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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 262
15 - 21 January 2005


CONTENTS:

BURNDI: Severity of food shortage in two provinces made clearer
BURUNDI: South African, Ugandan leaders meet
BURUNDI: Medical charity reopens its cholera treatment centre
KENYA: Inadequate rainfall dashes hopes of good maize harvest
RWANDA: Investigations begin for Gacaca genocide trials
DRC: Dutch general named commander of UN troops in east
DRC: Looting forces MSF to suspend activities in part of North Kivu
DRC-UGANDA: Refugees move back and forth across border
UGANDA: Polio alert following reported cases in Sudan
UGANDA: Public transport to be used to combat HIV/AIDS
UGANDA: Death row inmates challenge capital punishment
SUDAN: Cairo deal to help consolidate peace


BURNDI: Severity of food shortage in two provinces made clearer

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed on Wednesday that more than
half a million people are in need of food aid in northern Burundi.

"WFP will assist at least 520,000 people in the provinces of Kirundo and
Muyinga for the next two months," WFP said in a statement issued on
Wednesday.

Earlier in January, Burundi's president, Domitien Ndayizeye, issued a
decree calling the situation in the two provinces "a famine". However,
the WFP spokesperson in Burundi, Guillaume Folio, told IRIN that the
situation was different, calling it instead "a serious food shortage".

The shortages follow poor harvests in 2004, WFP said, adding that "a
combination of drought and manioc mosaic virus has seriously reduced
crop production".

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45131 ]


BURUNDI: South African, Ugandan leaders meet

The chief mediator in the Burundian peace process, South African Deputy
President Jacob Zuma, arrived in the Uganda capital, Kampala, on Monday
for private talks with President Yoweri Museveni who chairs a regional
peace initiative for Burundi.

Uganda's ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi, Odonia Ayebale, said in
Kampala the two leaders would discuss whether it would be possible for
Burundi to hold elections within three months as planned.

The elections are the last phase of a 36-month transitional peace
process, following a decade-long civil war that has claimed some 300,000
lives. The war was triggered by the assassination in October 1993 of the
country's first elected Hutu president, Melchoir Ndadaye, by a small
segment of the Tutsi-dominated army. Ethnic tensions continued until
President Pierre Buyoya, who had previously ruled from 1987-93, seized
power again in a bloodless coup on 25 July 1996.

The government and most rebel groups signed a peace and reconciliation
accord in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania, and established a joint
transitional government until elections are held.

But the election timetable has been postponed repeatedly. A referendum
on Burundi's post-transitional constitution was initially scheduled for
26 October 2004, and then put off to December and again for a third time
with no new date being set.


BURUNDI: Medical charity reopens its cholera treatment centre

The medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said on Friday it was
reopening its specialised cholera treatment centre, following an alert
on the outbreak of the disease.

The Ministry of Public Health raised the alarm on Monday, and on by the
following day it announced it had registered 88 cases.

MSF said its centre had existed since 1995, when it was first set up to
treat people displaced following the razing of Kamenge, a neighbourhood
north of the capital, Bujumbura, during the civil war. Since then, it
added, the centre had served as a supplementary feeding facility for
malnourished children, a cholera clinic and an extension to the
neighbouring MSF centre for war-wounded.

The centre was closed following the signing of power-sharing accords in
2003 and 2004 between the government and other political groups, MSF
said, "but kept on stand-by" as very poor hygienic conditions and lack
of clean water in the suburbs could lead to a cholera outbreak. Many
poor neighbourhoods lack water because the utility, Regideso, cut
supplies to public fountains when the city council failed to pay bills.

[On the Net: MSF reacts to new cholera outbreak in Burundi:
http://www.msf.org/ ]

[BURUNDI: Capital hit by cholera outbreak
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45134 ]


KENYA: Inadequate rainfall dashes hopes of good maize harvest

Hopes for a good maize harvest in Kenya this year have been dashed
following poor rainfall in December 2004, the Famine Early Warning
System Network (FEWS NET) reported. Crops reaching the critical
tasselling stage were unlikely to mature, it added.

The most affected areas were the lowlands of Eastern, Coast and Central
provinces, FEWS NET said in its latest update on Kenya issued on
Tuesday.

