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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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 250
23 - 29 October 2004


CONTENTS:

GREAT LAKES: Three long-time foes agree to new peace mechanism
CAR: Thousands of flood victims desperate as aid lags, Red Cross says
CAR: Voter registration ends despite problems
BURUNDI: UN Mission replaces sections of South African peacekeepers
BURUNDI: UN investigators unable to identity perpetrators of August killings
UGANDA: Displaced children sleeping on streets in Kitgum town
UGANDA-SUDAN: Some 2,000 Sudanese enter Uganda after fleeing hunger
KENYA: New report shows huge inequalities in income, welfare


GREAT LAKES: Three long-time foes agree to new peace mechanism

The foreign affairs ministers of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo (DRC) agreed on Tuesday to create a tripartite 
commission to ensure that existing agreements concerning peace and 
security in the region would be properly implemented and that 
disagreements between the governments would be ironed out.

The ministers, Charles Muligande of Rwanda; Tom Butiime of Uganda; and 
Ramadhan Baya of DRC, agreed to meet every two months, Rwandan News Agency 
reported.

Baya said his government was committed to securing peace within its 
borders. The armies of Rwanda and Uganda invaded eastern DRC between 1998 
and 2003 on the grounds that the central government in Kinshasa was not in 
control in the east. While there, the two armies fought each other.

Full report


CAR: Thousands of flood victims desperate as aid lags, Red Cross says

Thousands of Bangui residents, whose homes were swept away last week by 
flash floods, have begun receiving emergency-relief aid from the local and 
international red crosses, an official said.

"We are currently distributing buckets, blankets and canvas sheets," 
Antoine Mbao-Bogo, the chairman of the local CAR Red Cross branch, told 
IRIN on Wednesday.

He said more aid could come to the victims, but the Customs Department was 
demanding that the society pay duties on used clothes before releasing the 
consignment. So far, the local Red Cross had only been able to help 1,410 
people; whose condition he termed as "desperate".

He said he had appealed to the regional office of the International 
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in the Cameroonian 
capital, Yaounde, for help. He also said the CAR's Ministry of Social 
Affairs and National Solidarity was being called upon in the aid effort.

Full report


CAR: Voter registration ends despite problems

The disappearance of thousands of voter-registration cards in the Central 
African Republic was one of several problems marring the process of 
registering, an effort that ended on Sunday.

Officials of the Independent Mixed Electoral Commission said the number of 
people to register was relatively low. Next week, the commission plans to 
publish the number of people registered to vote.

The nine-day registration process was held during the rainy season. As 
many roads were impassable, the commission's staff could not get to their 
registration sites. Several opened late. In the largest district for the 
capital, Bangui, the commission's staff delayed the start of registration, 
in protest against their low wages.

Full report


BURUNDI: UN Mission replaces sections of South African peacekeepers

The UN Mission in Burundi, known as ONUB, has replaced its South African 
headquarter company and military police with Kenyan troops, the mission's 
military spokesman, Maj Adama Diop, told IRIN on Monday.

"This is not a replacement of the whole South African contingent in the 
mission, it is normal rotational procedure,~T he said.

The replacement involves 80 troops of the headquarter company and 92 
military police. The rest of the South African contingent, comprising one 
battalion of 770 troops and others such as the maritime and aviation 
units, remains in ONUB.

Diop said the total strength of the South African contingent was 1,045, 
while the Kenyans now numbered 987: one battalion of 815 soldiers, 80 for 
the headquarter company and 92 military police.

Full report


BURUNDI: UN investigators unable to identity perpetrators of August 
killings

After almost two months, an interdisciplinary team of UN experts has been 
unable to identify the killers of 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees on 13 
August at the Gatumba transit camp on the Burundi side of the border with 
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The investigation team has been unable to establish who organised, 
carried out and paid for the atrocity," according to a report the UN 
Secretary-General sent to the Security Council earlier in October.

The report recommended that the Burundian government and the International 
Criminal Court continue investigations. Officials from the UN peacekeeping 
missions in the Congo and Burundi produced the report jointly along with 
UN police and officials from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for 
Human Rights.

Full report


UGANDA: Displaced children sleeping on streets in Kitgum town

At least 5,000 displaced children in the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum, 
who spend nights sleeping on shop steps and pavements, fear they could be 
abducted by rebels and are in desperate need of shelter and sleeping 
materials.

Some 12,000 children flock to the town every evening, but many sleep in 
school buildings, hospitals, district buildings and other sheltered 
spaces. Popularly known as "night commuters", the children are vulnerable 
to attack by the Lord~Rs Resistance army. They consider the towns safer.

Apart from the children, another 6,300 adults are also "night commuters". 
Most of them come into the town from villages located one or two 
kilometers outside Kitgum town.

"The 5,000 are those who have nowhere to sleep and end up in the open 
verandas every night," Mohammed Siryon, head of the Office for the 
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kitgum, told IRIN on 
Friday. "The situation is desperate, but relief agencies are trying to set 
up management structures, through which, support could be given to these 
children."

Full report


UGANDA-SUDAN: Some 2,000 Sudanese enter Uganda after fleeing hunger

An estimated 2,000 people, mainly women and children, have entered Moya 
District in northern Uganda during the past three months after fleeing 
hunger in southern Sudan, Akumu Mavenjina, the resident district 
commissioner in charge of Moyo, told IRIN on Friday.

"Some started moving over following reports a few months ago suggesting 
that the [rebel] Lord's Resistance Army was targeting them in villages and 
killing dozens of them, but of late there has been increased [people] and 
many are complaining of hunger," she said.

Many of the refugees who arrived recently reported leaving their homes 
because of drought-related food shortages, she added.

An estimated 185,000 refugees who fled civil war in southern Sudan live in 
refugee settlements in northern, northwestern and western Uganda.


KENYA: New report shows huge inequalities in income, welfare

The richest 10 percent of Kenya's households control more than 42 percent 
of its total income, according to a report that ranks the East African 
country among the ten most unequal nations in the world. The poorest 10 
percent make do with less than 1 percent of Kenya's wealth, according to 
the report, which was launched on Tuesday.

"For every shilling spent by the poorest 10 percent in Kenya, the richest 
10 percent spend about 52 shillings," said the report, compiled by the 
Society for International Developmet in conjunction with Kenya's planning 
ministry and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

The report, entitled "Pulling Apart; Fact and Figures on Inequality in 
Kenya", shows steep disparities in almost all human development indices. 
Inequalities exist between geographical regions and there are also gender 
inequalities.

Full report


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