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 400
22 - 29 September 2007


CONTENTS:

UGANDA: Thousands out of class after floods wash away schools
UGANDA: Population out of step with peace talks - report
KENYA: Thousands still affected by flooding in the west
CAR-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission
CONGO: Nearly half the provinces affected by sleeping sickness
DRC: More displaced in North Kivu as fighting resumes
DRC: Ebola cases suspected in Kasai Oriental

See also:
UGANDA: The battle of the floods
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74476

UGANDA: Malnutrition the main challenge in Karamoja's "chronic emergency"
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74517


UGANDA: Thousands out of class after floods wash away schools

Flash floods sweeping across northern and eastern Uganda have damaged
hundreds of schools, leaving at least 100,000 children out of class, the
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. The floods have also destroyed
sanitation facilities, preventing the 289 affected schools from
reopening, two weeks after other Ugandan schools resumed classes.

"The heaviest impact has been in areas where basic services had already
been overstretched," UNICEF said in a statement on 26 September.
"Assessments show flood damage further disrupting those services and
exacerbating the situation."

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74523]

[See also:
Agencies need $43 million for flood-hit areas:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74451]


UGANDA: Population out of step with peace talks - report

Northern Ugandans are feeling disconnected from peace talks aimed at
bringing an end to the region's 20-year conflict, according to a report
published on 24 September by the Oxfam international development agency.

The report, The building blocks of sustainable peace, based on surveys
and focus groups in the north's displacement camps, found Ugandans'
knowledge of the Juba peace talks to be "uniformly poor", resulting in
an increased feeling of marginalisation.

The Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels have promised
to consult civilians affected by the brutal conflict on what sort of
justice and reconciliation settlement they would prefer. But the LRA's
plan to airlift war victims into their jungle camp has been criticised
by the Acholi traditional leader, Paramount Chief Rwot Achana, who says
it will not lead to the meaningful consultation desired by victims.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74459]


KENYA: Thousands still affected by flooding in the west

At least 28,000 people are still affected by flooding in the Budalangi
area, in Kenya's western district of Busia, a humanitarian official has
said.

"An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 internally displaced people are in six
camps while a further 2,000 remain marooned," Mercy Manyala, a national
officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), Kenya office, said on 27 September.

Budalangi has an estimated population of 64,000 and experienced the
latest deluge with the collapse of a dyke on the River Nzoia in August.
"It is difficult to get information on who is displaced," Manyala said.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74521]


CAR-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission

France will be the largest single troop contributor to a new joint
UN-European Union "multi-dimensional" peacekeeping mission to Chad and
Central African Republic authorised by the UN Security Council on 25
September.

The former colonial power of both countries already has a military base
in Chad and some troops in Central African Republic. It is expected to
contribute about half of the EU force of 3,000 to 4,000 troops to
support the new UN Mission, MINURCAT. Deployment is expected to start in
November, preceding the arrival of the UN-African Union hybrid force
expected in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan early next year.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74506]


CONGO: Nearly half the provinces affected by sleeping sickness

Because of the civil wars that have ravaged the Republic of Congo over
the past few years, monitoring of trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness,
was considered a low priority. There has, however, been a resurgence in
prevalence rates, affecting five of the country's 11 districts.

"At the end of the 1997 civil war, the sleeping sickness situation was
almost catastrophic. We are continuing to register cases in certain
regions of the country," said Stephane Ngampo, head of the national
programme to combat trypanosomiasis in the Ministry of Health, Social
Affairs and the Family.

The disease had been virtually wiped out in colonial times (before the
1960s), he said. "In colonial times the strategies employed to overcome
trypanosomiasis were successful. The number of people suffering from the
disease could be counted on the fingers of one hand," Ngampo added.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74501]


DRC: More displaced in North Kivu as fighting resumes

Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have
resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated
by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC).

"The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the
morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in
Kichanga [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial
capital]," Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the
Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September.

"There were clashes this morning in Ngungu and in Mweso, but it is not
known if the fighting continued," Major Gabriel de Brosses, MONUC's
military spokesperson, said. "One cannot say the ceasefire was broken
because they were just clashes," De Brosses added, saying MONUC had sent
a patrol and was awaiting an update on the situation."

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74466]


DRC: Ebola cases suspected in Kasai Oriental

Two cases of suspected Ebola haemorrhagic fever have been reported in
Kasai Oriental, the neighbouring province to Kasai Occidental, where at
least nine cases have been confirmed, according to health officials.

"We received samples from two suspected cases in the village of Mwene
Ditu that have been sent to the laboratory in the United States," Benoit
Kebela, the secretary-general in the ministry of health, said. Mwene
Ditu is 100km south of Mbuji Mayi, the main town in the province. "We
are awaiting the diagnosis of the samples sent to the laboratory."

Kebela said the suspect cases were not directly related to the epidemic
that had affected hundreds of people in the village of Kampungu, in
Kasai Occidental. Kampungu and its environs have been quarantined by the
government to contain the outbreak.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=74458]


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