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 320
25 February - 3 March 2006


CONTENTS:

DRC: Hundreds flee fighting in Ituri District
DRC: UN heads drum up support for vulnerable Congolese
BURUNDI: Donors pledge US $170 million for post-war recovery bid
TANZANIA: Army worms destroy 20,000 hectares of crops
TANZANIA: Mount Kilimanjaro climb for safer cities
TANZANIA: Zanzibaris must carry identity cards by 1 April
UGANDA: Museveni sets priorities after re-election
KENYA: Leading media house shut down by armed men
EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages

ALSO SEE:

KENYA: Sharing food with starving livestock in Mandera
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51964 ]

EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51543 ]

UGANDA: War-ravaged north rues Museveni
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51960 ]


DRC: Hundreds flee fighting in Ituri District

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced by fighting between United
Nations-supported government troops and militiamen in the northeastern
province of Orientale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, Ituri District.

Three hundred displaced persons fled fighting in the town of Tcheyi and
arrived in Aveba village, 12 km south, on Monday, Modiba Traore said.
"That adds to the 4,000 other displaced who have been in Aveba since the
end of January," he added.

At this point, no urgent humanitarian interventions were needed, he
said, but the aid community was ready to respond.

During a three-week period, between 8,000 and 10,000 people fled Tcheyi
to Aveba following warnings by Gen Bob Ngoy, commander of a government
operation in the northeast, that an attack by his forces to disarm the
militiamen was imminent.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51966]


DRC: Provincial health officials say cholera epidemic in check

Health officials in South Kivu Province announced on Thursday a
reduction in the number of cholera cases in the area.

"We have recorded a decline of 33 percent of affected people in the
region," Dr. Rick Shamavu, the provincial health inspector, said on
Thursday.

He said the epidemic peaked at the end of January with 178 registered
cases in one week; but not before causing 14 deaths in the province's
territories south of the Bukavu, where the outbreak has been greatest.

Health authorities had set up a special programme to help at least 1,185
cholera patients registered between October 2005 and 27 February. In
addition, the UN World Health Organization doctor in charge of Bukavu,
Collin Ngobila, said together with the Congolese Red Cross the UN agency
had revived a cholera prevention committee to chlorinate water sources.

"We have made sure that there are communication networks to raise public
awareness on prevention and we have supplied [medicines] to cholera
treatment centres that have reopened," he said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52003]


DRC: UN heads drum up support for vulnerable Congolese

The heads of three United Nations humanitarian agencies, who are on a
joint mission to Africa's Great Lakes region, identified on Tuesday the
alleviation of human suffering, security and protection of vulnerable
people as some of the issues vital to stability and peace in the DRC.

"This mission is timely, it comes just as funding for the UNHCR [the UN
refugee agency] is drying up," said Eusebe Hounsokou, the UNHCR
representative in the DRC, on Tuesday in Bukavu, capital of the eastern
province of South Kivu. "We hope the mission brought the DRC back to the
attention of the international community and that it will result in
enhanced funding for our operations in the country."

>From Bukavu the officials - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio
Guterres, World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris and UN
Children's Fund Executive Director Ann Veneman - went to Rwanda where
they said despite political progress in the region, aid had to be
increased in order to maintain security.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51967]


On the third and final leg of their three-nation tour, they pledged in
Burundi on Thursday to significantly help the country, which faces
malnutrition and food insecurity after over a decade of civil war and
regional conflict.

"We committed to the president and the Burundian people our
unconditional support," James Morris, the Executive Director of the
World Food Programme (WFP), said on national radio.

Africa's Great Lakes region is emerging from a tempest of conflicts that
have left millions dead and forced millions more to flee their homes
since the 1990s. [On the Net: UN agencies pledge unconditional support:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51984 ]

[GREAT LAKES: UN chiefs push for more aid to region:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51979 ]


BURUNDI: Donors pledge US $170 million for post-war recovery bid

Burundi received pledges of about US $170 million at the end of a
donor's conference on Tuesday, to cover the cost of its emergency
post-war recovery needs for 2006.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Burundi Deputy
President Alice Nzomukunda expressed satisfaction with the donors'
pledges.

"The total of the needs have been covered," she said.

Burundi had asked for some $168.2 million for the recovery effort to
cover urgent needs such as aid to the drought-stricken population; the
rehabilitation of social infrastructures; the improvement of health
care; the repatriation of refugees; and the resettlement of vulnerable
people. The money received will also help Burundi ensure good governance
and restore the rule of law.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51969]


TANZANIA: Army worms destroy 20,000 hectares of crops

Army worms have destroyed about 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of maize and
other crops in northern and southeastern Tanzania and the situation is
likely to worsen in the next few weeks, National Army Worms Forecasting
Services Centre Coordinator Wilfred Mushobozi said on 24 February.

