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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 182
05 - 11 July 2003


CONTENTS:

DRC: New MONUC head announces 3,800-strong force for Ituri
DRC: Fighting stops but situation remains "tense" in Butembo
DRC: Radio Maendeleo authorised to resume operations
DRC: Rights activist released in Uvira
CONGO: US gives additional food aid for Pool IDPs
CAR: UN refugee agency to assist 2,000 returnees
CAR: Diplomatic ties with Libya resume
CAR: Foreign minister holds meeting with Patasse in Lome
CAR: Police officers asked to report to stations countrywide
BURUNDI: Preliminary reports put death toll from rebel attacks at 170
BURUNDI: Net Press director jailed
KENYA/SOMALIA: Flight ban lifted
KENYA: MSF pulls out of Mandera after grenade attack on its staff
UGANDA: LRA attacks aimed at dismantling camps - Red Cross report
UGANDA: EU official urges international support for reconciliation in north
TANZANIA: ADB gives $22.16 million for education projects

DRC: New MONUC head announces 3,800-strong force for Ituri

A 3,800-strong force will soon be deployed in the embattled Ituri District
of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as in
other locations, the new special representative of the UN
secretary-general to the UN, William Swing, announced on Sunday.
 
Swing addressed a news conference in Bunia, the main town of Ituri
District, where fighting between ethnic militias took a precipitous turn
for the worse in May. He did not give the exact arrival date of the force,
under the aegis of the UN mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, but he said
that Bangladesh, Nepal and Indonesia would be among the countries
contributing soldiers to it. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35226]

The US government has contributed US $250,000 to support the interim
administration in Ituri District, MONUC announced on Thursday. The UN
mission said it welcomed this contribution, saying it was "likely to speed
up the installation of the interim administration", created in May by the
Ituri Pacification Commission. MONUC said it also welcomed efforts towards
consolidating the authority of the interim administration, and said it
encouraged other international partners to lend their financial and
logistical support. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35312]

DRC: Fighting stops but situation remains "tense" in Butembo

Fighting in the eastern DRC town of Butembo had stopped on Monday, but the
situation remained "tense", according to MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure.

Fighting with heavy weaponry between a Mayi-Mayi militia and the
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani/Mouvement de
liberation, RCD-K/ML, a rebel group allied to Kinshasa, first erupted on 3
July. RCD-K/ML authorities said that it was simply a matter of certain
elements resisting a disarmament operation being conducted, and that the
town remained fully under their control. Other reports said, however, that
the Mayi-Mayi militia had taken control of Butembo. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35231]

DRC: Radio Maendeleo authorised to resume operations

Bukavu-based Radio Maendeleo in eastern DRC has been authorised to resume
operations by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma),
the Rwandan-backed rebel movement announced on Monday.
 
A decree signed by RCD-Goma head of communications and culture,
Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, said the authorisation was conditioned upon the
station's adherence to laws governing "public order and national
security".

Radio Maendeleo, one of the few independent radio stations in eastern DRC,
was closed by an RCD-Goma decree issued on 8 December 2002, when security
agents of the rebel movement shut it down for an indefinite period and
temporarily arrested several of its staff. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35269]
  
DRC: Rights activist released in Uvira

RCD-Goma on Thursday released human rights activist Donatien Kisangani
Mukatamwina on a US $280 bond after detaining him for 13 days in Uvira,
eastern DRC.
 
Kisangani was released along with three others who were arrested with him.
All were accused of belonging to a political movement called the Service
de liaison armee et population, or SLAP, suspected by RCD-Goma of serving
as a link between Mayi-Mayi militia groups active in the mountains
surrounding Uvira and Bukavu to the residents of both cities. [Full story
at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35317]

CONGO: US gives additional food aid for Pool IDPs

The US government has made a supplementary contribution of 1,000 mt of
food aid for internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Pool Region of
the Republic of Congo, the US embassy announced on Wednesday in the
capital, Brazzaville.
 
The food aid, valued at US $933,000, will be channeled through the UN
World Food Programme (WFP). Part of the contribution will be used to
support the rehabilitation of schools and health centres damaged during a
year of civil war. On 4 July, the Congolese government announced that it
hoped to have all IDPs from the Pool Region returned to their homes by the
end of July. [Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35313; also see:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35262]
 
CAR: UN refugee agency to assist 2,000 returnees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Central African
Republic (CAR) has set aside 10 million francs CFA (US $17,988) to assist
some 2,000 people who have returned home since June, the agency's country
representative, Emile Segbor, told IRIN on Thursday.

He said the agency had identified health centres and schools in four
neighbourhoods in the capital, Bangui, to receive the aid. These are the
areas where most of the returnees settled when they arrived in the
country. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35329]
  
CAR: Diplomatic ties with Libya resume

The CAR and Libya have decided to resume diplomatic ties after four months
of uncertainty, a government official told IRIN on Tuesday.
 
The secretary of state for foreign affairs, Charles Wenezoui, said CAR
leader Francois Bozize and Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi "resolved to
build their cooperation on a new basis" when they met on Monday in
N'djamena, the capital of Chad.