It said poor rainfall in the predominantly pastoral district of Kajiado
in the south was of particular concern and that water scarcity in the
northeastern district of Mandera had led to violence in which at least
20 people died in early January. Most other pastoral areas received
fairly good rains, it added.

The Ministry of Agriculture had revised the expected 2004-05 national
short rains maize harvest down from 450,000 mt to 30,000 mt, FEWS NET
reported. The most significant shortfalls, it added, had been observed
in Eastern and Coast provinces and in the southern region of the Rift
Valley province.

Maize is Kenya's staple food.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45156 ]


RWANDA: Investigations begin for Gacaca genocide trials

Rwanda's traditional communal courts, known as Gacaca, set up to try
crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, began systematic
investigations nationwide on Monday.

"Our intention is to have these investigations completed before yearend
to enable the Gacaca courts to start by early 2006," Domitilla
Mukantaganzwa, the executive secretary of the Gacaca justice service,
said in Kigali.

In the current investigative phase, communities are to hold public
meetings in which residents identify victims and suspects, Mukantaganzwa
said. In the trails, victims and suspects must face each other and talk
before a panel of locally elected judges. Later the judges will issue
verdicts. Officials said up to one million people - that is one-eight of
the population - could be on trial.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45106 ]


Meanwhile, in Arusha, Tanzania, the prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Hassan Jallow, said on Wednesday he was
ready to start the trials of 17 suspects held in detention for their
role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Speaking to reporters, he said the trials would be held simultaneously
with the ongoing 25 cases in progress.

There are a total of 57 detainees at the special UN Detention Facility
in Arusha, location of the tribunal. Upon closure of the investigations
deadline in 2004, as directed by the UN Security Council, Jallow,
without mentioning the names, said investigations had been completed on
16 targets.

"We are now looking at the files and will decide whether we have enough
evidence to proceed," he said. "We have been given up to October [2005]
to do that, but our plan is to make sure by June - we will have decided
what indictment to file."

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45158 ]


DRC: Dutch general named commander of UN troops in east

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named Dutch Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert
as commander of UN troops in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a
spokesman for the UN Mission there, known as MONUC, said.

The spokesman, Momadou Bah, said in Kinshasa on Tuesday that Cammaert
would operate from divisional headquarters in Kisangani, capital of
Orientale Province. He is expected to assume command of the division's
9,000 men within the first 15 days of February. The division's three
brigades are stationed in the northeastern district of Ituri, Orientale
Province, as well as in North and South Kivu provinces.

Cammaert will also serve as MONUC's deputy MONUC force commander.

Prior to his appointment on 7 January, Cammaert was the UN military
adviser for peacekeeping operations at UN headquarters, New York. In
1992, he served as commander of the First Dutch Marine Battalion with
the UN Transitional Administration in Cambodia; as commander of the
Forward Headquarters of Mount Igman of the Multinational Brigade of the
Rapid Reaction Forces of the UN Protection Force in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1995; and as force commander on the UN Mission in
Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Cammaert joined the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps in 1968.

[On the Net: UGANDA-DRC: 15,000 refugees now fled Ituri fighting, UNHCR
says http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45088 ]

[DRC-UGANDA: Congolese refugees at risk of diseases, UNHCR official says
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45078 ]


DRC: Looting forces MSF to suspend activities in part of North Kivu

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has suspended aid activities in one of
the most war-torn areas of Congo's North Kivu Province after people in
army uniform attacked the charity's facility late Tuesday.

"They took money, communication equipment and one of our vehicles from
our base in the village of Kabati," Jean-Christophe Dolle, the head of
the MSF mission in Goma, told IRIN on Thursday.

"The continuation of project activities are severely hampered," he
added.

MSF had been using its base in Kabati to provide help to some 100,000
people in the districts of Masisi and Rutshuru, many of whom had fled
from nearby Kanyabayonga where regular army units were recently fighting
each other.

