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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 188
16 - 22 August 2003


CONTENTS:

GREAT LAKES: UNHCR head arrives in Kinshasa at start of tour
DRC: President names top officers for unified national military
DRC: New government on first mission to Goma
DRC: WFP feeding thousands seeking refuge in Bunia
RWANDA: Polls threaten to renew ethnic divide, says gov't
RWANDA: US to provide $10.55 million for various sectors
BURUNDI: Thousands flee fresh fighting near Bujumbura
BURUNDI: EU grants E172 million for development
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Governments agree to open more border crossing points
UGANDA: Food distribution wrecked by conflict, minister says
KENYA: Anti-personnel mines destroyed

ALSO SEE:

CAR: Interview with Hugues Dobozendi, deputy chairman of former ruling
party at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36035

EAST AFRICA: Feature - Pastoralism viable despite constraints at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36103

TANZANIA: Focus on the survival of small-scale miners at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36039

GREAT LAKES: UNHCR head arrives in Kinshasa at start of tour

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers arrived on Wednesday in
Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), kicking
off a tour to review UNHCR's operations and various peace initiatives that
could pave the way for the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees in
several countries of the Great Lakes region, the UN agency reported.

Lubbers proceeded to the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Thursday - the second
leg of his four-nation tour which was to have included Tanzania and
Burundi. However, UN News reported on Friday that he had cut short his
trip tour due to Tuesday's bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad,
Iraq.

On Wednesday, the first of his two-day visit to the DRC, Lubbers held
separate meetings with Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi, Interior
Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu, and Human Rights Minister Madeleine
Kalala. He also met President Joseph Kabila on Thursday. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36115]

DRC: President names top officers for unified national military

Kabila named on Tuesday the officers who will lead the nation's unified
national military, incorporating elements from all former armed rebel
groups signatory to a national power-sharing accord.

Lt-Gen Liwanga Mata Nyamunyobo, of the armed forces of the former Kinshasa
government, was named chief of staff. He will be assisted by four
deputies, two of whom are from the two largest former rebel movements:
Brig-Gen Bahuma Ambamba of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie
(RCD-Goma), who will be head of operations, and Brig-Gen Malik Kijege of
the Movement de liberation du Congo (MLC), who will be head of logistics.
As for service chiefs, Maj-Gen Sylvain Buki of RCD-Goma was named head of
ground forces, MLC's Maj-Gen Dieudonne Amuli Bahigwa head of the navy, and
Maj-Gen John Numbi of the former Kinshasa government head of the air
force.

Leaders of the DRC's 10 military regions were also named.  [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36085]

DRC: New government on first mission to Goma

For the first time since its inauguration, the national transition
government of the DRC has sent a mission to the eastern city of Goma, the
headquarters of RCD-Goma, according to Information Minister Vital Kamerhe.

The objective of the inter-ministerial mission was to evaluate the
condition of the runway of the local airport, which had been damaged by
lava flows from nearby Mt Nyiragongo in January 2002, Kamerhe told IRIN on
Monday.

Reported to be participating in the mission are Interior Minister
Theophile Mbemba Fundu, Public Works Minister Jose Endundo, Transport
Minister Joseph Olenghankoy, Telecommunications Minister Gertrude Kitembo
and a number of private businessmen.

"We plan to rehabilitate this runway so that the Congolese people can
travel directly to Goma without transiting through Rwanda," Kamerhe said.

Lava flows from Mt Nyiragongo on 18 January 2002 buried 900 metres of the
3,000-metre runway, thereby limiting the size of aircraft able to land in
Goma.

DRC: WFP feeding thousands seeking refuge in Bunia
 
Some 20,000 people who have sought refuge in Bunia, the main town of the
troubled Ituri District of northeastern DRC, have started to receive some
400 mt of food aid from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the agency
reported on Wednesday.

It warned that with displaced people continuing to arrive in Bunia daily,
attracted by its relative security, supplies would become strained.

Last week, WFP welcomed the pledges of more than US $9.5 million from the
United States, $4.3 million from the EU and $1 million from the Italian
government following a renewed appeal for more than $38 million for
war-affected populations in eastern DRC that was first issued in June.

