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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 224
23 - 30 April 2004


CONTENTS:

Nairobi,4/30/2004 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

BURUNDI-DRC-RWANDA: Rwanda deploys troops along border with Burundi, DRC
BURUNDI: Assemble ex-fighters by 15 May, monitoring team urges political 
  movements
DRC: Humanitarian aid for expelled Congolese sent to Kinshasa
DRC: UN agency distributes reinsertion packages to ex-combatants
DRC-RWANDA: Army kills 39 Rwandan Hutu rebels in east
RWANDA: Rainfall adequate for good crop season, FEWS-Net reports
RWANDA: Sweden, UN tribunal sign pact on enforcement of sentences
RWANDA: Government releases 4,225 prisoners
CAR: Bozize honours payment deal for former rebels
UGANDA: Thousands of Sudanese refugees displaced in the northwest
UGANDA: Government to allocate emergency funds for IDPs
KENYA: Government announces new policy on malaria treatment


BURUNDI-DRC-RWANDA: Rwanda deploys troops along border with Burundi, DRC

Rwanda has deployed troops heavily along its border with Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in anticipation of possible attacks by
Hutu rebels, the Rwandan military spokesman, Col Patrick Karegeya, told
IRIN on Monday.

He said the deployment was prompted by Rwandan Hutu rebel attacks on 8
April on the northwestern province of Gisenyi.

"It is evident that these extremist forces are preparing to invade our
territory," he said. "We have decided to deploy heavily along Burundi and
DRC to halt any of such attacks."

He said the attacks were expected to come from Burundi's Kibira Forest and
the Virunga volcanoes on Rwanda's northwestern border with the DRC.

In Burundi, the army chief of staff, Brig-Gen Germain Niyoyankana, said at
a news conference on 24 April that Rwandan troops had made an incursion
into Burundi late on 22 April, through Ruhororo in the northwestern
province of Cibitoke and reached the Kaburantwa Valley.

"We told Rwandan officials that Burundi cannot tolerate this act, which
may seriously affect relations between Burundi and Rwanda," he said.


BURUNDI: Assemble ex-fighters by 15 May, monitoring team urges political
movements

The Implementation and Monitoring Commission (IMC) of the Arusha Peace and
Reconciliation Accord has urged former rebel groups and political
movements in Burundi to complete the assembling of former fighters at
pre-cantonment sites by 15 May, as part of efforts to speed up the
country's electoral process.

Expressing concern over the slow pace of the electoral process, the IMC
said in a statement issued on 23 April, at the end of its 18th session,
that many obstacles remained before the country's transition to democracy
could be realised.

The IMC singled out the definition of a statute of combatants as one of
these obstacles. This issue is under consideration by a Joint Ceasefire
Commission, an organ of the transitional government, but it remains a
matter of concern as all the groups do not have the same definition of a
combatant. The IMC said other obstacles included the assembling of all
combatants in the pre-cantonment sites and the return of government
soldiers to their barracks to allow the implementation of a Disarmament,
Demobilisation and Reintegration programme.


DRC: Humanitarian aid for expelled Congolese sent to Kinshasa

A plane-load of humanitarian aid for tens of thousands of Congolese
nationals expelled from Angola has arrived in the DRC, the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Monday.

OCHA said the consignment comprised 5,400 blankets, 10,000 jerry cans, 35
tents, four rubber dinghies and four generators. The items, donated by the
Italian and Norwegian governments, were transported by the World Food
Programme (WFP). The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) will manage the items
next week in the capital, Kinshasa, OCHA reported.

Meanwhile, it said, the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, would
ensure delivery of items to Tembo and Kahungula, both in Bandundu
Province, to which some of the expelled Congolese have returned.
Distribution would be carried out by Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium,
Catholic Relief Services and Caritas, OCHA reported.


DRC: UN agency distributes reinsertion packages to ex-combatants

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun distributing reinsertion
packages comprising clothes, blankets, cooking utensils and food to
disarmed former combatants in eastern DRC, the agency reported on
Wednesday.

In an effort marking the beginning of the reinsertion programme, the UNDP
deputy administrator and director of the Bureau of Crisis Prevention and
Recovery, Julia Taft, presided over the distribution on 24 April to 30
former combatants in Kindu, in Maniema Province, eastern DRC.

