction of the Conseil national
pour la defense de la democratie/Force pour la defense de la democratie
(CNDD-FDD) rebel group, and Alain Mugabarabona, leader of a faction of the
Parti pour la liberation du peuple hutu/Forces nationales de liberation
(Palipehutu-FNL) rebel group, returned from exile to Burundi on Thursday
night to take part in the implementation of the ceasefire accord signed
with the government in October 2002, according to the state-owned ABP news
agency. Upon arrival at the Bujumbura international airport, the two
leaders told the press that they were delighted to be home. Both expressed
determination to implement the ceasefire accord. Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32307]

BURUNDI: Warring parties must protect displaced, Global IDP Project says

Rebels and the government must protect people fleeing civil war in
Burundi, Global IDP Project said on Wednesday. In a new report released
from its headquarters in Geneva, it stated that at least 100,000 people
had fled their homes since the beginning of 2003. Global IDP said
villagers fled when rebels turned up, threatening people and looting
property. They also fled the army out of fear that they would be accused
of supporting the rebels or failing to report a rebel presence. "And they
flee when the army shells rebels passing through their villages," it
added. It reported that newly displaced people had been moving from
hilltop to hilltop in search of safety. In the war-torn provinces of
Ruyigi and Gitega, it said, people had gathered near schools and public
buildings seeking protection. "Others have been stranded in forests
without basic supplies, sick, cold and hungry," it said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32245]

BURUNDI: Six new parties call for release of political detainees

Six new political parties in Burundi have demanded the immediate release
of opposition politicians Jean-Baptiste Bagaza and Charles Mukasi. The
leaders of the parties, these being the Alliance liberale pour le
developpement (Alide), Nouvelle alliance pour la democratie et le
developpement au Burundi (Naddebu), Sangwe-Parti pour la democratie et la
reconciliation (Sangwe-Pader), Parti politique pour la justice et le
developpement-Intazimiza (Pajudé-Intazimiza), Societe non violente
(Sonovi) and the Union pour la paix et le developpement (UPD) - made their
demand at a news conference on the country's prevailing political
situation, in the capital, Bujumbura, on 8 February. Both political
leaders should be released, Sangwe-Pader President Augustin Nzojibwami
said, because "neither have been charged and they are, moreover, victims
of their political opinions". Bagaza, the leader of the Parti pour le
redressement national (Parena), is under house arrest, and Mukasi, who
heads Union pour le progres national (Uprona), is in prison. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32251]

CENTRAL AFRICA: EC provides over E6 million in support of forests,
biodiversity

The EC has provided over E6 million (US $6.49 million) for two programmes
to protect tropical forests and to promote biodiversity conservation in
the central Africa region, the EC announced on 7 February. The first
programme, totalling E4.41 million, seeks to bolster the capacity of two
institutions that provide training in natural-resource management in
central Africa: the Ecole nationale des eaux et forets in Gabon, and the
Ecole regionale post-universitaire d'amenagement et de gestion integree
des forets tropicales in the DRC. The second programme, a joint effort of
the EC and the Gabon Ministry for Development Planning and Programming,
totalling E2.3 million, of which the EC will provide E1.7 million, will
focus on the study of animal species indigenous to central Africa - forest
elephants, gorillas, turtles and whales. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=32201]


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