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
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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 322
11 - 17 March 2006


CONTENTS:

KENYA: Inadequate funding forces WFP to cut refugee rations
KENYA: Pastoralists face bleak future if help delays - Oxfam
UGANDA-KENYA: Pasture scarcity may have led to clash between
   pastoralists
DRC: Thousands of rain-affected victims still without aid
BURUNDI: Gov't to verify rebel group's offer to hold peace talks
TANZANIA: Cholera outbreak leaves 79 in hospital; new cases continue
   to be reported
CAR: Gov't accuses ex-president of fomenting rebellion


KENYA: Inadequate funding forces WFP to cut refugee rations

The UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday that it had been forced to
reduce food aid rations to some 230,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees
living in two camps in remote areas of eastern and northeastern Kenya as a
result of insufficient funding.

"Our lack of funding has given us little choice," Tesema Negash, WFP Kenya
country director, said in a statement.

He said, starting this week, the refugees would be receiving a food ration
equivalent to 1,750 kilocalories per day, which is a 20 percent decrease
in their daily intake. The ration cuts for refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma
refugee camps c ome as WFP struggles to raise $170 million for its
operation to feed 3.5 million Kenyans affected by severe drought.


KENYA: Pastoralists face bleak future if help delays - Oxfam

Pastoralists affected by the severe drought in Kenya could take up to 15
years to recover their livelihoods unless they are given immediate support
by both the government and external donors, aid agency Oxfam International
said on Wednesday.

An estimated 3.5 million people in Kenya, most of them nomadic
pastoralists, are suffering from the effects of a severe drought brought
on by several consecutive seasons of failed rains. Oxfam blamed the
pastoralists' lack of capacity to withstand the shock of the drought on
their chronic poverty and limited livelihood alternatives. The agency also
said that the crisis would worsen until the rains arrive in April and
warned of a major humanitarian disaster should those rains fail.


UGANDA-KENYA: Pasture scarcity may have led to clash between pastoralists

Scarcity of pasture and water due to the severe drought ravaging parts of
eastern Africa is thought to have been the cause of an incident of
violence between Kenyan and Ugandan pastoralists last weekend, when at
least four civilians died in clashes between border communities.

The Uganda military said on Tuesday that Kenyans and Ugandans died in the
cattle-rustling confrontation on Saturday, when ethnic Pokot raiders from
Kenya attacked Bukwa district in northeastern Uganda and sparked clashes
with the army.

"There were about 150 warriors from the Pokot who attacked Sundet village
and killed four civilians," said Henry Obbo, the army spokesman in B ukwa.
"We repulsed them. We followed them up using our MI-24 helicopters and
killed several of them,"

Cattle rustling is common among communities along the northern frontier
between the two countries, but humanitarian workers said the latest raid
might have been a consequence of the drought.


DRC: Thousands of rain-affected victims still without aid

Humanitarian aid is yet to reach at least 78,000 people whose homes were
destroyed following heavy rains last week in the eastern Congolese
province of North Kivu, administrative officials and humanitarian workers
have said.

"The most critical needs include medicine, blankets, rehabilitation of
houses as well as non-food items such as kitchen utensils," Michel
Bonnardeaux, the spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said on Monday
in the capital, Kinshasa.

He said there was a serious threat of epidemics due to the destruction of
latrines and absence of adequate drainage. The rains resulted in the death
of three people and at least 1,000 homes destroyed, leading to the
population displacement.


BURUNDI: Gov't to verify rebel group's offer to hold peace talks

The Burundian government will not immediately give credence to an offer by
the country's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation
(FNL), to enter into negotiations until it receives the input of a
regional initiative aimed at bringing lasting peace to the country, the
government's spokesman said on Monday.

Reacting to reports that the FNL had offered on Saturday to enter into
unconditional peace talks with the governm ent, Ramadhan Karenga said in
Bujumbura that the offer was not the first by the rebel group.

It was not immediately known when the proposed talks would start, although
Tanzania's foreign minister, Asha-Rose Migiro, who held talks with FNL
leader Agathon Rwasa, said her country would continue to provide
facilitation.


TANZANIA: Cholera outbreak leaves 79 in hospital; new cases continue to be
reported

New cases of cholera continue to be reported in Tanzania's commercial
capital, Dar es Salaam, where until Friday 79 patients were admitted to
various health centres in the city, a spokesman said on Monday.

"We are getting new cases almost everyday despite the ongoing mass
education campaigns on how to contain the disease," Gaston Makwembe, an
information officer for the Dar es Salaam City Council, said.

He blamed the shortage of water in the city for the disease's persistence,
which has seen periodic outbreaks there and in other parts of the country
because of public consumption of unsafe drinking water from wells and
other sources.


CAR: Gov't accuses ex-president of fomenting rebellion

Former President Ange-Felix Patasse is recruiting foreign mercenaries to
destabilise the Central African Republic and has established a training
camp for them on the country's border with Sudan, the office of the
president said on 11 March.

The current president, Francois Bozize, ousted Patasse in March 2003 after
leading a six-month rebellion.

The presidency said Bozize had met his Sudanese counterpart to discuss the
issue of the mercenary training camp for Patasse's fighters. It said
Patasse was banking of the su pport of some Mouvement de liberation du
peuple centrafricaine members in the country to carry out his planned
takeover.

Saturday's statement marked the first time the government has confirmed
the existence of a rebellion in the country. Previously, it said
instability in the northwest was due to banditry.


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