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 314
14 - 20 January 2006


CONTENTS:

BURUNDI: Drought kills 120 as thousands flee
RWANDA-UGANDA: Ex-soldier sentenced to 15 years for murder of tourists
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rains batter northern suburbs of Brazzaville
DRC: Floods in Kalemie cause food insecurity
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: ICRC suspends aid in Pool region
EAST AFRICA: IMF urges "timely" support for drought
KENYA: More people in need of food aid, says government
SUDAN: Donor support key to post-war reconstruction


ALSO SEE:
[BURUNDI: Rebel group continues to threaten peace, development
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51155 ]
[KENYA: Year in Review 2005 - Searching for a constitution
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51173 ]


BURUNDI: Drought kills 120 as thousands flee

At least 120 Burundians have died and thousands of others have fled to
neighbouring countries due to food shortages brought on by drought
prevailing in northern and eastern parts of the country, local officials
have said.

"A total of 2,500 people in Ruyigi [Province] have crossed to Tanzania
since December [2005]," Moise Bucumi, the provincial governor, said on
Thursday. "It is difficult to determine the exact number of those who
cross the border since some of them seek shelter in Tanzanian
households, where they work in exchange for food," Bucumi said.

The drought-related deaths occurred in the northeastern province of
Muyinga, where the governor, Feruzi Mohammed, said 2,512 residents had
fled, either to other provinces in the country or to neighbouring Rwanda
and Tanzania.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51245]


RWANDA-UGANDA: Ex-soldier sentenced to 15 years for murder of tourists

A Ugandan court sentenced a former Rwandan soldier-turned-rebel to 15
years in prison on Monday for his role in the kidnapping and murder of
eight foreign tourists and a Ugandan game warden.

Jean-Paul Bizimana, 31, also known as Xavier Van Damme, was part of a
group of Hutu rebels who claimed responsibility for the slaying in March
1999 at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park in southwestern Uganda.

Bizimana was a leader in the group, which consisted of 100 combatants
from the Interahamwe militia. The Interahamwe played a key role in
Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which some 937,000 people were killed,
according to the Rwandan government.

The tourists included two Americans, four Britons and two New
Zealanders. They were on a safari to see mountain gorillas in the park.

[Full report:
http://irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51125]


REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rains batter northern suburbs of Brazzaville

BRAZZAVILLE, 16 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Heavy rains have again battered the
northern suburbs of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo,
leaving 70 homeless, according to Social Affairs Minister Emilienne
Raoul.

On state-owned television on Saturday, Raoul said families had sought
shelter in homes unaffected by the deluge, which began on Friday and
continued through the following day. The rains affected residents in
Mpila, Ma Mbouale and Faubourg in the north; and Emerald in the
northwest of the city. In December, a similar downpour caused homes to
collapse, as well as material damage to public infrastructure.

The rains, which started in September, have also caused flooding and
soil erosion. Local authorities are blaming the destruction on the
unauthorised homes that people have built on sandy and other unsuitable
land.

The Congolese Observatory of Human Rights, however, disagrees. In
December its executive director, Roger Bouka Owoko, said local
authorities and other government agencies that failed to abide by
established urban plans were to blame.

Some 4,500 people were victims of the rains in December 2005.
Non-governmental organisations and government agencies provided affected
families with relief kits comprising food, a hurricane lamp, plates and
pots.

The rains are expected to last until the end of January and restart in
March after a short dry spell. In preparation for this, Raoul said, "We
are putting together a contingency plan in the ministry so that
residents can prepare adequately for the March rains."

Meanwhile, she said, a team of international experts had arrived to work
out strategies to prevent further catastrophes.

"We need to review the urbanisation of the city and the control of
surface water, because the solution to the problem is not in giving
humanitarian assistance, but in the overall plan for the city," she
said. [See earlier report: CONGO: Scores homeless in Brazzaville floods:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50870 ]


DRC: Floods in Kalemie cause food insecurity

Flooding caused by recent heavy rains in Kalemie Territory in Congo's
Katanga Province could cause severe food shortages, a local employee of
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said.

Kasongo Banga, the FAO officer in charge of food security in Kinshasa,
the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said some 720 people
faced shortages as a result of the rain-fed floods that started in early
January. Banga added that at least 30 ha of cassava and groundnut fields
were inundated with floodwater from the tributaries of the Rugumba
River.

Kalemie was already a food-insecure area due to a five-year civil war
that ended in 2003 as well as ongoing sporadic fighting between the
Mayi-Mayi militiamen and the Congolese army. Presently, there are about
120,000 displaced villagers fleeing this fighting in the northern part
of the province.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51222]


REPUBLIC OF CONGO: ICRC suspends aid in Pool region

Worsening insecurity has forced the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) to pull out of Pool, a troubled region in the Republic of
the Congo (RoC).

"The suspension will continue until it is believed that security has
returned," said the head of the ICRC's delegation in RoC, Christophe
Martin, at a press conference in the capital, Brazzaville. He said the
decision was officially made last Saturday.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51200]


EAST AFRICA: IMF urges "timely" support for drought

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo
Rato, has appealed for adequate and timely assistance to east African
nations in the grip of severe drought.

Rato said the international community must take steps "to avert the risk
of a humanitarian crisis". "I urge the international donor community to
respond generously and pro-actively in addressing the food needs of
Africa's people," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In view of income levels in most countries, such aid should be provided
preferably in the form of grant financing or in-kind," he added. It will
be critical to respond in a timely manner - avoiding the human tragedies
and adverse economic consequences that have all too often been
associated with droughts in the past."

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an
estimated 11 million people "are on the brink of starvation" in
Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51175]


KENYA: More people in need of food aid, says government

The number of people suffering from food shortages in Kenya as a result
of a prolonged drought following failed rains has risen to 3.5 million,
the government has said.

Special programmes minister John Munyes told reporters on Tuesday that
the government was scaling up food aid distributions to 3.5 million
people in 37 districts, up from a December estimate of 2.5 million
people in 26 districts.

The UN World Food Programme, however, said a more definitive estimate of
the number of people in need of emergency food aid would be made by the
Kenya Food Security Meeting, which is currently carrying out assessments
in 27 districts around the country.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51177]


SUDAN: Donor support key to post-war reconstruction

A year after the signing of a peace agreement that ended the 21-year
civil war that ravaged southern Sudan, the region's fledgling government
looks to donor support as a means of achieving real peace on the ground.

Of the US $4.7 billion requested by the United Nations for global
humanitarian aid in 26 countries in 2006, some $1.5 billion is earmarked
for Sudan alone. Funding the initial post-war recovery and development
plan for Sudan, according to the Joint Assessment Mission, will cost an
additional $7.8 billion.

Donors have started to pour large amounts of money into the country, and
this gives them a substantial amount of leverage over the content of
humanitarian and reconstruction programmes.

Full report:
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51176]


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