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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 275
16 - 22 April 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: UN troops kill; wound 40 militiamen in gun battle
DRC: Army deploys two more battalions to Ituri
DRC: UN extends arms embargo
BURUNDI-RWANDA: UN agency relocates newly arrived refugees
RWANDA: Refugees could be joining rebels, minister says
TANZANIA: Thousands of Zanzibaris homeless after heavy rains


SEE ALSO:

DRC: Who's who in Ituri - militia organisations, leaders
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46732

[On the Net: CHAD-SUDAN: Governor urges UN to help local Chadians as
well as Darfur refugees:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46754 ]

[CHAD-SUDAN: New spat over Chadian rebels in Darfur highlights difficult
relations: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46737 ]


DRC: UN troops kill; wound 40 militiamen in gun battle

UN ground troops supported by two combat helicopters "killed or wounded"
40 militiamen during a "cordon and search" operation on Monday in
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokeswoman in Bunia for
the UN mission in the country, said.

The spokeswoman, Elian Nabaa, said a battalion of Pakistanis, Nepalese,
Bangladeshis, Moroccans and government troops returned fire on several
hundred militiamen in Katoto and Lingo, 25 km northeast of Bunia in the
district of Ituri. The fighting took place in an area controlled by the
Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a militia group of the Hema people.

"Militiamen shot at the UN troops as they arrived in the sector, who
then returned fire," she said.

Nabaa said 18 militiamen from Lingo surrendered. She said the operation
was aimed at dismantling militia camps and to cut their rear bases. The
UN mission, known as MONUC, had given all militias in Ituri till
midnight of 1 April to hand in their weapons.

The Katoto-Lingo operation was the third by MONUC to disarm the
militias, following the expiry of its deadline for the fighters to
disarm voluntarily.

Of the estimated 13,000 Ituri militiamen, 10,644 have already been
disarmed by Thursday in seven sites. Among them are 1,286 UPC fighters
whose total fighting strength is close to 4,000.


DRC: Army deploys two more battalions to Ituri

Two more battalions of the Congolese Armed Forces have arrived in Bunia,
the main town in the northeastern district of Ituri, ahead of their
deployment to formerly militia-occupied territories of Mahagi and Aru,
Lt Gulain Umba, the army liaison officer, told IRIN on Tuesday.

He added that the army would assess the situation across an area
spanning 480 km from Bunia through Djugu, a territory occupied by Front
des nationalistes integrationistes and Union des patriotes congolais
militias. Due to a shortage of police officers, Umba said, the
battalions' duties would, in addition to protecting national security,
extend to the protection of the lives and property of civilians.

[Full story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46710]

[On the Net: DRC: Three killed, thousands displaced as army takes on
militia group]


DRC: UN extends arms embargo

The UN Security Council extended an embargo on arms and military
financing in the DRC on Monday, to include a travel ban on violators and
the freezing of their assets.

Security Council resolution 1596, adopted unanimously, condemned the
continuing illicit flow of weapons into the east of the country it said,
"continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in
the region".

"The resolution bans military equipment for any recipient in the DRC,
except to those police and soldiers who make up the country's national
army, and those arms used for technical training and for [MONUC]," Fred
Eckhard, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said on
Monday in New York.

The resolution called for Annan to select a group of four experts to
monitor the ban - which extends the original embargo of 2003 - and to
add a fifth expert to deal with financial matters.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46707]


BURUNDI-RWANDA: UN agency relocates newly arrived refugees

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday it began relocating the
more than 2,000 refugees fleeing Rwanda since the end of March. They
have been camped out across the border of northern Burundi.

For reasons of security, the agency does not provide aid to the refugees
at borders, Catherine-Lune Grayson, the head of UNHCR public relations
in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, told IRIN Monday.

"We encourage people to move inland," she said.

The officer in charge of refugees in Burundi's Ministry of Interior,
Didace Nzikoruriho, said the refugees were only being moved to temporary
camps at Songore in the northeastern province of Muyinga, and at
Mishisha in Cankuzo Province.

"The government and its partners are yet to decide on more long-term
places to relocate them," he added.

The refugees have not been receiving assistance from UNHCR, while at the
border, said Felix Niragira, the governor of Ngozi Province, which has
been host to 1,152 refugees, including 480 children, at Marangara
Commune.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46683]


RWANDA: Refugees could be joining rebels, minister says

Rwandans who have been fleeing to Burundi and Uganda since the beginning
of April could have been recruited into rebel groups, Rwandan Minister
for Local Government Protais Musoni said on Thursday.

"We have information of some elements trickling in and out and
mobilising these people," he said in Kigali.

He added that fear of indictment in the country's traditional justice
system, known as "Gacaca", could have caused many of the refugees to
leave the country. Gacaca courts were established in March to help bring
to trial tens of thousands of suspects accused of being involved in the
1994 Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan government estimates 937,000 people
died during the genocide between April and June 1994.

In recent months, some 2,000 Rwandans have fled to northern Burundi, and
another 1,118 to Uganda, according to the UN.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46751]

[On the Net: BURUNDI-RWANDA: Hundreds flee Gacaca courts:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46614]


RWANDA-UGANDA: Over 1,000 refugees flee to Uganda:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46726 ]


TANZANIA: Thousands of Zanzibaris homeless after heavy rains

Thousands of people in the north of the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar
were made homeless on Tuesday following the heaviest rains on the island
for more than three decades, a government official told IRIN on
Wednesday.

"We are still assessing the magnitude of the damage," Said Shabaan, the
deputy permanent secretary in Zanzibar's chief minister's office, said.

Some homes were swept away, he said. Others are flooded. He estimated
that 400 families had been affected, with each family having between
four and six members, although some may have up to 10.

Zanzibar's chief minister, Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, appealed for
international aid saying the families needed food, blankets, mattresses,
mosquito nets, clothes and medicine. He also said people risked catching
diseases such as cholera and malaria. Relief organisations are awaiting
an official government report on the extent of the damage before acting,
officials in Nahodha's office said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46727]


[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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