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 278
7 - 13 May 2005


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Threat to transition ebbs as interior minister is appointed
BURUNDI: Polls body issues campaign guidelines
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Poll results out 22 May, official says
DRC: Belgian firm to register voters, official says
DRC: UN decries insecurity, malnutrition in Kasai Oriental
DRC: Peacekeeper dies, six others wounded in ambush
DRC: Secession plot failed, government official says
RWANDA: Army general before gacaca court
CONGO: Fear of Ebola outbreak as eight die
TANZANIA: New phase of HIV/AIDS awareness campaign launched
TANZANIA: Government opts for new malaria drug
UGANDA: Second cycle of polio immunisation in the north


BURUNDI: Threat to transition ebbs as interior minister is appointed

Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye appointed on Tuesday Jean Marie
Ngendahayo as the minister of interior, ending weeks of disagreement
between the president and the former main rebel group, the CNDD-FDD.

Ngendahayo is a member of the CNDD-FDD or Conseil national pour la
defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie. His
appointment follows talks last week in Pretoria, South Africa, between
Ndayizeye and CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza, who is also the
minister for good governance in Burundi's transitional government.

Prior to Tuesday's appointment, Ndayizeye had asked the CNDD-FDD - now a
political party - to propose three candidates for the ministerial
position from whom he would pick one. However, CNDD-FDD proposed only
one candidate, whom Ndayizeye declined to appoint. Then, the CNDD-FDD
reacted by boycotting cabinet session and freezing relations with
Ndayizeye.

The Interior Ministry portfolio fell vacant following the death of the
incumbent, Simon Nyandwi, on 22 March. Nyandwi was a CNDD-FDD member.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47057]


BURUNDI: Polls body issues campaign guidelines

Burundi's Independent Electoral Commission, or CENI, has taken measures
to ensure that general elections in the country are conducted in a free
and fair atmosphere, an official said on Friday.

"Every voter must have an identity card and a voter's card, Astere Kana,
the CENI spokesman, said at a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura.

He said the measures would also ensure that no fraudulent activity took
place during the series of elections, scheduled to start with communal
elections on 3 June to the presidential poll on 19 August.

Regarding concerns raised by political parties on the existence of
forged voter lists, Kana said the commission was awaiting reports from
its provincial officials. If any false lists were unearthed, he said,
the commission would ensure that such lists would not be used.

Kana said electoral campaigns would start on 19 May.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47108]


CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Poll results out 22 May, official says

The Central African Republic's electoral commission is due to announce
results of run-off presidential and parliamentary elections on 22 May,
an official told IRIN on Wednesday.

"According to the provision of the electoral code, CEMI [the Mixed
Independent Electoral Commission] has fifteen days [from the elections
date] to proclaim the final results of elections," Jean Willybiro Sako,
the CEMI chairman, said.

He added, "Inauguration of the new president will be done 45 days after
proclamation of the results."

Voters went to the polls on 8 May, for the run-off, to elect a president
and 87 out of 105 Members of Parliament. This followed 13 March general
elections in which two of several presidential candidates qualified for
a second round of voting: President Francois Bozize and his strongest
challenger, Martin Ziguele, a former prime minister.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47051]


DRC: Belgian firm to register voters, official says

A Belgian company has been picked to organise the identification and
registration of voters for the Democratic Republic of Congo's first
post-transition elections, Independent Electoral Commission Chairman
Apollinaire Malumalu announced on Thursday.

He said the Brussels-based company, Zetes Pass, would soon arrive soon
in the country with 10,000 mobile phones, 10,000 digital cameras, 10,000
digital fingerprinting machines and 10,000 generators to begin voter
registration nationwide.

"The materials and the logistics to distribute them would cost about
forty-four million US dollars," Malumalu added.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47095]


DRC: UN decries insecurity, malnutrition in Kasai Oriental

Ongoing insecurity is the cause of deteriorating levels of nutrition
among people in the south-central province of Kasai Oriental in the DRC,
the UN Mission there known as MONUC, reported on Monday.

"The worst famine-hit areas in the Sankuru District [in Kasai Oriental
Province] include Kole, Tchumbe and Lubefu, located within the 500-km
range from [the provincial capital] Mbuji-Mayi," Patrice Bogna, the
information focal point for MONUC's Humanitarian Affairs Section, said
in a statement detailing the mission's weekly humanitarian highlights.

The UN World Food Programme has not confirmed the areas as "famine-hit",
but has said that several of its partners have reported high
malnutrition rates in Sankuru.

Bogna said a new mission by OCHA and several humanitarian partners was
planned for 16 May to 3 June to assess the needs of communities in key
areas.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47049]

[On the Net:
SOUTH AFRICA: Govt deploys reservists to the DRC:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47017]


DRC: Peacekeeper dies, six others wounded in ambush

A UN peacekeeper was shot dead and six others were wounded on Thursday
when an armed group ambushed a convoy carrying 40 UN Bangladeshi troops
in the troubled northeastern district of Ituri, a MONUC spokeswoman
said.