"The situation is extremely grave," he said.

He said about 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) of crops had already been lost in
Kiteto, in the Simanjiro District of Manyara Region. He added that the
worms were likely to reach other districts in the central, northern and
southern parts of the country. Worms have already been spotted in Babati
District, the headquarters of the newly-created Manyara Region in
northwestern Tanzania. They have also been observed in urban and rural
Iringa as well as the districts of Mufindi and Kilolo in the south of
the country. Mushobozi said the worms would soon "engulf" Tanzania's
designate capital, Dodoma.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51922]


TANZANIA: Mount Kilimanjaro climb for safer cities

Armed robbery victim Tim Challen, 33, began on Saturday his bid to
conquer Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, in northern-eastern
Tanzania, to draw world attention to the need to prevent crime and
create "Safer Cities".

"I have been waiting for this day to come," he said, referring to the
serious gunshot wounds he sustained from an armed robbery in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi, in May 2003. "I strongly believe in turning my
misfortune into raising awareness to the problems of crime."

Since his shooting, he has been engaged in drawing attention to some
problems in East Africa's cities through UN-HABITAT'S Safer Cities
programme launched in 1996. Challen is among some 30 climbers trying to
conquer the 5,896-metre snow-capped summit to raise funds for new
community crime prevention projects, which are part of UN-HABITAT's
programme. He expects to raise about $50,000 from the six-day
expedition.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51923]


TANZANIA: Zanzibaris must carry identity cards by 1 April

Beginning on 1 April, all adult Zanzibaris were required by law to start
carrying identification cards or be subject to prosecution.

The age of adulthood in Zanzibar is 18 years. The law only affects
Tanzanians of Zanzibari birth or a mainland Tanzanian who has lived on
the island for at least 10 consecutive years and does not have a
criminal record. Eligible Zanzibaris who refuse to register for the
document could be liable to a one-year jail term, a fine of $100, or
both.

The island's minister of local administration and the security forces,
Suleiman Nyanga, has said the law would not affect non-Zanzibaris,
including mainland Tanzanians, "as we work out possibilities of having
temporary IDs for non-Zanzibaris".

At the time the identity card idea was introduced, the main opposition
Civic United Front (CUF) party denounced it as a government plot to
undermine the opposition and favour the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party
in the 2005 general elections. However, the Zanzibar government has
denied this.

"The aim of having the IDs in Zanzibar is clear. [It is] just for
security reasons, and to help Zanzibaris have easy movement within the
East African region," Nyanga said.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51959]


UGANDA: Museveni sets priorities after re-election

President Yoweri Museveni, who won Uganda's first multiparty
presidential and parliamentary elections in 26 years, has outlined his
priorities for the next five years.

Among the priorities, he said, were energy provision to offset severe
power shortages across the country, improvement of road infrastructure,
poverty eradication, implementation of micro-finance schemes for
small-business owners and disarmament of armed groups.

According to final results announced by the electoral commission on
Saturday, Museveni, who has been in power for 20 years, won 59 percent
of the votes. His main challenger, Kizza Besigye, won 37 percent.

"In the coming five years, we are going actually to take off and jump
and fly because the basics are there," said the 62-year-old former
guerrilla leader in a national address after winning the elections.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51938]


KENYA: Leading media house shut down by armed men

Dozens of hooded armed men raided a leading Kenyan newspaper on
Thursday, shutting down its operations three days after police arrested
several reporters from the same organisation.

The chief executive of the Standard Group, Tom Mshindi, told reporters
in the capital, Nairobi, that the raid targeted The Standard newspaper's
editorial offices, printing plant and the transmission centre of its
affiliate company, the Kenya Television Network.

The men, who stormed the newspaper at 1.00 a.m. [10.00 GMT], took away
computers and transmission equipment, damaged the presses and set fire
to Thursday's editions of the country's oldest newspaper.

"We have very strong evidence to suggest that these acts were carried
out by the police," Mshindi said. Kenya's information minister, Mutahi
Kagwe, told journalists that he did not order the raid and knew nothing
about it. He promised to hold a news conference later in the day.

Despite the police action, KTN resumed broadcast later that day.

Media owners and practitioners, civil society leaders and opposition
politicians strongly condemned the attack.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51975]


EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages

An estimated 11 million people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa
continue to face critical food shortages brought on by drought and
non-natural factors, the International Federation of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said.

"African agriculture appears to be in crisis, and the compounding effect
of years of wars, uprising or coups, and civil strife are responsible
for causing more hunger than the range of natural problems alone," the
agency's latest bulletin said on 24 February.

The IFRC cited drought, conflict, land shortages, high food prices and
the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in some countries in the region as some
of the underlying reasons for widespread hunger.

Drought and insecurity in Somalia had left some 1.7 million in need of
food aid, IFRC observed.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51543]


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