WFP said the food aid was being targeted at people who had fled fierce
fighting throughout Ituri and had sought refuge in camps in Bunia. Many of
them are women and children, including orphans, who have walked from
villages up to 100 km away to escape inter-ethnic conflict. Prevailing
insecurity in Ituri has meant that humanitarian access to Bunia is
possible only by air. Two aircraft from the EU-led force are, therefore,
delivering food daily to Bunia from Entebbe in neighbouring Uganda. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36114]

RWANDA: Polls threaten to renew ethnic divide, says gov't
 
Rwanda's presidential campaign threatens to be reopening ethnic wounds in
the tiny central African nation, as exemplified by allegations of divisive
talk by some candidates, according to the National Unity and
Reconciliation Commission.

The commission said on Tuesday that the process of uniting and reconciling
Rwandans was "at stake and facing difficulties", and accused the main
opposition presidential candidate, Faustin Twagiramungu, of using divisive
talk and material calling on the "majority Hutu to turn against the
Tutsi-led regime" by voting for him.

"Twagiramungu and his campaign agents are spreading negative and divisive
ideologies geared at planting seeds of ethnic hatred amongst Rwandans,"
Fatuma Ndagiza, the commission's executive secretary, said at a news
conference in the capital, Kigali.

She said Twagiramungu's campaign officers had been threatening the
population in rural areas with war should they vote for incumbent
President Paul Kagame.

"They are creating confusion and an atmosphere of fear within the
population. This is jeopardising what we've already achieved on the
ground. It is awakening old wounds," she said.

However, Twagiramungu has dismissed the accusation, describing it as an
accusation conjured up by the ruling party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) aimed at undermining his credibility. "I have in my history been
fighting the ideologies of ethnicity. This is merely an RPF weapon being
used to intimidate me," he protested. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36067]

Subsequently, on Wednesday, the United States called on Rwanda to hold
free and fair presidential and legislative elections in the wake of
growing animosity between the RPF and opposition candidates. State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US was "pleased to note the
presence of the four candidates on the presidential ballot and the strong
interest of the Rwanda people in the election process". However, he warned
against increased divisiveness that has been marring the campaigns.

"In the interest of seeing a democratic process continue and political
openness maintained, the United States is concerned about recent reports
of intimidation, harassment and the use of ethnicity as a means of
inciting political division," Boucher said. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36117]

RWANDA: US to provide $10.55 million for various sectors

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Wednesday
that it had officially agreed to provide some $10.55 million to support
activities in Rwanda during 2003.

The funds will be used for commodities, training, technical assistance and
food distribution in the areas of democracy, health and economic
growth/food security, and includes additional funding from President
George W. Bush's prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS,
USAID reported.

The agency recalled that since 1999, the US government had provided at
least $140 million in aid to Rwanda, primarily in the domains of the rule
of law and government transparency; improved economic opportunities
through the shift from subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture;
increased and improved health services; and disaster relief/food aid.
USAID said it anticipated providing Rwanda with an estimated additional $1
million before the end of the year.
 
BURUNDI: Thousands flee fresh fighting near Bujumbura

About 15,000 people have fled their homes at Mpanda Commune, 12 km
northwest of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, following two days of
fighting between Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) rebels led by
Agathon Rwasa and the army, according to local officials.

The fighting could undermine talks that began in Pretoria on Tuesday
between Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye and the largest rebel
movement in the country, the Conseil national de defense de la
democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) faction led
by Pierre Nkurunziza, an official, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on
Tuesday.

Confirming the Mpanda fighting, an FNL spokesman, Pasteur Habimana, said
the movement had "faced" the army since Sunday. "The army is chasing us
into Rukoko forest [an FNL stronghold bordering the commune]," he said.
"This followed the attack of our movement against a military position last
Friday [15 August] at Mpanda, where we killed three soldiers and seized
one machine gun."

However, a senior army officer in Mpanda dismissed Habimana's claim that
the FNL had killed three soldiers. [Full story at:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36060]

BURUNDI: EU grants E172 million for development

Burundi will get a E172-million ($191.25 million) EU grant over the next
four years in a deal signed Wednesday to support development efforts in
the war-torn country, EU Ambassador and Head of Delegation Georges-Marc
Andre told IRIN.