The spokeswoman, Rachel Eklou, said on Friday that three of the
peacekeepers were wounded by gunfire and the others were injured when
their armoured vehicle overturned during the ambush at Gethy, a locality
controlled by the Front de Resistance Patriotique en Ituri. Two of the
wounded UN soldiers were flown to South Africa for medical care.

Gethy is 55 km southeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri.

[Full story
on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47102]


DRC: Secession plot failed, government official says

An attempt to secede from the Democratic Republic of Congo was foiled
recently in the southeastern province of Katanga, the deputy government
spokesman, Simon Tshitenge, told IRIN on Friday.

"There was an attempt to secede in Katanga. The first results of the
investigation undertaken by the security services proved it," he said.

He added that military officers in the province were implicated, and
that several members of the presidential guard based in the city were
behind the plot. This was the first official government statement
following a wave of arrests of politicians and military officers
suspected of being behind the conspiracy.

At least 35 civilians and military officers, and possibly at least 100,
according to the Katanga-based Centre for Human Rights, have been
arrested. They include Andre Tshombe, son of the late Moise Tshombe,
Congo's one-time prime minister who led Katanga's secessionist war in
the 1960s. He is the leader of a local political party.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47101]


RWANDA: Army general before gacaca court

Rwandan army Maj-Gen Laurent Munyakazi stood before a gacaca court on
Saturday accused of having helped militiamen who killed thousands of
Tutsi people hiding in two adjacent churches in the capital, Kigali,
during the 1994 genocide.

Survivors at Saturday's hearing said Munyakazi had personally killed 18
people; and had helped members of the Hutu militia, known as the
Interahamwe, kill at least 3,000 others in the St Familie and St Paul
Roman Catholic churches. A woman who had hid in one of the churches said
Munyakazi had saved her life, but had also collaborated with the killers
of other Tutsis a few days later.

"This is unbelievable!" Munyakazi said, rebutting the accusations.

Munyakazi was a police lieutenant colonel in Kigali up until the
genocide. He is the second highest ranking Hutu soldier to appear before
a gacaca court.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47011]


CONGO: Fear of Ebola outbreak as eight die

Eight people have died over the past two weeks in the Republic of Congo
(ROC) with Ebola-like symptoms, raising fears of a new outbreak of the
disease, Minister of Health Alphonse Gando announced on Thursday.

"People must absolutely avoid all contact with patients, even if they
are relatives and, above all, not touch dead animals in the forest," he
said. "This is really important, as the virus is very dangerous and
contagious."

Gando said since 27 April, health workers in the district of Etoumbi in
the Cuvette-Ouest Region had recorded seven deaths and three patients
with clinical symptoms that strongly resemble those of the Ebola virus.
He said another person who had left the town of Etoumbi for Mbomo had
also died after exhibiting similar symptoms. Etoumbi and Mbomo are 640
km and 700 km, respectively, to the north of Brazzaville, the capital.

There is no known cure for Ebola, which is transmitted via infected body
fluids and kills 50 percent to 90 percent of its victims, depending on
the strain. The disease damages blood vessels and can cause bleeding,
diarrhoea and shock.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47097]


TANZANIA: New phase of HIV/AIDS awareness campaign launched

The African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), an international
medical NGO, launched on Tuesday the third phase of a media campaign
aimed at promoting voluntary HIV testing and counselling in Tanzania.

The campaign, sponsored by the UN Agency for International Development
(USAID), involves aggressive advertisements, including posters, radio
and television spots calling on the people to go for voluntary HIV tests
and counselling.

The theme of the new campaign is "Make the right decision. Know your HIV
status."

AMREF set up a programme known as "Angaza" (Kiswahili language for
'Enlighten') three years ago, under which centres for voluntary testing
and counselling (VCT) were established nationwide. So far, there are 40
VCT centres countrywide.

A recent survey showed that 7 percent of adult Tanzanians, about two
million people, are infected with HIV.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47028]


TANZANIA: Government opts for new malaria drug

Tanzania will in 2006 officially adopt a new combination therapy for the
treatment of malaria to replace SP or sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine, a
standard first line drug, which is now ineffective against the disease.

"Studies conducted in malaria endemic countries by the [UN] World Health
Organization [WHO] have established that the drug is no longer
effective," Hussein Mwinyi, the assistant minister for health, said on
Wednesday at a news conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial
capital.

He said the combination therapy known as Artemesinin Combined Treatment
(ACT) would replace SP, which the country adopted three years ago to
treat malaria after the efficacy of another first line therapy,
chloroquine, diminished drastically.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47070]


UGANDA: Second cycle of polio immunisation in the north

Uganda ended on Sunday two days of polio immunisation that targeted over
one million children in 15 northern districts, officials said.

The manager of the National Immunisation Programme, Isha Makumbi, said
this was intended to support efforts to eliminate polio in the country
and to prevent the crossover of the disease from Sudan, which recently
experienced an outbreak of the crippling disease.

Officials said the polio immunisation drive reached 90 percent of
children aged up to five years in the target districts. The drive was
the second phase of a campaign that began in February in the same 15
districts, which share a border with Sudan.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47029]


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