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 410
1 - 7 December 2007


CONTENTS:

UGANDA: Ebola kills two doctors as death toll rises to 21
KENYA: Thousands displaced in Molo need aid - officials
KENYA-SUDAN: Clashes halt refugee returns to Jonglei state
BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Thousands of refugees still awaiting repatriation
DRC: Clashes raise fears for 15,000 IDPs
AFRICA: Strengthening security is prerequisite for DRC - Rice


See Also:

UGANDA: Medical staff bore the brunt of "sly" new Ebola virus
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75738

AFRICA: Safety nets help to climate-proof the poor
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75709]

GLOBAL: No silver bullets? The online funding revolution and
micro-finance sector
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75571]

AFRICA: Building capacity to attract carbon markets
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75727]


UGANDA: Ebola kills two doctors as death toll rises to 21

Two Ugandan doctors who had been helping in the fight against an
outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus have died, bringing the death toll to
21, officials said on 5 December.

"The sad news today is that our doctor who was admitted to Mulago
Hospital [in the capital, Kampala] died last night and a senior clinical
officer who had been in a critical condition also died this morning,"
said Samuel Kazinga, resident district commissioner for Bundibugyo, the
epicentre of the outbreak.

The doctor who died at Mulago had come from Bundibugyo to the city to
collect one of his children, only to fall sick, and had been put in an
isolation ward at the hospital, the largest in the country.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75702]


KENYA: Thousands displaced in Molo need aid - officials

Tensions are high in Kenya's New Molo District, Rift Valley province,
where ethnic clashes have resulted in 15 deaths and 16,000 villagers
displaced since October, an official of the Kenya Red Cross Society
(KRCS) said on 6 December.

"Those displaced are sleeping in the open and catching pneumonia and
other respiratory tract infections because of the prevailing cold
weather," Dr James Kisia, the deputy secretary-general of the KRCS, told
IRIN.

The most affected areas are Kuresoi, Keringet and Olengurone divisions
of New Molo, Kisia said. Several people have been injured, some admitted
to hospital, and at least 200 houses in these areas have been burnt.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75721]


KENYA-SUDAN: Clashes halt refugee returns to Jonglei state

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has temporarily halted the repatriation of
Sudanese refugees to Jonglei state in the south where recent clashes
have left 34 dead.

The fighting is blamed on conflicts sparked by cattle thefts between the
Murle and Dinka communities.

"The situation remains tense, with fears that the revenge attacks could
spread to other parts of Jonglei state, including Pibor, Boma and
Porchalla - major return areas for refugees and internally displaced
persons," UNHCR stated on 4 December.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75676]


BURUNDI-TANZANIA: Thousands of refugees still awaiting repatriation

At least 120,000 Burundian refugees have still to be repatriated from
Tanzania, despite plans by the host government to close all refugee
camps by mid-2008, officials said.

More than 40,000 Burundians returned home from Tanzania in 2007, home
affairs minister Joseph Mungai told a meeting on 3 December in the
Burundian capital of Bujumbura. The latest returns, the Tanzanian
minister added, brought to 430,000 the total since 2001.

The Burundian minister for repatriation, Immaculee Nahayo, said most
recent returnees came back between July and November.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75678]


DRC: Clashes raise fears for 15,000 IDPs

Government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) claimed to
have routed fighters loyal to dissident General Laurent Nkunda from the
North Kivu town of Mushake, raising concerns for the safety of 15,000
displaced people in the nearby village of Kilolwire.

"This morning we took total control of Mushake; we are now conducting
raids and mopping-up operations on the mountains overlooking Kilolwire
to where the enemy fled," the deputy commander of the North Kivu
military zone, Delphin Kahimbi, told IRIN by phone on 5 December.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75701]

[See also: Fighting interrupts food aid to 300,000 in the east
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75675]


AFRICA: Strengthening security is prerequisite for DRC - Rice

Strengthening the security institutions in the Democratic Republic of
Congo is a prerequisite for long-term solutions to the country's
problems, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the media in
the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Rice met the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan
counterpart Paul Kagame as well as the DRC Foreign Affairs Minister,
Mbusa Nyamwisi, to discuss the problems of the Great Lakes region.

"They decided to commit to the rapid strengthening of the security
institutions of the DRC and to ask for international help in doing so,"
Rice said after her meeting. "They committed again not to harbouring
negative forces, the illegal groups, militias and armed groups that are
causing destabilisation."

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=75705]


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