Speaking from Bujumbura on Thursday, he said E115 million of the money
would go to development, especially in improving rural infrastructure,
health centres, potable water delivery, education, and for resurrecting
rural associations. Some of this money would support non-state actors such
as civil society.

He said that E57 million of the total grant was earmarked to make debt
repayments and meet the needs of other sectors such as the African peace
force for the country. In 2002, the EU gave Burundi E47.8 million,
accounting for over half of all donor aid to the country.

However, the Burundi government has complained of international donor
apathy in honouring aid pledges made at the Paris funding conference in
December 2000 and in Geneva the following year. However, the EU says it
has been implementing its undertaking. "We have stuck to our commitment,"
Andre said.

BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Governments agree to open more border crossing points
 
The governments of Burundi and Tanzania have agreed to try to open more
border crossing points to facilitate the voluntary return of Burundian
refugees living in western Tanzanian camps, the UNHCR reported on
Wednesday.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed on Wednesday at the end of a
two-day Tripartite Commission meeting in Bujumbura, one border crossing
point would be activated. The meeting also agreed on the "desirability" of
opening more crossing points, notably in Makamba, southern Burundi, as
soon as possible. However, the activation of this point would be subjected
to security assessment, UNHCR said.

The meeting also recommended that three additional border crossing be
activated between August and October: the Murusagamba-Gahumo crossing in
Cankuzo Province is to be opened by the end of August, while
Manyovu-Mugina in Makamba Province and Mabamba-Gisuru in Ruyigi Province
are expected to be activated in September and October, respectively. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36116]

UGANDA: Food distribution wrecked by conflict, minister says
 
Armed conflict means Uganda is suffering chronic food shortages despite
the country having a big surplus of food, according to Agriculture
Minister Mugerwa Kisamba.

He told IRIN that conflict had disrupted the means for distributing the
excess food grown in Uganda's productive areas.

Kisamba was reacting to a pledge by USAID on Thursday of 20,000 mt of
food, valued at $8.9 million, to feed over 1.6 million people at risk of
severe famine in northern and northeastern Uganda. The pledge came in
response to a joint appeal by the WFP and the Ugandan government for aid
for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, mostly in the
north.

"The population of the north has been reduced to eating the most basic
foods, like posho [corn flour dough] and barely enough even of that,"
Kisamba told IRIN. "I feel ashamed that Uganda is one of Africa's most
agriculturally productive countries yet we cannot feed our people. I have
done my best to ensure our farmers are productive to the point of having a
surplus. But the surplus they produce doesn't go where there is no profit
to be made, and how can you profit from parts of the country that are at
war?" [Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36027]

On 14 August, three WFP trucks carrying food aid from eastern Uganda's
Katakwi District were ambushed by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. At
least two truck drivers were killed in the attacks, according to WFP
sources. The third driver and other people in the trucks were thought to
have fled into the bush. A further two trucks had managed to escape,
heading back to Soroti, about 25 km away, army sources said. The food was
destined for Uganda's northeastern Moroto District, in Karamoja, where a
severe four-year drought has ravaged the district's Karamojong population.
[Full story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36001]

KENYA: Anti-personnel mines destroyed

The government of Kenya has begun the destruction of assorted
anti-personnel mines it has stockpiled over the years, National Security
Minister Chris Murungaru announced on Wednesday.

He was presiding over the detonation at a range in Isiolo District,
northeastern Kenya. In a statement, received by IRIN on Thursday,
Murungaru said that by 26 August, the government would have destroyed
35,774 assorted anti-personnel mines in its armoury.

"We shall retain only 3,000 assorted anti-personnel mines for research
purpose," he said. He added that Kenya recognised the Ottawa Treaty to ban
mines "which is part of the international response to the humanitarian
crisis caused by the global proliferation of anti-personnel mines".

He said Kenya signed the treaty prohibiting the use, stockpiling and
transfer of anti-personnel mines on 5 December 1997 and ratified it on 23
January 2001.

"Kenya is bound to comply and subscribe to the treaty," he said. [Full
story at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=36111]


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


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