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
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 344
12 - 18 August 2006


CONTENTS:

DRC: Tension ahead of election results
TANZANIA-BURUNDI: Expelled Burundians are illegal immigrants, Dodoma
   says
TANZANIA: Zanzibar burns 61,000 eggs in bid to check bird flu
KENYA: Kala-azar outbreak in the northeast
UGANDA: Government to resume talks with rebels in Juba


ALSO SEE:

BURUNDI: Home is still home, even without land
[http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55143]


DRC: Tension ahead of election results

Tensions are rising in the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of an 
expected announcement this weekend by the Independent Electoral 
Commission of preliminary election results, according to officials.

Three local television stations were shut down on Thursday for 24 hours 
by order of the Congolese High Authority on Media. "The stations were 
broadcasting shocking images to incite hate and rebellion," Modeste 
Mutinga, chairman of the media authority, said when announcing the 
closures.

The government owns one of the stations, another is a religious station 
supporting the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila, and the third is 
owned by presidential candidate and current Vice-President Jean-Pierre 
Bemba.

[Full story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55173]


TANZANIA-BURUNDI: Expelled Burundians are illegal immigrants, Dodoma 
says

The 600 Burundians recently expelled from Tanzania are illegal 
immigrants, not refugees, a senior Tanzanian official said on Wednesday.

"We are not kicking out refugees or people who are in the country 
lawfully," John Chiligati, the Tanzanian home affairs minister, said 
from Dodoma, the nation's capital.

The returnees arrived at the border of Burundi's northeastern province 
of Muyinga, its governor, Mohamed Feruzi, had said on Sunday. "Some 
women came without their children; others were expelled with their 
children, leaving their husbands behind," he said.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55149]

[On the Net: Tanzania expels 600 Burundians 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55105]


TANZANIA: Zanzibar burns 61,000 eggs in bid to check bird flu

Authorities on Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar incinerated 
61,000 chicken eggs on Tuesday in their continuing bid to check the 
threat of bird flu to the community.

"We seized the egg consignment imported from the Tanzanian mainland 
commercial capital of Dar es Salaam last weekend," Khatib Suleiman 
Bakari, the deputy minister of the Zanzibar Ministry of Agriculture, 
Livestock and the Environment, said.

He said three people would be charged with the illegal importation of 
the eggs. The island's business community had continued to import 
poultry products despite an indefinite ban imposed in 2005, he added.

The deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu has been found in several African 
countries. The poultry industry in Asia and a number of European 
countries has been ravaged by the disease, which has claimed dozens of 
lives.

[Full Story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55124]

[On the Net: Zanzibar tightens import controls over bird flu threat 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53870]


KENYA: Kala-azar outbreak in the northeast

Six children have died at the Wajir District Hospital in northeastern 
Kenya over the past four weeks after an outbreak of kala-azar, a deadly 
parasitic disease characterised by anemia and the inflammation of the 
liver and spleen, a health official said on Wednesday.

The doctor in charge of the hospital, Ahmeddin Omar, said 44 children 
were still under observation, several having been admitted in the past 
two days.

A campaign to educate parents about the disease was ongoing, he said, 
adding that health personnel had been mobilised from both Wajir and 
Isiolo to spray houses in a bid to kill the sand flies that spread the 
diseases.

Kala-azar, known by its scientific name as visceral leishmaniasis, is 
caused by parasitic protozoa transmitted to humans by the bite of an 
infected female sandfly, according to the United Nations World Health 
Organization. The disease lowers the immune system, causes persistent 
fever, anemia, liver and spleen enlargement, and is fatal if untreated.

[Full Story on:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55142]

[On the Net: Suspected kala-azar cases hospitalised in northeast 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54708]


UGANDA: Government to resume talks with rebels in Juba

Talks between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army are 
scheduled to resume, with both sides considering each other's ceasefire 
proposal, officials said on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, Capt Paddy Ankunda, said from 
Juba that the talks should have restarted on Tuesday but had been 
adjourned at the request of the rebels, who said they were mourning one 
of their commanders killed in a battle with Ugandan troops.

Peace talks began in July in Juba, southern Sudan, under the mediation 
of southern Sudan's vice-president, Riek Machar.

[Full story on: 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55144]

[On the Net: Talks on hold as rebels demand cessation of hostilities 
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55068]


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