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 321
4 - 10 March 2006


CONTENTS:

KENYA-SOMALIA: WFP warns of catastrophe if donations delay
KENYA: Drought to persist despite recent rainfall
UGANDA: Seasonal rains will be below average, met office says
UGANDA: Millions of women and children living rough - UNICEF
BURUNDI: Coup plot uncovered, president says
DRC: New movement of displaced in Ituri
DRC: Mutinous troops replaced in Ituri
DRC: Registration of presidential, legislative candidates begins


KENYA-SOMALIA: WFP warns of catastrophe if donations delay

Millions of vulnerable people in Kenya and Somalia could face a
catastrophe if they do not receive sufficient food aid in the coming
months, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

Addressing a news conference at the end of an 11-day visit to eastern
Africa, WFP Executive Director James Morris described the situation in the
two countries as "serious - very, very serious".

According to WFP, a donation from the Kenya government of 60,000 tonnes of
maize and rice will cover cereal requirements for March and April for some
3.5 million Kenyans in drought-affected areas, but WFP only has half the
quantity of beans needed for March and no vegetable oil. In addition,
stocks of highly nutritious corn-soya blend - u sed to boost the dietary
status of vulnerable children and pregnant and nursing women - were
extremely low.

"The situation is equally serious in Somalia, where 1.4 million people are
at risk in the south," Morris said.

WFP still requires an additional US $189 million for its Kenyan operations
and $34 million for emergency work in Somali.


KENYA: Drought to persist despite recent rainfall

Heavy rainfall in some parts of central and western Kenya in early March
should not be mistaken for the onset of the long rains, the country's
meteorologists said on Thursday.

They warned that the severe drought that has ravaged the eastern and
northern districts would persist.

The assistant director of Kenya's Meteorological Department, Peter Ambeje,
said rainfall in the capital, Nairobi, parts of the western and eastern
highlands, the Rift Valley and the southeastern highland regions was the
result of a cyclone in the Indian Ocean, a phenomenon whose effects on
eastern Africa had already subsided.

Kenya and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa are in the grip of a severe
drought that has left millions of people on the brink of starvation and
killed thousands of livestock, rendering pastoral communities in the
northern and northeastern areas destitute.


UGANDA: Seasonal rains will be below average, met office says

Seasonal rains that have begun over parts of Uganda will be below average,
thereby exacerbating the effect of the recent drought, a spokesman for the
country's meteorological department said on 3 March.

"We are experiencing a moderate La Nina phenomenon, which means that rains
are coming in earl ier than usual - but the total amount of rainfall will
be below average," Stephen Magezi, the spokesman, said.

He was referring to the weather phenomenon in which the cooling of the
Pacific Ocean's surface leads to a lack of moisture in the atmosphere.

"It means that we are not going to achieve enough soil moisture by the
time we enter the next dry season between June and July," he said.

The drought has caused water levels in rivers, reservoirs and lakes to
fall to near-record lows. In Uganda, the production of electricity at the
main dam in the eastern town of Jinja has been reduced, resulting in daily
power cuts nationwide.


UGANDA: Millions of women and children living rough - UNICEF

Ugandan authorities should prioritise the needs of some three million
women and 3.5 million children living in the most disadvantaged
communities, including camps for internally displaced persons in the
war-torn northern region, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said
on Wednesday.

"On the occasion of the 2006 International Women's Day, the government and
its developmental partners [must] ensure that this vulnerable group
remains high on the national agenda," UNICEF said in a statement.

The women and children battle the triple challenges of chronic poverty,
chronic disease and chronic insecurity. Many "are marginalised and denied
access to basic healthcare, education, safe water, sanitation and
protection," the agency said.

In particular, the estimated 1.3 million women and children living in
camps for the displaced in northern Uganda - where squalid conditions
further expose them to risks of violence, exploitation, abuse and HIV/AIDS
- need closer attention.


BURUNDI: Coup plot uncovered, president says

Burundi's internal intelligence service, the Service de renseignement, has
uncovered a plot to overthrow the government, President Pierre Nkurunziza
said on Monday during his meeting with army and police commanders in the
commune of Mwakiro, in the northeastern province of Muyinga.

"Three senior army officers of the national defence force, three senior
police officers and three political leaders have attempted to overthrow
the institutions [of the state]," he said "We have recorded their voices
from phone conversations about their coup plans."

However, army spokesman Maj Adolphe Manirakiza said on Tuesday, "The
National Defence Force does not know anything about the coup attempt."


DRC: New movement of displaced in Ituri District

Some 1,000 people have arrived in the southern suburbs of Bunia, fleeing
fighting approximately 50 km farther south, according to local officials.
They said some 500 were registered on Sunday in the town of at the town of
Dele, 3 km south of Bunia.

"The people have no choice but to flee," Akobi Katorogo, the chief of the
Walendus Bindi Collective said in Bunia. "The militias treat them as army
collaborators and are executed [when caught], while the army accuses them
of giving information to the enemy."

He said thousands of displaced people were hiding in the valley near their
homes and in the bush. They come from the towns of Kagaba and Getty,
respectively about 47 km and 60 km south of Bunia. Many fled ahead of
fighting between government forces and a coalition of militia forces,
based at the nearby town of Tcheyi, known as le Mouvement Revolutionnaires
au Congo and the former fighters

The newly displaced join 13,300 others who have been displace d from the
Tcheyi area since January, according to the Bunia UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Another thousand people recently
arrived at the town of Katoni, 25 km south of Bunia, unable to proceed
farther on foot.


DRC: Mutinous troops replaced in Ituri District

A reserve army battalion arrived in the town of Tcheyi on Saturday in
Ituri District of northeastern Orientale Province, to replace troops who
had mutinied a week earlier, provincial Governor Lola Kisanga said.

"We have disarmed 700 of the troops and arrested 28 officers," he said in
Bunia, Ituri's capital.

On 2 March the mutinous troops took prisoner the assistant head of the 9th
Military Region that has jurisdiction over Ituri, Gen Bob Ngoy, while he
was in the town of Aveba, near Tcheyi 75 km south of Bunia. He was rescued
by troops of the UN Mission in the DRC.

The mutinous soldiers fired gunshots at one of the MONUC helicopters
involved in the operation, the UN said. MONUC suspended its military
operations in the Tcheyi sector on 3 March until the army reorganises.


DRC: Registration of presidential, legislative candidates begins

Registration offices for candidates in the Democratic Republic of Congo's
presidential and legislative elections opened on Friday in the capital,
Kinshasa, Independent Electoral Commission Chariman Apollinaire Muholongo
Malumalu said.

Candidates have until 23 March to complete this formality; presidential
hopefuls can only register in the commission's subcommittee bureau in
Kinshasa. Malumalu made this announcement shortly after President Joseph
Kabila promulgated the electoral law setting the polling date.

"The Ministry of Interior registered 270 political parti es today,"
Malumalu said.

These will be Congo's first democratic elections in 40 years. Under the
electoral timetable, the final result of the first round of the
presidential poll is due to be given on 14 July. If a candidate fails to
obtain 50 percent of the vote, a second round will be held.


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