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 389
30 June - 6 July 2007


CONTENTS:

DRC: Live up to your promises or lose recent gains, Kabila urged
DRC: 'Civilians bearing brunt of South Kivu violence'
CONGO: Polio vaccinations for 400,000 children
KENYA: Agencies seek help to stem malnutrition in refugee camps
UGANDA: LRA talks reach agreement on accountability
UGANDA: Penal code to incorporate traditional justice system
TANZANIA: Improve jail facilities in Zanzibar, leaders demand
TANZANIA: Livestock ban lifted as Zanzibar controls RVF
RWANDA: Ex-soldier sentenced to 20 years in jail for murder of UN
   soldiers


KENYA: Social awareness key to malaria control efforts
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73023

GLOBAL: Number of desperately poor in Africa has 'levelled off' - UN
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73032


DRC: Live up to your promises or lose recent gains, Kabila urged

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could lose recent gains in its 
democratisation process unless President Joseph Kabila starts to promote 
dialogue and accountability, and strengthens cooperation with the wider 
international community, the International Crisis Group has warned.

The report, Congo: Consolidating the Peace, issued by the ICG on 5 July, 
warns that while the transition period, which ended with elections six 
months ago, helped to unify the country and improved security in some 
areas, governing institutions had remained weak, abusive or 
non-existent.

Full report 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73112


DRC: 'Civilians bearing brunt of South Kivu violence'

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed 
concern over abuses against civilians, especially women and children, in 
South Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, saying it frequently 
receives reports of abductions, executions, rapes and pillage.

Announcing an operation on 2 July to help 15,000 people displaced by 
increased violence in the region, the ICRC said a large number of 
families had fled their homes in the region.

"The ICRC is particularly concerned about abuses committed by armed 
persons against the civilian population, usually women and children," 
said Patrick Walder, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Bukavu.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73033



CONGO: Polio vaccinations for 400,000 children

The health ministry in the Republic of Congo has successfully vaccinated 
400,000 children under the age of five against polio, officials said.

The campaign, which was mainly carried out to prevent the spread of 
polio from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), took place 
in the administrative departments of Brazzaville, Pool in the south, 
Plateaux and Cuvette in the central region and Likouala in the north.

Congo's director-general of health, Damase Bozongo, said the June 
vaccination campaign was prompted by reports of new cases of wild 
poliomyelitis (polio) in the DRC in 2006.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73068


KENYA: Agencies seek help to stem malnutrition in refugee camps

The problems associated with high malnutrition among children younger 
than five should be tackled now to save lives in the Dadaab and Kakuma 
refugee camps in northeastern Kenya, three UN agencies have warned.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN World Food Programme 
(WFP) and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said children under five were 
registering acute malnutrition rates of 22.2 percent in Dadaab and 15.9 
percent in Kakuma, according to a recent survey. The agencies said 
malnutrition rates above 15 percent signalled an emergency.

They urged donors to provide US$32 million to improve care for refugee 
children and their mothers in the camps in Kenya's arid north that host 
237,000 refugees, mostly Somalis and Sudanese.

Full report 
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73058


UGANDA: LRA talks reach agreement on accountability

Peace talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's 
Resistance Army inched closer to success on 29 June with a late-night 
agreement on the principles for handling accountability and 
reconciliation for crimes committed during the conflict in northern 
Uganda.

The agreement, which deals with the third item on the talks' five-point 
agenda, will incorporate both the formal legal system and traditional 
mechanisms to achieve accountability and reconciliation for crimes 
committed by both sides during the two-decade-long conflict.

Mato Oput is an elaborate reconciliation ceremony of the Acholi people 
of northern Uganda, who are among the communities worst affected by the 
war. Similar reconciliation ceremonies are held by ethnic communities 
across the region affected by the conflict, and all processes will be 
incorporated into the accountability and reconciliation agreement.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73010


UGANDA: Penal code to incorporate traditional justice system

Uganda will amend its penal code to enable alleged war crimes committed 
during more than two decades of conflict in the north to be prosecuted 
within the traditional justice system, said a government minister.

Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who is also the government's 
team leader in the peace talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army 
(LRA), told reporters on 4 July that the Ugandan penal code would have 
to be changed to provide for the Mato Oput system practised by the 
Acholi community of northern Uganda, who have been most affected by the 
conflict.

Government and LRA delegations to the peace talks in the Southern 
Sudanese capital of Juba reached an agreement on 29 June on the 
principles for handling accountability and reconciliation for crimes 
committed during the conflict.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73089


TANZANIA: Improve jail facilities in Zanzibar, leaders demand

The prison system in the Tanzanian semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar 
should be reformed because the jails can hardly cope with the rising 
number of inmates, leaders from the area said.

During a debate on the 2007/2008 budget proposals for the Ministry of 
Regional Administration, members of the Zanzibar parliament said the 
inmates were living in "inhuman" conditions. The jails, they added, were 
also too congested.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73097


TANZANIA: Livestock ban lifted as Zanzibar controls RVF

Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar have lifted a ban imposed 
in April on the importation of farm animals and meat in a bid to keep 
the region free of Rift Valley Fever (RVF).

"We are now convinced that RVF is not a threat," Rahma Mshangama, an 
official from the Zanzibar Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and 
Environment, told a news conference on 29 June in Stone Town, capital of 
Zanzibar. "Farm animals and products can be imported after obtaining a 
permit from livestock department."

An RVF outbreak in December 2006, mainly in the central region of 
mainland Tanzania, claimed the lives of several people. Dozens of others 
were infected in the north and southern regions of the mainland.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/reporttest.aspx?ReportId=73027


RWANDA: Ex-soldier sentenced to 20 years in jail for murder of UN 
soldiers

A court in Belgium has sentenced a former Rwandan military officer to 20 
years in prison after finding him guilty of involvement in the murder of 
10 Belgian soldiers at the beginning of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Bernard Ntuyahaga, 55, a former major in the army, was sentenced on 5 
July, a day after he was convicted. He was accused of responsibility in 
the disarming of the Belgians, who were then serving in the United 
Nations peacekeeping force, and in their subsequent killing in Kigali, 
the Rwandan capital.

The court considered as mitigating circumstance the fact that Ntuyahaga 
was "only a link in an important chain" at a time when incitement and 
hate messages were being circulated by the then authorities in Rwanda.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73113


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