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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 288
16 - 22 July 2005


CONTENTS:

DRC: Thousands displaced by attack in South Kivu
CENTRAL AFRICA: Militias to be forcefully disarmed
BURUNDI: Over 2,000 Rwandans "asylum seekers" in northern provinces
BURUNDI: Teachers to coach students during strike
KENYA: 9,000 now displaced in Marsabit, Red Cross says
KENYA: Nairobi heavily policed on third day of protests
KENYA: Polio vaccinations to target 1 million children
KENYA-UGANDA: Dozens of cattle rustlers killed in cross-border raid
UGANDA: ARV targets achieved ahead of schedule
UGANDA: High HIV/AIDS levels among fishing communities
BURUNDI: Teachers decides to coach students during strike


DRC: Thousands displaced by attack in South Kivu

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said on Tuesday that some 13,000 
civilians were displaced from their homes in eastern Democratic Republic 
of Congo's (DRC) Kalonge Chiefdom, in South Kivu Province, following an 
attack earlier in July by Hutu Rwandans militias.

"In the village of Fendula, 90 percent of the population has fled, which 
is 13,000 out of 14,476 inhabitants," said Nadia L'Heureux, the 
information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs in Bukavu, the provincial capital.

She said OCHA was leading an interagency mission to the chiefdom, some 
100 km northwest of Bukavu, to evaluate the humanitarian situation. The 
mission arrived on 16 July.

She also said the total number of displaced refugees in Kalonge since 
the February and April attacks was 32,000. Displaced people told the 
members of the mission that they were still too afraid of further 
attacks to return to their villages. Many of the women burned to death 
on 9 July by the militiamen had been raped beforehand, L'Heureux said.

The army has said it lacks transport and communication to hunt down the 
rebels hiding in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48212]


CENTRAL AFRICA: Militias to be forcefully disarmed

The presidents of Angola, Gabon, DRC, and the Republic of the Congo, 
ended a summit on 16 July with an agreement to disarm all militias and 
armed groups forcibly, as a matter of urgently, who are trying to 
destabilise the peace process in DRC.

"The four countries are working together with the African Union, United 
Nations and the European Union in order to set up an Economic Community 
of Central African States [ECCAS] brigade to ensure the ongoing 
democratic process in DRC," Dennis Sassou-Nguesso, the ROC president and 
current ECCAS chairman, said.


BURUNDI: Over 2,000 Rwandans "asylum seekers" in northern provinces

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates there are still more than 2,000 
Rwandan asylum seekers in the northern provinces of Burundi despite a 
joint operation by Burundian and Rwandan authorities on 13 June to 
repatriate them.

"Small numbers of asylum seekers have kept coming from Rwanda and others 
probably never left," Catherine-Lune Grayson, the UNHCR external 
relations officer in Bujumbura, said on Wednesday.

She said UNHCR added the numbers of Rwandan asylum seekers in different 
areas in northern Burundi that were provided by local authorities, the 
local Red Cross and representatives of asylum seekers to come up with 
its estimate.

UNHCR is currently assisting 62 of the asylum seekers in the centre of 
Mugano Communce, in Ngozi Province. However, she said many others were 
dispersed in the communes of Mparamirundi and Gatsinda in Ngozi; as well 
as in Rwisuri, in Kirundo Province.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48210]


BURUNDI: Teachers to coach students during strike

Burundian teachers decided on Thursday to coach pupils for their 
national exams scheduled for 26-29 July even though they will continue 
their strike to demand payment of their salary arrears.

"But we will not supervise [the exams] or correct them," Philbert 
Ngenzahayo, the chairman of the high school teachers union known as 
CONAPES, said at the end of a teachers unions' general assembly.

Teachers are continuing a strike that began on 29 June to demand a total 
of US $5 million, which they say was promised to them.

"The government has failed to honor its pledges," Ngenzahayo said.


KENYA: 9,000 now displaced in Marsabit, Red Cross says

The total number of people displaced by fighting in the northern 
district of Marsabit has now increased to 9,000 the Kenyan Red Cross 
Society said on Monday. It said the situation was still volatile with 
possible escalation of the conflict.

It added that villagers continued to move to locations they considered 
safe. "The Boranas are moving to areas with more Boranas, while Gabras 
are moving to villages with more Gabras," Anthony Mwangi, the spokesman 
for the Kenya Red Cross, said.

Armed raiders, believed to have been members of the Borana ethnic group, 
first attacked villages inhabited by the Gabra community in the Turbi 
area of Marsabit on 12 July, killing dozens and wounding scores of 
others.

