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 328
22 - 28 April 2006


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: South Africa agrees to facilitate peace talks
BURUNDI: UN agency builds homes for returnees, IDPs
CONGO: Rail traffic suspended, fuel shortage hits Brazzaville
DRC: EU appoints commanders for Congo force
DRC: List of candidates finalised but still no election date
KENYA: Measles outbreak prompts emergency vaccination campaign
SUDAN: Fears of new Govt offensive in South Darfur
RWANDA: Rebel leader released after three-week detention
TANZANIA: Group files case challenging Zanzibar union
UGANDA: New therapy to cut malaria deaths


BURUNDI: South Africa agrees to facilitate peace talks

South Africa has announced that it would take over peace talks between
the government of Burundi and the country's only remaining rebel group,
the Forces nationales de liberation.

"South Africa was approached by the president of Tanzania and the
government of Burundi to take over the facilitation process," Mdu
Lembede, South Africa's ambassador to Burundi, said on Thursday on
state-owned Radio Burundi.

He said South African President Thabo Mbeki agreed to take on the role
after consulting with the chairman of the Regional Initiative for
Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=53042]


BURUNDI: UN agency builds homes for returnees, IDPs

Thousands of internally displaced people and returning refugees in three
Burundian provinces are the beneficiaries of 7,100 homes, 14 primary
schools and five health centres that the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has
built and handed over to the government.

Some 1,300 of the homes are in Cankuzo Province, in the east, 300 in the
central province of Gitega and the rest in the eastern province of
Ruyigi, one of the areas worst affected by 12 years of civil war from
which the country is now emerging.

The UNHCR handed over the buildings during a ceremony at Kabuyenge site
in Gisuru, one of the six communes in Ruyigi Province, where the agency
built 200 homes for returning refugees and IDPs, one primary school and
staff rooms for primary school teachers.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52984]


CONGO: Rail traffic suspended, fuel shortage hits Brazzaville

The suspension of rail traffic serving Brazzaville, capital of the
Republic of Congo, and at least two weeks of fuel shortages have caused
food scarcities and disrupted travel for many of the city's one million
residents.

"According to several testimonies, food products such as cassava,
peanuts, beans and potatoes are getting rare since the suspension,"
Dieudonne Moussala, the head of the Congolese Association for Consumers,
said on Monday.

A government minister last week attributed the fuel shortage to damages
at the national oil refinery in November 2005.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52960]


DRC: EU appoints commanders for Congo force

The Council of the European Union has appointed two commanders and
adopted a "Joint Action" on its military operation to support the UN
Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during general
elections scheduled to be held later this year.

"The EU is determined to support the electoral process and the Congolese
people at this historic juncture," Javier Solana, the EU High
Representative said in a statement issued on Thursday. "Today's
decision, which follows the authorisation of the EU operation by the
Security Council, further confirms that this operation is well on track.
Support now will help embed peace in the DRC and the region after years
of conflict."

The EU appointed Maj-Gen Karlheinz Viereck of Germany the operations
commander for the reserve force, known as Eufor R.D. Congo; and Maj-Gen
Christian Damay of France as force commander. Prior to his appointment,
Viereck was the deputy commander, Bundeswehr Operations Command,
Potsdam, Germany, which is also home to the EU operational command.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=53047]


DRC: List of presidential candidates finalised but still no election
date

President Joseph Kabila and three of his four vice-presidents are on the
final list of 33 presidential candidates published by the DRC's
Independent Electoral Commission, known by its French acronym CEI.

However, the CEI did not announce an election date when it published the
list on Saturday in an official newspaper, a move that is causing
anxiety regarding the start of election campaigns. Under the country's
law, campaigns should begin a day after the publication of a definite
candidates' list and the campaign period must be over 30 days before the
elections.

On Monday, the CEI appealed to the Supreme Court to decide the elections
campaigns issue, which should have started but have been delayed, as the
voting date remains undetermined.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52959]


KENYA: Measles outbreak prompts emergency vaccination campaign

An increase in cases of measles has prompted Kenya's health ministry to
embark on an emergency vaccination campaign to protect children against
the disease, which has claimed the lives of 41 patients around the
country over the past six months.

About 1,600 cases of the disease have been reported during the same
period, James Nyikal, the director of medical services in the health
ministry, told reporters on Monday.

The first phase of the vaccination campaign - scheduled to start on
Saturday and last until 5 May - will target 560,000 children in 16
high-risk areas, including eight divisions in the capital, Nairobi,
where 16 of the deaths have been reported. Other high-risk districts
have been identified as Garissa, Wajir, Ijara, Tana River, Isiolo,
Marsabit, Mandera and Moyale.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52956]


SUDAN: Fears of new Govt offensive in South Darfur

A recent spate of attacks in South Darfur State seems to constitute a
new military offensive by the Sudanese government and puts the lives of
tens of thousands of people at risk, regional analysts have warned.

"A lot of attacks have been taking place in a very short time," a source
in the region - who requested anonymity - said. "What seems to be
happening is a coordinated offensive of the Sudanese armed forces, the
Janjawid militia and PDF [Popular Defence Force, local militia] to
retake Gereida [a town 110 km southeast of South Darfur's capital,
Nyala]."

On Monday, the government used an Antonov plane and two helicopter
gunships during a major attack on the rebel-controlled village of
Joghana, southeast of Gereida, the international watchdog, Human Rights
Watch, reported on Thursday.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=53032]


RWANDA: Rebel leader released after three-week detention

The leader of the Hutu rebel movement, the Forces democratiques pour la
liberation du Rwanda, Ignace Murwanashyaka, has been released from the
immigration jail in the western German city of Mannheim, where he had
been detained pending his deportation.

"My arrest was motivated by the [November 2005] UN travel ban on FDLR
leaders", Murwanashyaka told IRIN on Wednesday from Mannheim. He was
released on Monday.

The UN had imposed the ban and financial sanctions on warlords and rebel
leaders - among them Murwanashyaka - operating in eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo. He was arrested on 7 April in Mannheim as he
returned from a trip to eastern DRC.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=53025]


TANZANIA: Group files case challenging Zanzibar union

Two days before the 42nd anniversary of the political union of
Tanganyika and the isles of Zanzibar, forming the United Republic of
Tanzania, a group of 10 people in the semi-autonomous island have filed
a case in the Zanzibar High Court seeking to have the union quashed
because, they say, "it is illegal".

The group wants the union nullified to pave the way for fresh
discussions on the formation of a new union, "which will represent the
interest of the majority, because the current union has been a mess".

The founders of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere (Tanganyika) and Abeid Amani
Karume (Zanzibar) signed the original article of the union that brought
into a single political entity Tanzania mainland and the two islands
that make up Zanzibar: Pemba and Unguja, with Zanzibar enjoying
semi-autonomous status.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52938]


UGANDA: New therapy to cut malaria deaths

Uganda has launched a new combination therapy in its fight against
malaria, a disease that accounts for up to 300 deaths every day and
annual losses of US $690 million in the East African nation, health
ministry officials said on Tuesday.

"We are moving to a treatment that is effective against malaria
parasites after the disease became increasingly resistant to the
available treatment of chloroquine," said Dr John Bosco Rwakimari, the
malaria control programme manager in the health ministry. "We are
launching the Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy today, a fixed dose
combination of artemether and lumefantrine that is very effective in
malaria control if used properly."

Rwakimari added that ACT would treat patients rapidly with few
side-effects, and said doses of the new therapy worth over $193 million
had been secured through the Global Fund on AIDS Tuberculosis and
Malaria to rollout the treatment for at least five years.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=52963]


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