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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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 327
15 - 21 April 2006


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: UNHCR suspends operations at Gasorwe camp after skirmish
TANZANIA: Domestic violence a serious concern - WHO
BURUNDI: Talks with rebel group postponed
TANZANIA: Houses slated for demolition to improve water supply
BURUNDI: Civilians must hand over weapons, says president
SUDAN: Suspected human case of bird flu found negative
KENYA: More effective malaria drugs to be introduced
UGANDA: Mines to be cleared ahead of IDP resettlement
SUDAN-UGANDA: Garang crash resulted from pilot error, says report


ALSO SEE:
SUDAN: Returning home to an uncertain future

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52887]


BURUNDI: UNHCR suspends operations at Gasorwe after skirmish

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has suspended its activities
at Gasorwe camp in Burundi's northeastern province of Muyinga after
protests at the camp turned violent.

The agency said it would not resume operations until Burundi's security
forces had completely restored order. "We want security guaranties for
[UNHCR] agents," Catherine Lune-Grayson, the UNHCR public relations
Officer said on Thursday.

Grayson said the violence began on Tuesday, when a Burundian man, his
wife and their three children went to the camp to seek refugee status.
When the UNHCR agent, who determined that their claim was invalid denied
the request, the family prevented the agent from leaving the UNHCR
office.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52898]


TANZANIA: Domestic violence a serious concern - WHO

Tanzania is one of several low-income countries with a high rate of
domestic violence, according to a recent study by the World Health
Organization (WHO) on women's health and domestic violence against
women.

The WHO study, launched on Wednesday in Tanzania's commercial capital
Dar es Salaam by Sofia Simba, the minister for community development,
gender and children, said 30 percent of victims of violence in the east
African country ended up with serious injuries due to severe beating. In
compiling its report, WHO conducted surveys in Bangladesh, Brazil,
Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Tanzania
and Thailand. The Tanzania survey involved 1,820 respondents in Dar es
Salaam and 1,450 from Mbeya region.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52880]


BURUNDI: Talks with rebel group postponed

Talks between the Burundian government and the country's only active
rebel movement that had been scheduled to take place in Tanzania on
Monday have been called off, the head of the government's negotiating
team said on Wednesday.

"The members of the team are on standby and could leave at any time for
Dar es Salaam," Salvator Ntacobamaze, a former Burundi interior minister
who is head of the government negotiating team, said in the capital,
Bujumbura. He said his team was on the way to Bujumbura airport on
Monday to board a plane to the venue of the talks, Tanzania's commercial
capital Dar es Salaam, when he received a call from an official in the
Tanzania government asking him to cancel the trip.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52854]


TANZANIA: Houses slated for demolition to improve water supply

The government of Zanzibar plans to demolish at least 150 houses to
reduce the pollution of water sources on the islands.

"Building houses close to the water sources and the unnecessary
harvesting of sand from the riverbanks has caused water and
environmental degradation, and is also a threat to the future of the
island," Zanzibar's Chief Minister Shamsi Vuai Nahodha said on Friday.
Nahodha said that the current water shortages facing Zanzibar were
brought about by deforestation and unplanned housing.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52837]


BURUNDI: Civilians must hand over weapons, says president

The Burundian government has given civilians in possession of weapons
three weeks to register the arms or risk being arrested for illegal
ownership.

"They have until 5 May to register the arms they are holding," President
Pierre Nkurunziza said in the northwestern province of Cibitoke. The
president and his two deputies travelled on Friday to various parts of
the country to meet civilians over the weapons issue. He commended some
3,000 people who had already handed in their weapons, saying the law on
illegal ownership of arms would apply to those who did not register.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52834]


SUDAN: Suspected human case of bird flu found negative

Conclusive laboratory tests on specimens from the first suspected human
case of avian influenza in Sudan have proved negative, the United
Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

"The tests of the specimens from the suspected patient turned out to be
negative for avian flu, which is very good news," Emma Fitzpatrick, WHO
spokeswoman in Khartoum, told IRIN. The patient was still hospitalised
and in stable condition. "The results are conclusive," she added. "WHO
experts are currently carrying out further tests on suspected poultry."

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52885]


KENYA: More effective malaria drugs to be introduced

Kenya will phase out the use of sulphur-based antimalaria drugs in
favour of the more effective artemisinin-based combination therapies
(ACTs) because the disease was becoming increasingly resistant to the
other formulations, the country's director of medical services said on
Thursday.

All public facilities will soon be supplied with ACTs to replace drugs
such as the widely used Fansidar and Metakelfin. "Once we receive the
stocks of ACTs we have ordered, we will replace the sulphur-based
drugs," said James Nyikal, director of medical services. He said
sulphur-based antimalarials would continue to be used to treat cases of
malaria among pregnant women and children. The safety of ACTs on
pregnant women and children under the weight of 10 kg has not been
conclusively proven.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52883]


UGANDA: Mines to be cleared ahead of IDP resettlement

Ugandan authorities have set up a team of experts to locate and remove
landmines from areas of the war-affected north before civilians who fled
the conflict in the region are allowed to return to their villages, a
senior government official has said.

The army announced on Monday that some of the 1.7 million people
displaced by the conflict would start going back to their villages
because the security situation has improved in northern Uganda. However,
parliamentarians from the region said it is too early to send people
back to their homes because their security cannot be guaranteed yet.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52857]


SUDAN-UGANDA: Garang crash resulted from pilot error, says report

Pilot error caused the helicopter crash in which Sudan's First Vice
President John Garang was killed last year, a report prepared by Ugandan
experts who investigated the cause of the accident said on Tuesday.

"The captain failed to maintain horizontal and vertical situational
awareness of the helicopter's proximity to the surrounding terrain,"
John Nasasira, Uganda's Works and Transport minister, told a news
conference while releasing the report on Tuesday. "We think the pilot
was trying to keep below the clouds because of bad weather, yet he was
coming into high terrain," he added.

Garang died in the crash on 30 July 2005, just three weeks after he was
inaugurated as first vice president of Sudan and six months after the
long-drawn-out war between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army
(SPLM/A) and the government of Sudan ended with the signing of the peace
agreement in Nairobi, Kenya.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52839]



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