At least 10 members of the Borana community were killed in a revenge 
attack on 13 July. Police have put the total number of people who died 
during the clashes at 79, including 15 attackers killed by security 
forces.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48163]


KENYA: Nairobi heavily policed on third day of protests

Heavily armed police patrolled the streets of Nairobi, the Kenyan 
capital, on Thursday as demonstrations called by political parties and 
NGOs against constitutional reforms entered their third day.

One person was killed on Wednesday as police clashed with protesters, 
officials said, describing the dead man as a "looter". The police 
spokesman, Jaspher Ombati, said many people had taken advantage of the 
chaos to loot and cause havoc in the city's central business district.

However, Kepta Ombati, a member of the National Convention Executive 
Council, a pro-reform coalition of political parties and NGOs that 
helped to organise the mass action, said his organisation was 
"scandalised" by Wednesday's events.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48227]


KENYA: Polio vaccinations to target 1 million children

Kenya is to undertake two rounds of emergency polio vaccination in 
August and September to protect nearly a million children from the 
disease which has been reported in neighbouring countries, the Ministry 
of Health said on Monday.

The director of medical services, James Nyikal, said his ministry was 
concerned about the possibility of the poliovirus being imported after 
the illness was reported in Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.

The immunisation drive would cost approximately $1.5 million, he said, 
and would be undertaken in partnership with the UN World Health 
Organization and the UN Children's Fund.

Two rounds of emergency polio vaccination were carried out earlier this 
year the frontier districts of Marsabit, on the Ethiopian border, West 
Pokot, which borders Uganda, and Turkana, next to Sudan, where an 
outbreak of polio occurred in 2004.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48192]


KENYA-UGANDA: Dozens of cattle rustlers killed in cross-border raid

At least 40 armed Ugandan cattle rustlers were killed by Kenyan warriors 
and security forces on Wednesday when they crossed into neighbouring 
Kenya to raid cattle, Ugandan military officials said.

The army spokesman in northeastern Uganda, Lt Gabriel Lomongin, said up 
to 90 Karamojong raiders from Uganda crossed into Kenya late on Tuesday 
to steal cattle from the Turkana community. He said Ugandan security 
forces had prior knowledge of the planned attack, and had alerted their 
counterparts in the northwestern Kenyan area of Lodwar.

Kenyan police spokesman Jaspher Ombati confirmed the attacks, but said 
he was unaware of the number of fatalities. He said, however, that the 
Ugandan raiders had killed a 12-year-old Kenyan boy. Humanitarian 
sources in Kenya said one Kenyan was killed and another four wounded 
during the clashes.

Dozens of civilians were killed in northeastern Uganda last week as the 
Ugandan army battled armed rustlers accused of stealing livestock from a 
rival clan. The area is notoriously lawless and the frequent cattle 
raids between the Karamojong and their neighbours on the Kenyan side of 
the border, the Turkana and the Pokot, often result in death and 
destruction of property.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48232]


UGANDA: ARV targets achieved ahead of schedule

Uganda has achieved its targets for the number of HIV-positive people 
accessing anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy six months earlier than 
anticipated, officials said on Wednesday.

"We were supposed to have 60,000 people on ARVs by the end of the year. 
We currently have about 65,000," Paul Kaggwa, the spokesman for the 
Ministry of Health, said.

Kaggwa attributed the achievement to international support from the 
Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, the UN World Health 
Organization, and other international partners.

Kaggwa said if more resources continued to come into the country, Uganda 
would be able to triple the number of people accessing ARVs by the end 
of 2006. Some 120,000 Ugandans are estimated to be in critical need of 
the life-prolonging drugs.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48213]


UGANDA: High HIV/AIDS levels among fishing communities

Alarmingly high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Ugandan fishing communities 
are threatening the lucrative fishing industry, which brought some US 
$105 million into the country in 2004, a new government survey has 
found.

It added that the productivity of the fisheries sector, which makes up 
12 percent of Uganda's Gross Domestic Product and nearly 20 percent of 
its total exports, could witness a decline with the impact of HIV/AIDS.

The 2004 survey studied 21 communities living on the shores of Lake 
George, Lake Edward, Lake Albert, the Albert Nile, at the border with 
the DRC and Lake Victoria, which Uganda shares with the East African 
countries of Kenya and Tanzania.

Recorded HIV/AIDS cases up to the end of 2002 showed that the highest 
prevalence in the country was in districts located along the shoreline 
of Lake Victoria.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48188]


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


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