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 337
24 - 30 June 2006


CONTENTS:

DRC: Election campaigns begin
BURUNDI: Food security threat as banana blight looms
CAR-CHAD: 33 die in army-rebel fighting
CENTRAL AFRICA: Regional anti-corruption body launched
DRC: Militiamen disarm ahead of deadline
RWANDA: UN tribunal investigating 12 on its payroll
TANZANIA: Thousands missing school to work, official says
KENYA: Food insecurity among herders despite rains
UGANDA: Gov't to send team to Sudan over proposed LRA talks


ALSO SEE:

DRC: Ailing health system needs cure
[http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=54322]

DRC: Interview with Maj-Gen Christian Damay of EUFOR - DRCongo
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54160]


DRC: Election campaigns begin

Presidential aspirants in the Democratic Republic of Congo kicked off
their nationwide campaigns on Friday for the country's first democratic
elections in 45 years, due on 30 July.

"The 30-day nationwide campaign is officially launched," Apollinaire
Malumalu, chairman of the National Independent Electoral Commission,
said. There are 33 presidential candidates, and 9,780 aspirants vying
for 500 parliamentary seats. Presidential frontrunner and incumbent
Joseph Kabila is contesting as an independent.

[Full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=54336]


BURUNDI: Food security threat as banana blight looms

Food security in Burundi is under threat due to fears that an incurable
banana disease, which has already been reported in several neighbouring
countries, could sweep across the nation, an official of an agricultural
research institute said on Thursday.

"Worst of all, the bacterial disease attacks all varieties of banana
crops," said Melchior Nahimana, the director-general of the Livestock
and Agricultural Research Institute of the Great Lakes in the central
province of Gitega. Banana is one of Burundi's main subsistence crops;
cassava is the staple.

"It's an alert that we are making, and the most endangered areas to be
affected first are provinces located on the border with the DRC, Rwanda
and Tanzania," Nahimana said.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54307]

[On the Net:
Gov't reallocates hunger funds
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54057]


CAR-CHAD: 33 die in army-rebel fighting

At least 33 people died on Monday following fighting between the army
and rebels in Gordil, northeastern Central African Republic, a United
Nations official said on Thursday.

Aissatou Toure, the spokeswoman for the UN Office in the Central African
Republic, BONUCA, said of the dead, 20 were rebels and 13 soldiers - 11
from the CAR army and two Chadian soldiers serving with the peacekeeping
force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, known as
CEMAC. The escalation in fighting in the northeast followed the
incursion of suspected foreign troops in the country in late April.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54310]


CENTRAL AFRICA: Regional anti-corruption body launched

Civil society representatives from Central Africa have adopted a
framework launching a regional anti-corruption observatory, to be known
as OLCAC (l'Observatoire de lutte contre la corruption en Afrique
centrale), an official said.

"The observatory is a platform for the people to be informed on the
widespread corruption," Christian Mounzeo, the deputy president of the
observatory, said on 23 June in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of
Congo. "It is a spokesperson for the population which will work in
partnership with the government in the fight against poverty by
destroying corruption."

Members are drawn from civil society in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the
Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Rwanda.


DRC: Militiamen disarm ahead of deadline

At least 1,100 former militias have arrived at transit sites in Ituri,
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in the past three days, ahead
of a 30 June ultimatum by the Congolese army for them to disarm, an
official said on Wednesday.

"I have surrendered my weapons at last, to help rebuild my country,"
Ngajole Lipri, one of the disarmed militia leaders, said at a
disarmament site in Bunia, the main town in Ituri District, Orientale
Province. The number of militiamen surrendering their guns at the 12
transit sites across the district is overwhelming, an official of the
National Disarmament Commission, known by its French acronym CONADER,
said.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54304]


RWANDA: UN tribunal investigating 12 on its payroll

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is
investigating 12 people in its payroll for their alleged role in the
1994 genocide in Rwanda, a UN official said on Wednesday.

"We should be ready with our findings around August," Everard O'Donnell,
the acting deputy registrar of the tribunal, said in Arusha, northern
Tanzania - the headquarters of the UN court. Since its establishment in
1994, the tribunal has rendered 28 judgements, three of which were
acquittals. Trials are underway for 27 other suspects.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54296]


TANZANIA: Thousands missing school to work, official says

At least 8,800 children in Tanzania's semiautonomous island of Zanzibar
are missing school as they engage in various forms of child labour, a
government minister said on Monday.

"We have identified children currently living in hardship in all
districts of Unguja and Pemba. This is a challenge to us; we should work
hard to save these children," Asha Abdallah Juma, the Zanzibar minister
of labour, youth, children and women development said. The penalty for
an offence relating to child labour in Zanzibar includes six months'
imprisonment and a fine of US $400. For extreme forms of child labour
the fine is $3,000 and two years imprisonment. Children make up about 4
percent of the estimated one million Zanzibar population.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54164]


KENYA: Food insecurity among herders despite rains

Food security among Kenyan livestock farming communities remains
precarious despite the improved availability of water and pasture
following the recent rainfall, a famine early warning agency has warned.

The rains ended a spell of prolonged drought in which many thousands of
animals died. However, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
Net) said in its June food security update on Kenya: "The recent
abnormally high rates of livestock mortality suggest that in the absence
of a combination of emergency and mid- to long-term multi-sectoral [aid]
interventions, the viability of the pastoral livelihood remains in
jeopardy."

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54163]


UGANDA: Gov't to send team to Sudan over proposed LRA talks

Uganda has been formally invited by the government of southern Sudan to
attend peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group
whose brutal attacks, have wreaked havoc in northern Uganda over the
last two decades.

"The invitation has been sent to us and we are preparing to send a
technical team to meet with [southern Sudan's] President Salva Kiir and
also sort out issues to do with the format of the talks, the agenda, the
composition of delegations, and other procedural issues," James Mugume,
the permanent secretary in the Ugandan foreign ministry said on
Wednesday.

Since 1988, when the LRA took over leadership of a two-year-old
rebellion against the Ugandan government, it has terrorised the civilian
population by abducting thousands of boys and girls and forcing them
into a life of violence, forced combat and servitude.

Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54279]

[On the Net:
New peace bid with LRA won't deter quest for justice - ICC
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53941]



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