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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central and Eastern Africa

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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 318
11 - 17 February 2006


CONTENTS:

DRC: Humanitarian action plan a turning point, UN envoy says
DRC: Aid arrives for displaced thousands
DRC: MSF-Spain consolidates activities in north Katanga
TANZANIA: Gov't in plea for food aid as drought bites
UGANDA: Northern conflict taking a heavy toll, NGOs say
BURUNDI: Food shortages, insecurity cause thousands to flee
BURUNDI: Gov't rejects UN envoy's proposal on donor forum
CAR: Relief operations begin in Markounda
RWANDA: Peace prize for Belgian priest accused of genocide
KENYA: More ministers resign over graft allegations
GREAT LAKES: Officials agree to strengthen cooperation on epidemic
   prevention


ALSO SEE:
DRC: Interview with Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, minister for planning
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51730 ]
DRC: Interview with army Col Louis Ngizo Siatilo in Katanga
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51672 ]
UGANDA: Profile of main opposition leader Kiiza Besigye
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51713 ]
UGANDA: Profile of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51712 ]


DRC: Humanitarian action plan a turning point, UN envoy says

A US $681-million humanitarian action plan for the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) launched on Monday by the UN and the European Commission
seeks to meet the needs of 30 million vulnerable Congolese.

It focuses on the areas of food security, health, reintegration,
protection, HIV/AIDS, coordination, education, water and sanitation,
shelter, mine action and gender.

In addition to the UN agencies, 89 national and international NGOs have
included their projects in the plan. More than half of the 330 projects
are from NGOs.

Speaking at the international ministerial conference on DRC in Brussels,
Belgian Cooperation Minister Armand De Decker announced that his country
would contribute 9.45 million euros ($11.25 million) to the plan.
Belgium ranks among the main humanitarian donors to the Congo, its
former colony. On its part, the EC said it would provide 38 million
euros ($45 million) for humanitarian aid.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51695]


DRC: Aid arrives for displaced thousands

Despite relief aid having reached some 6,000 war-displaced people in the
northeastern district of Ituri, humanitarian officials are worried that
the tentative calm in the area could deteriorate.

The displaced are in Ituri's Aveba and Tcheyi areas, 70 km and 100 km
south of Bunia, the district's main town. People fled their homes to
escape fighting between the Congolese army and local militias. Ituri has
been plagued by attacks by various militias for years.

The humanitarian affairs officer in the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ituri, Traore Modibo,
said on Tuesday that people were continuing to flee, fearing new
Congolese army operations against the militias.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51744]


DRC: MSF-Spain consolidates activities in north Katanga

Medecins Sans Frontieres-Spain (MSF-Spain) has started to consolidate
activities in Nyunzu Territory, within Katanga Province of the DRC so as
to reach the most vulnerable and isolated populations that are closest
to areas of fighting, the NGO's coordinator-general in the country said
on Wednesday.

MSF-Spain will support the Nyunzu Referral Hospital and three health
posts within a 50 km to 60 km radius of the hospital, Cameno Diego said
from Lubumbashi, capital of Katanga. He said MSF-Spain would provide a
range of medical services to these facilities. The hospital will offer
surgery, maternity and paediatric wards, while the health posts will
provide general consultation, mother and child healthcare, regular
vaccination, two observation beds per health post, regular vaccination,
and preparation for epidemics and referral to the main hospital.

Armed Mayi-Mayi groups still operate in the northeast of Nyunzu and
sometimes clash with police over the control of natural resources, for
example the Ilunga gold mine. The result is that area residents get
hurt, are displaced or forced to work.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51727]


TANZANIA: Gov't in plea for food aid as drought bites

With 3.7 million people at risk of food shortages due to drought, the
government of Tanzania has appealed to donors for 100,000 tonnes of
relief food.

Prime Minister Edward Lowassa said on Monday at a donor meeting in
Dodoma, the administrative capital, that a recent assessment by the
National Food Security Information Team that showed that 3.7 million
people needed 99,676 tonnes of relief food between February and April.

He said there were only 57,620 tonnes of food in the government's
Strategic Grain Reserves.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51696]


UGANDA: Northern conflict taking a heavy toll, NGOs say

At least 131 people die every day in northern Uganda as a result of
violence and poor conditions in camps for people displaced by war in the
region, a coalition of NGOs said on Thursday.

The coalition, known as the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in
Northern Uganda, said each month almost 25,000 people in Uganda die from
easily preventable diseases.