MSF staff has been providing emergency medical care to the hundreds of
thousands of inhabitants of Masisi and Rutshuru districts since 1992.
MSF has been operating from Kabati since 2002 helping prevent
transmission of HIV/AIDS, treating children for malnutrition and
supporting local vaccination campaigns.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45159 ]


DRC-UGANDA: Refugees move back and forth across border

Out of a wave of more than 10,000 refugees from the DRC who escaped
fighting by crossing into Uganda's southwestern Kanungu District, at
least 7,000 have now returned, according to the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"Trapped between fighting on one side and an uneasy exile on the other,
thousands of Congolese refugees have spent the past ten days crossing
back and forth," UNHCR said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

It reported that 10,100 refugees had arrived in the village of Ishasha,
near Lake Edward. According to MSF medical coordinator, Dr Jerome
Arties, who was in Ishasha on Monday and Tuesday, only 1,000 of the
roughly 10,000 refugees are still in Ishasha.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45147 ]


UGANDA: Polio alert following reported cases in Sudan

The Ugandan Ministry of Health warned on Monday that children in the
northern districts could face the risk of contracting polio following a
reported outbreak of the disease in neighbouring Sudan. It urged parents
to take children, who had not completed their immunisation schedules,
for vaccination.

"The ministry has decided to conduct two rounds of supplementary polio
vaccinations, targeting children up to five years, in the districts
bordering Sudan," Paul Kagwa, a spokesman for the ministry, told IRIN.
"We fear that because of cross border movement, these districts will be
at high risk of getting infections.

The Ugandan districts with close to Sudan include Adjumani, Apac,
Kitgum, Kotido, Lira, Masindi, Moyo, Moroto, Nakapiripirit and Pader.

The ministry, in a statement, expressed fear that several million
children in the country were at risk of contracting the disease because
they did not complete their routine immunisation, following the
confirmation of 112 cases in 13 Sudanese states since November. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45103 ]


UGANDA: Public transport to be used to combat HIV/AIDS

Uganda's public transport system is set to become the latest vehicle to
promote behaviour change in the country's continued fight against
HIV/AIDS, according to the Ministry of Health.

The project will make use of the entire range of public transport in the
country, which is made up of large long distance buses, 15-seat
mini-buses, cabs, motor cycles, known locally as "boda bodas"; canoes
and ferries.

Julius Byenkya Uganda's AIDS Control Programme told IRIN on Tuesday that
the government aimed to increase the public response to HIV/AIDS by
using public transport vehicles as message boards for HIV/AIDS stickers
and posters, and as distribution channels for condoms and information
flyers.


UGANDA: Death row inmates challenge capital punishment

Hundreds of death row inmates in Uganda launched an unprecedented
petition on Wednesday to end capital punishment in the country,
insisting that the death sentence was "cruel, inhuman and degrading"
and, therefore, illegal.

"The petition by 417 prisoners on death row is seeking to find out
whether the death penalty is a constitutional and lawful punishment, or
whether the [Ugandan] constitution permits it," John Katende, the
convicts' defence lawyer, told the court in the capital, Kampala.

The case, first filed by the convicts in September 2003, kicked off at
Uganda's constitutional court on Wednesday, seeking a declaration that
the death sentence was unconstitutional and should be expunged from
Uganda's law books.

Uganda has executed up to 377 people, including one woman, since 1938.
President Yoweri Museveni's government has put 51 people to death since
it took over power in 1986, most recently hanging 27 people in 1999.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45153 ]


SUDAN: Cairo deal to help consolidate peace

The agreement signed by the Sudanese government and the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Sunday will further consolidate the peace
accord signed with the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) on 9 January, sources said.

The NDA, which is based in Eritrea, signed the tentative agreement with
the government in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. It supports the southern
peace agreement, backs the drafting of a new constitution and calls for
the formation of a neutral, professional army.

"This is a positive development," George Somerwill, deputy spokesman of
the UN Advance Mission in Sudan (UNAMIS), told IRIN on Tuesday. "At this
time of great change for the people of Sudan, we welcome any move that
contributes to the consolidation of the peace in the country."

NDA spokesman Khatem Es-Sir also lauded the accord, and was quoted by
AFP news agency as saying that it "brings a practical solution to the
question of democratic change".

The deal represents a framework for a comprehensive political solution
between the two sides. It aims to lift the state of emergency, which has
been in place since 1989, and to reintegrate the NDA into Sudan's
political life.

A final agreement is expected to be signed on 12 February in Cairo.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=45109 ]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


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