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


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 405
27 October - 2 November 2007


CONTENTS:

DRC: Demobilise child soldiers, free minors held by military courts,
   says MONUC
CONGO: Chad arrests prompt suspension of international child adoption
DRC-CONGO: Torrential rains overwhelm two capitals
DRC-UGANDA: More people flee from North Kivu to Uganda
DRC: Refugee repatriation from Congo gathers pace
CONGO: Government to provide free malaria care for under fives
RWANDA: Genocide justice system prompts row with Amnesty
UGANDA: Rebel leaders' visit expected to boost peace process


DRC: Demobilise child soldiers, free minors held by military courts,
says MONUC

MONUC, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has
called on the army to demobilise all child soldiers in its ranks and
hand over any minors held by military tribunals to civilian
jurisdiction.

"We believe there are almost 200 minors still present in various FARDC
[regular army] brigades currently deployed in North Kivu," MONUC
spokesman Kemal Saiki told reporters on 31 October.

"[MONUC] has exhorted Congolese military authorities to release minors
in its troops and immediately halt their recruitment," he added. Full
report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75117


CONGO: Chad arrests prompt suspension of international child adoption

Authorities in the Republic of Congo have suspended the international
adoption of children to ensure the interests of such children are
protected.

The move comes in the wake of the 25 October arrest in neighbouring Chad
of members of a French NGO who were subsequently charged with abducting
103 children destined for new families in Europe.

L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark) says it was trying to rescue Sudanese orphans
from "certain death" in the Darfur region, on the border with Chad. Full
report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75101


DRC-CONGO: Torrential rains overwhelm two capitals

Flash floods that followed the heaviest rains in 50 years have claimed
the lives of at least 32 people in Kinshasa, the capital of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and wreaked havoc in nearby
Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, officials said.

DRC Provincial Minister of Planning and Reconstruction Jean-Claude
Mwissa said that 800 people were reported missing after the floods and
some 1,500 families made homeless.

Heavy rainfall lashed Kinshasa on 25 and 26 October, causing landsides
and the collapse of several bridges, cutting off some communities. Full
report http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75078


DRC-UGANDA: More people flee from North Kivu to Uganda

Some 13,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed
the border into Uganda - including 5,000 since 22 October - fleeing
violence in North Kivu province.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), up to 800 people have been
arriving at Bunagana, a Ugandan border post, every day since 19 October.

UNHCR spokeswoman in Kampala Robertta Russo said the agency has been
making preparations for the relocation of the rapidly-growing refugee
population from the reception centre at Nyakabanda, 15km from the
border, to Nakivale, an established camp about 300km away.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75056


DRC: Refugee repatriation from Congo gathers pace

Some 16,000 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) citizens who fled their
country during the 1997-2002 conflict to seek refuge in neighbouring
Congo have returned to their homes in the northwestern Equateur province
this year, under a repatriation programme managed by the UN Refugee
Agency (UNHCR).

"The surge in the number of returns to the rainforests of northwest DRC
- almost all from the neighbouring Republic of Congo across the Ubangui
River - comes as UNHCR prepares to phase out assisted voluntary
repatriation to this area in mid-2008. The increase was possible because
the agency had stepped up river return trips and was now taking people
to two destinations simultaneously - Buburu and Imese," Jens Hesemann,
UNHCR spokesman in Kinshasa, said on 26 October.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75038


CONGO: Government to provide free malaria care for under fives

The Republic of Congo's president Denis Sassou Nguesso has pledged free
malaria treatment for the country's young children and their mothers.

He made the announcement in parliament on 27 October, saying it would
apply to "children from birth up to the age of five, beginning 2008".
Malaria causes the death of between 20,000 and 30,000 children in Congo
every year, according to the UN Children's Fund.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75031


RWANDA: Genocide justice system prompts row with Amnesty

Rwanda has dismissed as unfounded a claim by Amnesty International that
its justice system was unsuitable for trying genocide suspects currently
detained abroad.

Rwanda has always been keen to play a lead role in the prosecution of
those suspected of taking part in the 1994 orchestrated slaughter of
some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Delivering justice domestically, rather than leaving it to international
and foreign courts, was seen as being key to calming tensions that have
persisted 13 years after the genocide.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75118


UGANDA: Rebel leaders' visit expected to boost peace process

The first official visit to the Ugandan capital by members of the Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) has raised hopes among people affected by two
decades of conflict in the north of the country that lasting peace could
be within reach.

"The visit gives us hope," said Monsignor Matthew Odongo the
vicar-general of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Gulu, one of the
northern Uganda districts most affected by the LRA insurgency. "We are
looking at its outcome as an expedited peace process and an agreement,"
he told IRIN by telephone from Gulu town.

Army spokesman Major Felix Kulaigye said that an advance party of two
LRA officials arrived on 29 October at Entebbe airport from the Southern
Sudan capital Juba - where peace talks between the government and the
LRA have been held since 2006. The aim of the visit was to lay the
groundwork for higher-level meetings within Uganda itself.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75080


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