UNPD reported that Taft, who visited the DRC from 22 to 26 April,
personally handed over the first reinsertion kit during the ceremony
attended by the region's local authorities and the UNDP representative in
the country, Herbert McCleod.

"This is not the last assistance they will get, but it is the first, so
this is very symbolic and very important," Taft was quoted as saying
during the ceremony.

"These ex-combatants need some basic equipment for starting a new life,
and the kit is enough for the period until they will start receiving
training or find jobs," she added.


DRC-RWANDA: Army kills 39 Rwandan Hutu rebels in east

DRC government troops killed 39 Rwandan Hutu rebels recently in three to
four days of fighting in the east of the DRC, Maj Abou Thiam, the MONUC
spokesman, said on Tuesday in Kinshasa.

He said the commanders of DRC's 8th and 10th Military regions had on
Monday informed MONUC of the operation against armed men described as
members of the so-called Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda
(Front democratique pour la liberation au Rwanda) or the Interahamwe or
the former Rwandan armed forces. The army had reported three of its
soldiers killed and eight rebels captured, Thiam said.

Government troops attacked the rebels near two towns simultaneously.
Soldiers of the 8th Military Region attacked rebels near the town of
Rutshuru, 120 km northeast of Goma in North Kivu Province; and those of
the 10th Military Region attacked near Bukavu, South Kivu Province. The
army said it had dislodged two rebel battalions. Witnesses said the rebels
killed 15 villagers as they retreated.


DRC-RWANDA: Hutu rebels accuse leaders of barring their repatriation


RWANDA: Rainfall adequate for good crop season, FEWS-Net reports

Rwanda can expect continuing rainfall for the rest of April, but
decreasing in May, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System (FEWS-Net)
said in a report issued on Monday.

"Rainfall this season should be adequate for a good crop season," it said
in its report. It said that a Water Requirement Satisfaction Index, used
to monitor and forecast crop performance, showed that cereals would
perform well thorughout the country this season. This forecast, it said,
had been confirmed by field reports.

It said that cumulative rainfall from January to 10 April, at 435 mm, was
slightly higher than the long-term average of 377 mm for the same period.
It said spatial rain distribution country-wide "has been fairly uniform",
although slightly more rain was recorded in Gitarama, Butare, Gikongoro,
and Cyangugu, in the southern part of the country.

However, it reported that temporal distribution had been erratic, with
"very heavy rains" of up to 93 mm recorded during the last 10 days of
March. Too much rain has destroyed crops in "minor areas" in Kinihira,
Bungwe, Kisaro and Rushaki districts, all in Byumba Province; and also in
Bugarura District in the Ngege Sector of Ruhengeri Province. It said that
in Kigarama, Kibungo Ville and Kayonza districts of Kibungo Province, hail
reportedly destroyed some banana crops.


RWANDA: Sweden, UN tribunal sign pact on enforcement of sentences

Sweden and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) signed
an agreement on Tuesday on the enforcement of sentences imposed by the
court on those found guilty of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The court reported on Tuesday that ICTR Registrar Adama Dieng and Swedish
Ambassador Carl Henrik Ehrenkrona, signed the agreement at the tribunal's
headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. ICTR President Erik Mose and Prosecutor
Hassan Jallow witnessed the signing.

The agreement underlines the commitment of the Swedish government to
facilitate the "discharge and completion of the mandate of the ICTR", the
court reported. Sweden becomes the sixth country to agree to receive ICTR
convicts, after Benin, France, Italy, Mali and Swaziland. Already, the
court said, six convicts are serving their sentences in Bamako, Mali.

Under the tribunal's Statute, sentences of imprisonment "shall be served
in Rwanda or in any of the States on a list of states which have indicated
to the [UN] Security Council their willingness to accept convicted persons
as designated by the ICTR". The Security Council set up the court in 1995
to bring to trial the perpetrators of the genocide, in which 937,000
people were killed, according to the Rwandan government.


RWANDA: Government releases 4,225 prisoners

The government has released 4,225 prisoners who completed a one-month
rehabilitation course on 25 April, the Rwandan news agency, RNA, reported.
It said during the passing-out ceremony at Kinyinya camp in the capital,
Kigali, the executive secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation
Commission, Fatuma Ndangiza, urged the former prisoners to reconsider
their conduct in the community, and to foster unity and reconciliation for
all Rwandans.

