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 369
3 - 9 February 2007


CONTENTS:

GLOBAL: UN announces $85m for under-funded emergencies
RWANDA: Floods kill 10, displace hundreds in northwest
BURUNDI: Help for 300,000 flood victims
BURUNDI: Appeal for $132m humanitarian aid
DRC: Thousands displaced by fighting return home
UGANDA: Govt calls for pressure on rebels to resume peace talks
UGANDA: Meningitis halts refugee repatriation to Sudan
TANZANIA: Viral fever spreads, killing two in Arusha

ALSO SEE:

CAR: Better times ahead for the Aka
CAR: Rebel activity fuels insecurity in the northeast
KENYA: Conflict and viral fever hurting northeasterners
UGANDA: "Hear Our Voices" - Jane
UGANDA: "Hear Our Voices" - Lilian Oyoo


GLOBAL: UN announces $85m for under-funded emergencies

A United Nations fund, the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), managed
by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has
allocated about US$85 million for under-funded emergencies in 15 countries
in Africa and Asia.

This funding is part of CERF's two-part annual allocation for life-saving
programmes around the world, according to Margareta Wahlstrom, the acting
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is scheduled to receive the highest
amount of $36.6 million. The other beneficiaries are: Angola, $4.5
million; Bangladesh, $1 million; Burundi, $8.5 million; Central African
Republic, $4.5 million; Cote d'Ivoire, $4.5 million; the Democratic
Republic of Korea, $5 million; Eritrea, $2 million; Ethiopia, $6 million;
Haiti, $2 million; Myanmar, $354,976; Namibia, $1 million; Somalia, $1
million; Sudan, $6 million, and Zimbabwe, $2 million.


RWANDA: Floods kill 10, displace hundreds in northwest

At least 10 people have been killed and hundreds more displaced in
flooding after heavy rains in northwestern Rwanda, a local government
official said on Monday.

Among the dead were a 56-year-old woman and three school-children, who
drowned as they tried to flee their homes. The flood-waters also destroyed
354 homes in Rubavu District, the area mayor, Ramadhan Barengayabo, said.
The displaced fled their homes after heavy weekend rains caused the Sebeya
River to rise.

The government appealed for humanitarian intervention to limit the
outbreak of infectious diseases at the temporary camps for the displaced


BURUNDI: Help for 300,000 flood victims

About 300,000 Burundians affected by floods since November 2006 are due to
receive seeds from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to tide
them over until the next harvest season, a WFP official said on Wednesday.

"We aim to prepare people for the next harvest season and inject food
relief to affected zones in the north and northeast of Burundi," Guillaume
Foliot, WFP programme officer, said in Bujumbura, the capital.

He said the agency would provide the aid between 15 February and 15 March,
under its seed protection ration programme.


BURUNDI: Appeal for $132m humanitarian aid

UN agencies and other humanitarian bodies in Burundi appealed on Wednesday
for US$132 million in humanitarian aid for vulnerable people this year.

Launching the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) in Burundi's northwestern
province of Cibitoke, Mahmoud Youssef, the Executive Representative of the
UN Secretary-General in Burundi, said year's focus would be solely on
humanitarian concerns, unlike previous appeals that also included recovery
from war and peace-building.

Eight UN agencies, 13 international organisations and four local NGOs
participated in the 2007 appeal. The CAP is an UN-led initiative aimed at
coordinating and streamlining donor aid for maximum effect.


DRC: Thousands displaced by fighting return home

Thousands of people displaced by fighting in the DRC's eastern province of
North Kivu have started returning home, humanitarian officials said.

Andrew Zadel, the communications officer at the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma, the provincial capital, said
those returning had sought refuge southwest of Rutshuru Territory and in
villages to the west of Rutshuru.

The villagers are returning as fighters of the dissident army general,
Laurent Nkunda, begin their reintegration into the national army following
talks between his rebel movement and the government. Nkunda has led a
rebellion in North Kivu since 2004, against what he perceives to be the
persecution of members of his ethnic community, who are originally from
Rwanda.


UGANDA: Govt calls for pressure on rebels to resume peace talks

Ugandan authorities urged the international community on Friday to
pressure the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to rejoin peace talks with the
government.

The LRA announced in January it was pulling out of peace talks mediated by
the government of South Sudan in the city of Juba, following comments by
Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, that the group was no longer welcome on
Sudanese territory. The LRA leadership demanded a "neutral venue" for the
talks, suggesting that Kenya or South Africa should mediate.

The two sides signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in August 2006.
Under the terms of that pact, LRA fighters were required to assemble at
designated sites in southern Sudan during the course of the talks.


UGANDA: Meningitis halts refugee repatriation to Sudan

The repatriation of Sudanese refugees from northwestern Uganda, which was
suspended on 19 January after a meningitis outbreak in the region, cannot
resume until the disease is contained, the spokeswoman for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kampala, Roberta Russo,
said on Wednesday.

At least 14,000 refugees have been repatriated to southern Sudan since the
January 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two
decades of war between the Sudanese government and former fighters of the
Sudan People'Ys Liberation Movement/Army.

Since the meningitis outbreak was reported, 38 people have died from the
disease in northwestern Uganda and another 930 are infected. On Wednesday,
Ugandan Health Services Commissioner Sam Okware said a massive vaccination
campaign was under way.


TANZANIA: Viral fever spreads, killing two in Arusha

Rift Valley Fever (RVF), a deadly viral disease that broke out in Kenya in
late 2006, has spread to neighbouring Tanzania, where two deaths have been
reported in the northern region of Arusha, Acting Regional Commissioner
Evance Balama said on Tuesday.

He said the dead, from the village of Terat, had become ill after eating
mutton and were taken to hospital. The United States' Centers for Disease
Control, which has a unit in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, confirmed the
two Tanzanians had died of the disease.

RVF has killed at least 170 people in Kenya and has also spread to
Somalia, where the United Nations World Health Organization says 100
suspected cases, including 48 deaths, had been reported by 30 January
2007.


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