Wenezoui said the areas of cooperation were yet to be determined. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35279]

CAR: Foreign minister holds meeting with Patasse in Lome

Foreign Minister Karim Meckassoua held a meeting on Monday with former
President Ange-Felix Patasse in Lome, the capital of Togo, Radio France
Internationale reported on Tuesday.

Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema attended the meeting. The agenda was
not made public, the radio said. The meeting was the first between Patasse
and an official of the administration of Francois Bozize, who overthrew
Patasse on 15 March. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35246]

CAR: Police officers asked to report to stations countrywide

In efforts to restore security, CAR Public Security Minister Paulin
Bondeboli has directed police officers to report to their duty stations
across the country immediately.

"I have given instructions that they join their stations in provinces in a
week or two," Bondeboli said on Monday at a news conference in the
capital, Bangui.

He said the presence of the police, gendarmerie, military and
administrative authorities would reassure the population.

"We want to restore security nationwide before the end of the year," he
said. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35247]

BURUNDI: Preliminary reports put death toll from rebel attacks at 170

Figures released on Thursday by the UN Office in Burundi shows that 170
people have been killed and between 6,000 and 7,000 displaced since rebels
began attacking the capital, Bujumbura, from 7 July. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35336]

Brig-Gen Germain Niyoyankana, the army chief of staff, told reporters in
Bujumbura on Thursday that heavy fighting was continuing in the
surrounding between government troops and fighters loyal to Agathon
Rwasa's faction of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL). He said the
army had driven the rebels out of the city, killing several of them in the
process.

At the same time, the government has extended by three hours a curfew it
had imposed since the fighting began. Instead of midnight until 06:00, the
curfew now runs from 21:00 to 06:00. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35311]

On Wednesday government officials accused fighters loyal to Pierre
Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la
democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) of forming
an alliance with fighters loyal to Agathon Rwasa's faction.

Burundi's Human Rights League, ITEKA, condemned the bombing of the city's
suburbs and urged the FNL to cease hostilities immediately and start peace
negotiations with the government. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35283]

Meanwhile, UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs in the country began to help
at least 2,500 people who have been displaced by the fighting, the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on
Tuesday. [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35276;
also see: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35222]
  
BURUNDI: Net Press director jailed

The director of the Net Press news service in Burundi, Jean-Claude
Kavumbagu, was arrested on Saturday for alleged failure to sever links
with a website the government had deemed to be "spreading propaganda of
hatred and violence," the agency reported on Sunday, terming the arrest
"arbitrary". It said that all links to the site in question, the
Denmark-based Agora website, were severed by Saturday before noon. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35221]
 
KENYA/SOMALIA: Flight ban lifted

The ban, imposed by the Kenyan government, on flights to and from Somalia
was lifted on Tuesday.

"The government has reassessed the situation and is satisfied that enough
security measures have been put in place," Chris Murungaru, the minister
in charge of internal security, said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35263]
  
KENYA: MSF pulls out of Mandera after grenade attack on its staff

The international humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
said on Wednesday it had decided to pull its operations out of the
northeastern town of Mandera following a "serious" incident in which a
hand grenade was thrown into a compound where the agency was running a
clinic for malnourished children.
 
"MSF will not return to Mandera unless security in the area is guaranteed
and there is a clearer understanding of the motives behind the attack,"
the agency said.

One person was killed and four others, including a Dutch doctor, were
seriously injured in the attack. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35287]

MSF has said a suspected attacker was not an employee of the organisation,
as earlier reported by the local media. Denis Guzzi, MSF's head of mission
in Kenya, said the attacker was unknown to the agency and that the MSF
medical doctor had never seen him nor talked to him prior to the attack.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35309]
 
UGANDA: LRA attacks aimed at dismantling camps - Red Cross report

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has intensified its attacks in
northern Uganda in recent weeks with the main objective of forcing
internally displaced persons (IDPs) out of camps protected by the Ugandan
army, the Uganda Red Cross Society has said.

In its June situation report on northern Ugandan relief operations, the
Red Cross said the LRA's military strategy now seemed to be focused on
dismantling the camps, established by the Ugandan government, which house
an estimated 800,000 civilians.

The LRA has intensified its attacks on the three Acholi districts of
Kitgum, Gulu and Pader and extended its activities into surrounding
locales of Apac, Lira, Adjumani, Katakwi and Soroti, where hundreds of
people have been abducted. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35228]
  
UGANDA: EU official urges international support for reconciliation in
north

The head of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO),
Constanza Adinolfi, has said there is need for "honesty and attention"
from all parties involved in the northern Uganda conflict; and called for
wider international support for the reconciliation process.
 
Adinolfi, who recently visited northern Uganda, said the abduction of
thousands of children by the rebel LRA was one of the most serious basic
human rights violations that called for the strongest national and
international condemnation. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35284] [To view the EU
resolution, click on the following: http://www.europarl.eu.int]
 
TANZANIA: ADB gives $22.16 million for education projects

The African Development Bank has given Tanzania a total of US $22.16
million to finance the country's vocational education and training
projects, the bank reported on Wednesday.

In a statement issued from the its headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, the
bank said the grant was aimed at improving the country's distribution of
vocational and technical training facilities for primary and secondary
school leavers. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=35306]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


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