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 399
15 - 21 September 2007


CONTENTS:

DRC: Regional ministers push to end violence in the east
DRC: Displaced civilians scared to return to North Kivu town
DRC: Typhoid confirmed in western Kasai Province
UGANDA: Schools stay closed as floods hit eastern districts
BURUNDI: Congolese asylum seekers moved to transit site

ALSO SEE:
RWANDA: Genocide survivors ready to forgive but not to forget
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74394 ]


UGANDA: Optimism in Karamoja despite lingering security concerns
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74407 ]

UGANDA: Uganda Diaries
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73608 ]


DRC: Regional ministers push to end violence in the east

The United Nations Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the
Congolese army should step up efforts to eliminate "negative forces" to
improve the security situation in eastern Congo, regional foreign
ministers meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said in a communique
issued on 17 September.

"Delegations expressed concern about deteriorating security conditions
in eastern Congo, in particular the destabilising roles of former
general, Laurent Nkunda, and the ex-FAR/Interahamwe," the communique
said.

The region has suffered violent clashes since the early 1990s, which
evolved into a regional war that raged in the DRC between 1998 and 2003.

Full report
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74381]


DRC: Displaced civilians scared to return to North Kivu town

Thousands of Congolese civilians displaced in August by fighting in Sake
town, North Kivu Province, were still living in camps fearing resumed
fighting, a UN official said on 19 September.

"Sake is almost a ghost town; some of the displaced come to the town
during the day but return to IDP [internally displaced persons] camps
around Goma [the provincial capital]; they are still afraid," Eusebe
Hounsokou, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said.

Fighting erupted in August between the Congolese army and troops loyal
to Nkunda, who has stated he is defending the rights of ethnic Tutsis in
the region, leading to scores of deaths and the displacement of
thousands of villagers.

Full report
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74385]
Also see:
Displacement, insecurity worsen humanitarian crisis in east
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74357]


DRC: Typhoid confirmed in western Kasai Province

Five cases of typhoid fever were confirmed in Kampungu, western Kasai
Province in the DRC, where investigations for Ebola are ongoing, a UN
World Health Organization (WHO) official said on 20 September.

"We are seeing multiple causes for the reports of illness and death,"
Gregory Hartl, WHO communications advisor, said.

According to the WHO, figures released by various sources mention 375
cases and 167 deaths in the province, but the causes for all the deaths
cannot be confirmed yet with only one case of Shigella, and less than 10
of Ebola, so far being confirmed.

Approximately 1,200 deaths have been documented since the Ebola virus
was first identified in the western equatorial province of Sudan and in
a nearby region of DRC in 1976 after epidemics in Yambuku, northern DRC
and Nzara in southern Sudan.

Full report
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74403]
Also see:
TANZANIA: Health authorities issue Ebola alert
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74383]


UGANDA: Schools stay closed as floods hit eastern districts

Thousands of school children were forced to stay home as schools
remained closed due to flooding in eastern Uganda. The floods washed
away roads, homes, buildings and crops in the region.

"The situation borders on a crisis. Nine people have so far died and the
floods have affected up to 300,000 people," Musa Ecweru, the Ugandan
minister for disaster preparedness said on 14 September.

Many of those affected by the floods were families that had just
returned to their villages after years of displacement in camps due to a
civil war between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.

Full report
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74333]


BURUNDI: Congolese asylum seekers moved to transit site

Hundreds of asylum seekers from the DRC who had been camping in a
playground in front of the UN refugee agency offices in the Burundian
capital, Bujumbura, were to be moved to Northern Ngozi province starting
on 20 September, officials.

Several hundred Congolese nationals started arriving in Burundi early
this year, fleeing violence in the South Kivu region of eastern Congo
with between 50 and 100 asylum seekers arriving each day, Didace
Nzikoruriho, the officer in charge of refugees in the Burundian ministry
of home affairs said on 19 September.

Full report
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74384]


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