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

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 331
13 - 19 May 2006


CONTENTS:

CAR: Thousands protest widespread violence
TANZANIA: Floods leave 19,000 homeless
TANZANIA: Gov't evicts herdsmen in conservation effort
BURUNDI: Rains displace thousands, destroy crops
DRC: Army captures militia commander
DRC: ECHO resumes humanitarian flights
KENYA: Dysentery outbreak kills 13 in northeast
UGANDA: Museveni gives rebels ultimatum to end war


ALSO SEE:

CAR: Interview with Leodegal Bazira, head of UN country tea

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53430]


CAR: Thousands protest widespread violence

At least 3,000 people took to the streets of Bangui, capital of the
Central African Republic, on Friday in protest against escalating
violence in the country; especially in the northwest where fighting
between armed raiders and the army has left up to 70,000 civilians
displaced.

The protestors carried banners that read: "No to Rebellion" and "No to
Bad Governance". They urged rebels and the government to stop the
fighting and to work for peace.

Members of the civil society - human rights organisations, trade
unionists and religious organisations - took part in the demonstration
that stretched for kilometres in the city.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53438]


TANZANIA: Floods leave 19,000 homeless

Floods have left at least 19,000 people homeless and submerged 998
houses in Tanzania's northern Kilimanjaro region following a heavy
downpour, officials said on Monday.

The Moshi District commissioner, James Ole Mililya, said the floods also
swept away hundreds of livestock and led to the collapse of 11 homes.

"At least 1,459 hectares of crops were also destroyed by floods," he
said.

Recurrent annual flooding in parts of the country poses the threat of
water contamination, which can lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases,
such as cholera.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53338]


TANZANIA: Gov't evicts herdsmen in environment conservation effort

The Tanzanian government has started evicting hundreds of pastoralists
from riverbeds and basins in Mbeya, to the southwest of the country, in
a bid to protect the environment from further degradation.

"Some of the pastoralists have already left the areas, but there are
others who don't want to leave and we are going to use force," John
Mwakipesile, the Mbeya regional commissioner, said on Friday.

He said the eviction targeted at least 1,000 pastoralists who, combined,
have more than two million head of cattle in the Ihefu Basin, which is
the major source of the Great Ruaha River that feeds several
hydroelectric dams downstream.

The government deployed riot police to the area when the eviction began
on Thursday.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=53434]


BURUNDI: Rains displace thousands, destroy crops and cemetery

Floods killed nine people, displaced thousands and destroyed a cemetery
in Burundi's northwestern province of Bubanza following a week of heavy
rainfall that caused two rivers to burst their banks.

Local officials in Gihanga said on Tuesday that the most affected areas
were the Imbo lowlands where several hectares of crops remained flooded
after the Mpanda and Kajeke rivers burst their banks. Livestock and
other domestic animals also perished in the floods.

Sections of the road network in the southern part of the country linking
Bujumbura, Burundi's capital to the region were destroyed. Landslides,
especially in the mountainous areas of the province of Bujumbura Rural,
which surrounds Bujumbura, have blocked some roads.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53397]


DRC: Army captures militia commander

Congolese soldiers in the restive northeastern district of Ituri
captured on Tuesday a "brigade commander" of a former militia, the Union
des Patriotes Congolais(the Congolese Patriotic Union), which was led by
Thomas Lubanga, currently awaiting trial before the International
Criminal Court.

The army captured Innocent Kahina, alias "Indian Queen", during an
ambush at a locality known as Dhengo, 60 km north of Bunia, the main
district town.

Kahina had allegedly been leading operations of the newly-formed militia
alliance known as the Mouvement Revolutionnaire congolais-MRC (the
Congolese Revolutionary Movement) in the areas surrounding Lake Albert,
near the border with Uganda.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53406]


DRC: ECHO resumes humanitarian flights

The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) resumed its
humanitarian flights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on
Monday.

"These flights allow humanitarians to accomplish their work by linking
Kinshasa to the much war-affected area which is east of the country,"
Carlo De Filippi, the ECHO chief of delegation in the DRC, said during a
ceremony to relaunch the flights. Monday's flight left Kinshasa for the
eastern towns of Goma and Beni, both in North Kivu Province.

ECHO had suspended the flights in the DRC in 2005 after it terminated
its contract with an aviation company that was operating ECHO flights.
During the relaunch on 9 May, which also coincided with the marking of
the Europe Day, De Filippi said the main base of the ECHO flights would
now be Kinshasa, but it would also operate from Nairobi, Kenya. [Full
Story on: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53359 ]


KENYA: Dysentery outbreak kills 13 children in northeast

An outbreak of dysentery in Kenya's northeastern Mandera District
claimed the lives of 13 children health officials said on Tuesday,
blaming the epidemic on contamination of water sources during the
current rainy season, which follows a severe drought in the remote, arid
area.

"Ten of the children died in the villages. They did not even make it to
health centres," said James Kisia, a doctor who heads the health section
at Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS). He said all the fatalities had
occurred in the Kotulo area of El Wak division in southern Mandera.
Several cases had also been reported in Rhamu division in the northern
area of the district.

In its hygiene and sanitation public awareness campaign, KRCS is
targeting the parents of an estimated 52,000 children under the age of
five in Mandera. Children under five were the most vulnerable to the
disease because they were more likely to drink contaminated water, Kisia
said.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53367]


UGANDA: Museveni gives rebels ultimatum over northern war

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni gave the leaders of the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) a two-month ultimatum on Tuesday "to peacefully
end terrorism" or face a combined force of Ugandan and southern Sudanese
troops.

Although the Ugandan government had offered amnesty - in a 13 May
meeting held with Salva Kiir, the president of southern Sudan - to LRA
members who surrender, Museveni has repeatedly rejected the possibility
of pardoning any high-ranking officers. However, according to a
government statement, If Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, got serious about
a peaceful settlement, "the government would guarantee him safety".

The LRA has waged a savage campaign against the government and civilians
in northern Uganda for two decades, displacing almost two million
civilians and killing thousands more. The International Criminal Court
has indicted five top LRA leaders for crimes against humanity, including
Kony, but none of them has been arrested.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53402]


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