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 391
14 - 20 July 2007


CONTENTS:

CONGO: Government responds to population growth concerns
CONGO: Men called on to support reproductive health issues
CONGO: Government bid to prevent flooding in Mossaka
DRC: Displacement leaves 650,000 people needing aid in North Kivu
UGANDA: Juba talks paying off as IDPs return home
TANZANIA: Plans to raise education standards widely commended
KENYA-TANZANIA: Seismic "swarm" close to active volcano


ALSO SEE:

KENYA: Clashes, elections and land - church keeps watch in Molo
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73319

KENYA: Innovate to reduce poverty - UN
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73323


CONGO: Government responds to population growth concerns

Congolese officials have outlined plans to deal with overcrowding in
urban areas after a UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report said the capital's
population could double in the next 14 years.

Minister of Justice Aime Emmanuel Yocka said: "This obliges us to take
up many challenges to enable the people of our cities to live and work
in better conditions. This growth is accompanied by a degradation of the
environment, which inhibits the development of cities."

According to UNFPA, Congo's urban population growth has been estimated
at 6 percent a year. "We will without doubt have to boost our
initiatives at a national level to clean up the environment, provide
drinking water to every person in Congo, increase access to health
centres, create jobs to reduce poverty and improve education standards,"
said Yocka.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73251


CONGO: Men called on to support reproductive health issues

Congolese men have been urged to step up their role in improving
maternal health in a country where the maternal mortality rate is above
the African average.

The Minister of Health, Social Affairs and Family, Emilienne Raoul,
said: "Men have to get involved and participate in promoting
reproductive health. To do so, we have to make information available and
create sufficient awareness on the subject."

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73267


CONGO: Government bid to prevent flooding in Mossaka

More than 8,000 people will benefit from new flood prevention measures
planned for Mossaka, in the northern Cuvette region of Congo, officials
have said.

The Government has sent a delegation of experts from the Ministry of
Public Works to the flood-prone area, 450km from Brazzaville, to devise
plans for further flood protection at the intersection of the Likouala,
Sangha and Congo rivers.

Mossaka sub-prefect Felix Ondziel Ona said the project was commissioned
by President Denis Sassou Nguesso several months ago.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73284


DRC: Displacement leaves 650,000 people needing aid in North Kivu

Insecurity in North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic
of Congo has led to the displacement of an estimated 650,000 civilians,
the largest number of people to have fled their homes because of
conflict in the region in the past three years, a spokesman for the
United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.

"The province has witnessed the worst IDP [internally displaced persons]
situation in three years, with 163,000 more IDPs having been displaced
since January," Jens Hesemann, spokesman for UNHCR, told IRIN on 16
July.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73269


UGANDA: Juba talks paying off as IDPs return home

The year-long talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army may not have reached a conclusion, but the relative
peace across northern Uganda during this period has encouraged hundreds
of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home,
officials said.

Walter Ochora, district commissioner in Acholi, said the local
population, which had borne the brunt of the conflict, was still anxious
about security but many had indeed returned home. The Acholi sub-region
has been the epicentre of the conflict.

According to the UN Refugee Agency about 55,000 IDPs have returned to
their villages in Acholi, in addition to 431,000 who have gone back home
to the Lango sub-region. Of those still in camps in Acholi, 359,000
people had by June moved to new sites, leaving 698,000 in former camps,
compared with only 35,000 in camps in Lango by June, said Robertta
Russo, UNHCR spokesperson in Uganda.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73248


TANZANIA: Plans to raise education standards widely commended

Education experts have welcomed the Tanzanian government's pledge to
hire more teachers in the 2007-2008 financial year to improve the
quality of education in the country.

"Many will agree that the most important thing in education is the
interaction between motivated, competent teachers and their students,"
Suleiman Sumra, a retired professor of education and researcher with
Hakielimu, an NGO dealing with educational issues, told IRIN.

The government allocated 18 percent of this year's budget to education
and announced plans to hire more teachers in June.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73283


KENYA-TANZANIA: Seismic "swarm" close to active volcano

A series of earth tremors centred in northern Tanzania has caused alarm
in Kenya and Tanzania. The most powerful quake, on the afternoon of 17
July, was estimated at 5.9 by the US Geological Survey (USGS) on the
Richter scale.

The USGS reported that the 'swarm' of earthquakes was close to the Ol
Doinyo Lengai mountain, an active volcano on the floor of the Rift
Valley in northeastern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border. However,
the agency stated that information so far available was "not sufficient
to determine if the current Tanzania swarm activity reflects a geologic
process that might lead to a change in the eruptive behavior of Ol
Doinyo Lengai". The last major eruption was in 1966.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73293


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