The coalition said 85 percent of deaths that would not have occurred
under non-crisis circumstances could be directly attributed to the poor
living conditions, poor water and sanitation, inadequate health care
provision and extreme poverty in the camps.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51748]


BURUNDI: Food shortages, insecurity cause thousands to flee into
Tanzania

Some 3,500 Burundians have crossed the border into Tanzania since the
start of the year and the numbers keep growing at an average rate of 100
new arrivals a day, Jennifer Pagonis, the spokesperson for the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said on Monday at a news
conference in Geneva.

She said on Monday alone more than 500 newcomers were registered in way
stations along the border, most of them at Nyakimonomono, northwestern
Tanzania, where more than 2,500 people now lived.

Most of the new arrivals were from Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi,
and displayed visible signs of malnutrition.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=51721]


BURUNDI: Gov't rejects UN envoy's proposal on donor forum

The Burundian government has rejected a proposal by the UN
Secretary-General's Special Representative to the country, Carolyn
McAskie, for a forum of the country's donor partners.

The forum, according to a document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
would have replaced the Implementation and Monitoring Committee provided
for in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord, whose mandate expired
in August 2005.

McAskie, who had headed the implementation committee, proposed the forum
soon after the country's transitional period ended. The government had
asked for time to consider the proposal, which explained the forum's
objectives, mandate and composition.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51728]


CAR: Relief operations begin in Markounda

UN agencies and NGOs in Central African Republic have decided to begin
relief aid operations to the country's northwest by first helping
civilians in and around the border town of Markounda, an official of the
UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday.

"We are providing assistance to 2,000 persons in Markounda, Bodjomo,
Bemal and other villages hit by the latest violence in the area," Bruno
Geddo, the UNHCR's delegate in the capital, Bangui, said. "Our action
aims at solving the problems of internal refugees by alleviating their
suffering."

Justifying the choice of Markounda as the starting point of the relief
aid operation, Geddo said: "CARITAS and MSF [Medecines Sans
Frontieres-Holland] are present on the ground and CARITAS will provide a
depot to keep all the food and non-food items in Markounda."

Thousands of people in the northwestern provinces of Ouham and
Ouham-Pende have been displaced in the recent past following fighting
between the army and armed groups.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51671]


RWANDA: Peace prize for Belgian priest accused of genocide

Belgian Roman Catholic missionary Guy Theunis, who has been accused by
Rwandan authorities of taking part in the 1994 genocide, was awarded a
peace prize on Wednesday in the Belgian city of Ghent.

The prize was awarded by the Flemish weekly church newspaper Kerk en
Leven (Church and Life). The bishop of Ghent, Luc Van Looy, presented a
cheque for 3,000 euros (US $3,560) and a work of art to Theunis on
behalf of the jury.

It was Theunis's first public appearance since he arrived in Belgium on
21 November 2005 from Rwanda. Rwandan police arrested him on 6 September
2005 while he was in transit to Belgium from the eastern DRC and charged
with "incitation to genocide".

Brussels had asked that Theunis be brought to trial in Belgium; a
request to which Rwanda acceded, crediting Brussels with a commitment to
fight genocide.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51746]


KENYA: More ministers resign over graft allegations

Two weeks after Finance Minister David Mwiraria resigned over
allegations of involvement in corrupt acts, two other key ministers have
resigned following similar claims against them.

On Tuesday, President Mwai Kibaki accepted the request by Education
Minister George Saitoti and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi "to step
aside" from their responsibilities as ministers to allow for
investigations into the misappropriation of public funds. Both ministers
have maintained their innocence.

Accusations of corruption and excessive spending have led donors to
question Kibaki's commitment to alleviating massive poverty in Kenya,
where an estimated 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty
line.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51698]


GREAT LAKES: Officials agree to strengthen cooperation on epidemic
prevention

Health officials in Africa's Great Lakes region agreed on Thursday to
set up regional monitoring networks and conduct joint mobilisation
campaigns against epidemics in their countries.

At the end of their four-day workshop in the Burundian capital,
Bujumbura, the officials from Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania said
they would strengthen cooperation in epidemic prevention and response on
their common borders.

Malaria, cholera, meningitis, dysentery and, lately, avian influenza
were some of the epidemics the experts discussed. They cited the need to
exchange information on epidemic outbreaks in the region and said each
country would set up a committee comprising health specialists for this
purpose. The participants also agreed to organise joint vaccination
campaigns in cases where an epidemic was reported in more than one
country.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51771]


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