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 308
3 - 9 December 2005


CONTENTS:

TANZANIA: Clinical trials on HIV/AIDS vaccine to start in March
BURUNDI: Germany grants Bujumbura 9.5 million euros to fight poverty
DRC: Relief efforts blocked in northern Katanga as fighting continues
DRC: World Bank approves US $125-million grant for reconstruction
KENYA: Political unease as some MPs reject cabinet positions
CAR: Government sets up new road maintenance agency
KENYA: EC provides 125 million euros in budget support
GREAT LAKES: EU calls for revival of regional economic bloc
GREAT LAKES: Returning refugees risk being displaced
GREAT LAKES: UN appeal seeks $154.5 million for recovery efforts


SEE ALSO:

BURUNDI: INTERVIEW: Nkurunziza optimistic about education, security
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50561 ]


TANZANIA: Clinical trials on HIV/AIDS vaccine to start in March

Tanzania will start clinical trials of an HIV/AIDS vaccine in March
2006, the head of a local university announced in Dar es Salaam on
Saturday.

"This is taking place after successful trials were done in Sweden to
determine any side effects," said Kisali Pallangyo, the principal of the
Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam.

Muhimbili, which is a university teaching hospital, will conduct the
trials on the vaccine DNA-MVA, developed by researchers at the Swedish
Institute of Infectious Disease Control. The trial will only be
conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50491]


BURUNDI: Germany grants Bujumbura 9.5 million euros to fight poverty

Germany has granted Burundi 9.5 million euros (US $11.1 million) for a
one-year programme aimed at reducing poverty across the country by
providing safe drinking water, fighting HIV/AIDS and promoting peace and
reconciliation, a German government official said on Wednesday in
Berlin.

The spokeswoman at the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and
Development, Barbara Wieland, said the grant would cover the period from
December 2005 to December 2006 and would prioritise water projects.

She said Germany would support reforms in Burundi's judiciary, conflict
prevention and human rights programmes in an effort to promote peace and
reconciliation in the country that is recovering from 12 years of civil
war.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50525]

[On the Net: GREAT LAKES: EU calls for revival of regional economic
bloc: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50514]


DRC: Relief efforts blocked in northern Katanga as fighting continues

The international humanitarian aid body Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
says the army in northern Katanga Province of the DRC has blocked relief
workers from entering the area since beginning a military campaign
against local Mayi-Mayi militias there in mid-November.

"We think there are many people who need assistance," Laurence Sailly,
the coordinator of MSF's Emergency Team in the DRC, told IRIN on Monday
from Kinshasa.

However, MSF said as it could not get close to the front line it could
not give a reliable estimate of the scale of the problem.

"We are asking for access so that we can assess the situation," Sailly
said.

MSF reported on Friday that some 3,000 internally displaced persons fled
fighting in their camp at Mazwombe in Mitwaba Territory. In addition,
thousands of people have fled their homes as the army moves north from
the town of Kilwa.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50510]


DRC: World Bank approves US $125-million grant for reconstruction

The World Bank said on Thursday it had approved a US $125-million grant
to help the DRC revamp its agricultural production and enhance food
security.

In a statement issued in Washington D.C., the bank said the grant would
provide additional financing for priority activities in the country that
were not being paid for under its original Emergency Multi-sector
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction project, approved in August 2002.

"The project seeks to restore essential social services and build
community infrastructure and strengthen government capacity to implement
and manage medium and long-term development programmes," the World Bank
said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50593]


KENYA: Political unease as some MPs reject cabinet positions

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's bid to reconstitute his government and
ease political tension in the country hit a snag on Thursday after some
members of parliament appointed to the new cabinet refused to take up
their positions.

Kibaki, who named his new cabinet on Wednesday, had left out seven key
members of the previous administration who campaigned against the
proposed new constitution he favoured, which was rejected in a national
referendum last month.

Among those who refused to sit in the new cabinet are the leader of the
Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD-Kenya), FORD-Kenya leader
Musikari Kombo; Orwa Ojode, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party who
had been given the environment portfolio; former Health Minister Charity
Ngilu, leader of the National Party of Kenya.

About 15 assistant ministers also rejected their posts, citing various
reasons. Some said their political parties had not been consulted before
the appointments. Others apparently refused to accept the offers because
they belonged to the Orange Democratic Movement, a loose alliance of
politicians from various parties that spearheaded the campaign against
the draft constitution.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50566]


CAR: Government sets up new road maintenance agency

The government of Central African Republic set up a new agency on
Saturday to rehabilitate and maintain 24,000 km of roads.

The new agency, known as the Fonds d'Entretien Routier, will repair and
maintain the national network of trunk, regional and rural roads; 65
percent of which the director of public works for road maintenance,
Auguste Nambea, said were in "bad condition".

He said the agency would be funded from road and fuel taxes. Motorists
would be charged 55 francs CFA (a fraction of a US cent) on every litre
of petrol sold.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50493]


KENYA: EC provides 125 million euros in budget support

The European Commission is to provide some 125 million euros (US $147.3
million) in budget support and technical aid to strengthen
poverty-alleviation programmes in Kenya, the EC delegation in Nairobi
announced on Tuesday.

A financing agreement to facilitate the disbursement of the Poverty
Reduction Budget Support II Programme had already been signed between
the Kenyan government and the EC, the organization said. The programme
seeks to enhance macroeconomic stability and stimulate economic growth
in Kenya by reducing borrowing and reversing the rise in domestic debt
burden.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50513]


GREAT LAKES: EU calls for revival of regional economic bloc

The EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, Louis Michel,
called on Monday for the revival of the Economic Community of the Great
Lakes Countries of Africa(the Communaute Economique des Pays des Grands
Lacs, or CEPGL), that collapsed in 1998 as a result of war in the
region.

Michel made his appeal while meeting with Burundian President Pierre
Nkurunziza who was on a four-day visit to Belgium.

"The Commissioner is encouraging the revival of the CEPGL because
political conditions are ripe after transitions successfully completed
in Burundi and Rwanda and the hopes raised by massive voter registration
in the DRC," Amadeu Altafaj, the EU spokesman, told IRIN on Tuesday.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50514]

[On the Net: GREAT LAKES: Ministers move to revive economic cooperation
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=42116]


GREAT LAKES: Returning refugees risk being displaced

Tens of thousands of refugees in the Great Lakes region have started
returning home, but without adequate support they could reignite
conflicts and end up joining the millions of people displaced within
their own countries, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.

"The future is IDPs [internally displaced persons]," said Dennis
McNamara, director of the UN Inter-Agency Internal Displacement
Division, on Tuesday in Nairobi ahead of the launch of a $154-million UN
Consolidated Appeal for the Great Lakes region.

He said there were currently only three million refugees in all of
Africa - but over 11 million IDPs in the DRC, Uganda and Sudan. [Full
story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50504 ]


GREAT LAKES: UN appeal seeks $154.5 million for recovery efforts

The 2006 annual UN appeal to donors for humanitarian aid for the Great
Lakes region, which is for US $154.5 million, has begun focusing more on
recovery efforts while still providing emergency relief, UN officials
said at the appeal's launch on Tuesday.

"Countries in the region are moving towards peace, and this appeal takes
that into account," said Valerie Julliand, head of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Regional Support Office for East
and Central Africa (OCHA-RSO), in her opening remarks at the 2006
Consolidated Appeal for the Great Lakes in Nairobi.

"We are now, for example, concerned with food security - not just food
aid," she said, referring to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
projects in the appeal, which will cost $3.6 million, up from $2.7
million in 2005.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50532]


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