The prisoners underwent solidarity courses in provinces of Gikongoro,
Gisenyi, Ciangugu, Kibungo and Kigali City, RNA reported

In early March, the Rwandan government announced that it would free the
common law criminals and at least half of the country's prisoners who had
confessed to their role in the genocide. Prosecutor General Jean de Dieu
Mucyo told IRIN in March that at least 4,500 common-law prisoners had been
pardoned and released on 22 March in a bid to decongest the nation's
prisons.


CAR: Bozize honours payment deal for former rebels

Former rebels who fought alongside the Central African Republic (CAR)
leader, Francois Bozize, during his October 2002-March 2003 rebellion have
received payment following a meeting with Bozize, and some of them have
already left for Chad, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Monday.

The radio reported that according to a communiqué issued by the
presidential communication adviser, Alain-Georges Ngatoua, Bozize reached
the agreement with the former rebels, also known as ex-liberators, on 25
April at a military barracks in the capital, Bangui.

The former rebels received a "certain sum of money as agreed upon", the
radio reported. "Later, they formed two groups: One group took the road of
Kaga Bandoro and the other group took the road of Bossangoa. These two
convoys were escorted by the CAR and CEMAC [Economic and Monetary
Community of Central Africa] soldiers." A third group of 200 former rebels
is still in Bangui, awaiting departure, the radio reported.


UGANDA: Thousands of Sudanese refugees displaced in the northwest

United Nations agencies have begun an assessment mission in northwestern
Uganda following the mass displacement of Sudanese refugees by Ugandan
rebels, according to the spokesman of the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Dennis Duncan.

He told IRIN that an assessment team comprising UNHCR, WFP and UNDP
officials had been sent to the affected districts of Moyo and Adjumani "to
figure out where it is safe and where it is not".

"There are tens of thousands that have been displaced over the last three
months," Duncan said. "The concern is self-reliance strategies breaking
down as a result. There is no huge emergency, but it's planting season
soon. We are concerned that if they do not plant now, there could be food
shortages further down the road."

In recent months, small gangs of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, in
search of food and medicine, have been attacking Sudanese refugee
settlements in the area. The attacks have partly resulted from increased
pressure on the LRA inside Sudan from the Ugandan army under an agreement
between Khartoum and Kampala authorising the cross border raids.


UGANDA: Government to allocate emergency funds for IDPs

The Ugandan cabinet has approved an emergency allocation of 1.2 billion
shillings (about US $630,000) to aid civilians displaced by the 18-year
war against the LRA, a senior government official has said.

The budget was in response to an unexpected surge in the numbers of
internally displaced persons at the beginning of 2004, following a spate
of LRA attacks, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Disaster
Preparedness and Refugees Moses Ali told IRIN.

"The budget for 1.2 billion shillings has been passed by cabinet and now
goes to parliament. The bulk is for food supplies to be distributed as
soon as it comes in," he said. "But we have not decided precisely how all
of it is to be spent."

Ali said an assessment of the needs of recently displaced people had been
carried out in March. "The assessment team came back saying that urgent
funds are needed to prevent food shortages and other emergencies. Since
then, there have been further displacements in Adjumani [in the
northwest]," he told IRIN. "In the last few weeks, there were 20,000 to
30,000 people displaced by the enemy [LRA] in a series of attacks," he
added.


KENYA: Government announces new policy on malaria treatment

The government has announced a new anti-malaria policy that encourages the
use of more effective combination drugs for treatment, alongside the
promotion of insecticide-treated nets to prevent exposure to mosquitoes
that carry the disease.

Health Minister Charity Ngilu said in a statement to mark the annual
Africa Malaria Day on 25 April that her government was trying to find US
$20 million a year to implement the new policy.

"Over 70 percent of the population (approximately 20 million Kenyans) are
at the risk of disease, which claims 34,000 children annually
(approximately 93 children per day)," Ngilu said. "The burden is mainly
felt in children below five years and pregnant women."

According to the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of the drugs
which were widely used to treat malaria since the 1980s had declined,
leading to "documented, exceptionally high treatment failure rates". These
drugs included choloroquine and later Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine. The
Kenyan government, it added, was therefore encouraging the use of a
combination drug made up of artemeter and lumefantrine, under the brand
name Coartem. It is manufactured by the Swiss-based Novartis
Pharmaceuticals.


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central/East Africa             www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/ceafrica