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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 296
10 - 16 September 2005


CONTENTS:

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund
BURUNDI: Rebels willing to negotiate peace, but only with ethnic
   leaders
DRC: Claims of army desertion, rebellion in the east denied
DRC: 48 combatants arrested after returning from Burundi exile
DRC: Vaccination of 10 million children against polio begins
KENYA: UN agencies, gov't appeal for food aid as shortages persist
RWANDA: UN tribunal launches internal probe into its hiring process
SUDAN-UGANDA: Major road linking the two countries reopened


ALSO SEE:

DRC-RWANDA: Interview with Anastase Munyandekwe, spokesman for the
Hutu-dominated FDLR [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49040 ]

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund

Ministers from key donor countries pledged $150 million on Thursday for
an emergency fund that would enable the UN to respond more rapidly to
sudden emergencies and divert resources to the world's most neglected
crises.

Attending the World Summit at UN headquarters in New York,
representatives from over 20 countries and senior UN aid officials met
to discuss the creation of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a
key element of the UN Secretary-General's reform package that calls for
more predictable funding for humanitarian emergencies.

Luxembourg's minister of cooperation and humanitarian action, Jean-Louis
Schiltz, told reporters that UN member states had made the pledge to the
fund which was intended to be operational in early 2006.

"This means that once it is set up, the fund will immediately have these
funds available, provided by Sweden, United Kingdom, Norway,
Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg," he said, adding that this was
new money, in addition to current aid funds.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49095]


BURUNDI: Rebels willing to negotiate peace, but only with ethnic leaders

The Liberation du peuple Hutu-front national de liberation (FNL),
Burundi's last remaining rebel group, said on Wednesday it did not
recognise the legitimacy of the new government and would only negotiate
peace with representatives of the country's three ethnic groups.

"The FNL is willing to negotiate," Pasteur Habimana, the FNL spokesman,
said from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

However, he said, the international community would have to act as
guarantor during such negotiations which would have to be with the
representatives of the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa ethnic groups. Habimana said
even if the FNL's demands were not met it would not restart the war.

"The armed conflict is now over," he said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49077]


DRC: Claims of army desertion, rebellion in the east denied

Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident
former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as
well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent
Nkunda.

Spokeswomen for the UN Mission in the DRC, Jacqueline Chenard, said a
letter arrived at the office in Goma, the provincial capital of North
Kivu that was signed by Nkunda which stated, "We don't plan to revive
war in the country except in a situation of self defence."

Chenard said the letter, dated 8 September, was also addressed to
government authorities in the province. However, she said MONUC could
not confirm the authenticity of the letter whose total contents she
would not reveal.

The Congolese army's chief of the general staff, Lt-Gen Kisempia
Sungilanga, said at a news conference in Kinshasa on Tuesday that
reports of a massive desertion by Tutsi soldiers in the DRC were
"disinformation".

No more than 100 troops deserted, Sungilanga said, contradicting a
statement made on Monday by Gen Gabriel Amisi, commander of the 8th
Military Region at North Kivu, who said some 350 troops from the 124th
Battalion had defected to join Nkunda.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49087]

[On the Net: DRC: Troops from the 124th battalion deserts to join
dissident general: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49012 ]


DRC: 48 combatants arrested after returning from Burundi exile

The army said it arrested 48 dissident soldiers, including 11 officers,
on Tuesday in the east of the country near its borders with Rwanda and
Burundi as they were returning from exile.

"The soldiers are linked to [a dissident former colonel] Jules
Mutebusi," Col Baudouin Nakabaka, the commandant in southern South Kivu
Province town of Kanyola, said on Thursday.

In June 2004, Mutebusi and his men, who are mainly Congolese Tutsis,
attacked Bukavu, the provincial capital of South-Kivu. Nakabaka said
that after the attack they fled across the border and had only now
returned.

He said the dissident soldiers crossed the border near the village of
Bwegera, 150 km south of Bukavu. They had 40 two-way army radios and
each soldier had a guns.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49102]


DRC: Vaccination of 10 million children against polio begins

Local health authorities and UNICEF launched a drive on Monday to
vaccinate 10 million children against polio in six provinces of the DRC
bordering Angola, Health Minister Emile Bongeli said.

The vaccination drive is also to take place in two provinces in the
north, bordering the Central African Republic and Sudan, where cases of
polio have been registered.

On 22 September, the vaccination effort will be launched in the southern
part of the country and carried through to the north. The head of the
nation's vaccination programme, Dr Jean-Marie Muya Mbayo, said the last
case of the wild polio virus in the DRC was detected in 2000. At least
8,000 Congolese children are victims of polio. Most cases occurred in
the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the diamond-mining region of Kasai.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49041 ]

[On the Net: HORN OF AFRICA: Polio vaccination campaign targets 34
million kids: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49060 ]


KENYA: UN agencies, gov't appeal for food aid as shortages persist

UN agencies and the Kenyan government appealed for US $29 million on
Tuesday to feed an estimated 1.2 million people who will need such help
until February 2006 because of erratic rainfall in parts of the country.

The UN World Food Programme would require $25 million for its emergency
operation between September 2005 and February 2006, Peter Smerdon, the
agency's spokesman, said. Some 79,000 tonnes of food would be needed
with the government providing 5,000 tonnes.

The UN Children's Fund and its partners would need an additional $4
million.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49061]


RWANDA: UN tribunal launches internal probe into its hiring process

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda announced on Thursday it
had launched an investigation into allegations that one of its senior
officials unduly influenced the recruitment of another senior official.

A team will investigate whether tribunal spokesman Roland Amoussouga
"assisted in anyway in the process of recruiting" the head of the
court's defence management section, Pascal Besnier; according to
Mandiaye Niang, the special assistant to the tribunal's registrar.

Niang said the team would consist of four senior UN officials and would
take 14 days to complete its investigation. He also said Besnier's offer
of employment was being held, pending the teams' findings.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49084]


SUDAN-UGANDA: Major road linking the two countries reopened

A major road linking northern Uganda and the southern Sudanese garrison
town of Juba was reopened on 10 September after almost two decades of
disuse and insecurity, officials from the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A) announced.

"Some organisations helped us to de-mine the road. It is still rough,
but traffic can now move from Koboko at the border with Uganda to Juba
through Yei," George Riak, an SPLM/A official in Kampala, said on
Tuesday.

He said the 260-km road became insecure in 1985 when the war in southern
Sudan extended to the west and east of the River Nile. Those who
insisted on using the route had to use military-escorted convoys to make
it to Juba.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49058]


[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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