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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CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 394
11 - 17 August 2007


CONTENTS:

NAIROBI, 18 August 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
UGANDA-SOMALIA: Ugandan soldiers to train Somali army
CONGO: Opposition protest as government wins polls by massive majority
CONGO: Train hosts two-day anti malaria drive
CONGO: Indigenous people "exploited" in recent elections
KENYA: Poor conditions hinder mudslide recovery effort
KENYA: Use of treated nets reduces child malaria deaths
KENYA: Reporters lead silent protest over controversial media bill


ALSO SEE:
DRC: Lake Kivu - a time bomb or source of energy?
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73738

KENYA: Communities come together to protect water sources
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73740

KENYA: The fight for water - a valuable slum commodity
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73718


UGANDA-SOMALIA: Ugandan soldiers to train Somali army

Uganda will send an additional 250 soldiers to strife-torn Somalia to
train the country's army as the transitional government in Mogadishu
grapples with rising violence blamed on armed groups opposed to it.

"The contingent will not be part of the AU [African Union] peacekeepers
because this is a bilateral arrangement that seeks to help the interim
government build its own army," Ugandan army spokesman Major Felix
Kulaigye said on 16 August.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73767


CONGO: Opposition protest as government wins polls by massive majority

Opposition parties in Congo have protested against the outcome of
general elections held on 24 June and 5 August after the government was
returned to power by a landslide victory.

President Denis Sassou Nguesso's Parti Congolais du Travail and its
allies won 124 of 135 seats, according to results announced on national
radio by the minister of land administration and decentralisation
Francois Ibovi.

Elections in Bouaniela and Liranga areas in the northern Likouala region
will be held later because the villages could not reached in the two
rounds, the minister said.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73702


CONGO: Train hosts two-day anti malaria drive

Across jungles, hills and savannah, a train hired by the Congolese
government and the UN Children's Fund delivered 300,000 impregnated
mosquito nets as it chugged along railroads from Pointe-Noire on the
Atlantic coast to the capital Brazzaville.

Reaching remote health centres in areas where medical services are
limited, the train left Pointe Noir on 9 August and headed along the
Congo-Ocean railway towards the south-western town of Dolisie, the third
city of Congo.

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73704


CONGO: Indigenous people "exploited" in recent elections

Paulin Mossoke, a young member of the indigenous Baka community in the
Republic of Congo, had high expectations when he registered to vote
during recent elections - instead he was left full of disappointment.

"The chiefs of the area asked us to vote for a specific candidate who
they said was going to change our lives," he said. "We did not know
these people as we have never seen them and they have never seen us."

Full report
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73742


KENYA: Poor conditions hinder mudslide recovery effort

Efforts to recover the bodies of the mudslide victims in a western Kenya
village have been slowed down by rainfall and fast-flowing sludge,
rescuers said.

"It has been slow because the ground is still very soggy and it is
raining," Major Mwange wa Musau of the National Disaster Operations
Centre told IRIN on 14 August. "There is the risk of rescuers being
trapped in the fast-flowing mud."

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73715


KENYA: Use of treated nets reduces child malaria deaths

The number of children dying from malaria has dropped sharply in areas
of Kenya where the disease is endemic as a result of a campaign to
provide free insecticide-treated mosquito nets to families, the United
Nations World Health Organization said.

According to the health agency, there was near ten-fold increase in the
number of young children sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito
nets between 2004 and 2006 in targeted districts, resulting in a
reduction of malaria-related deaths by 44 percent.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73761


KENYA: Reporters lead silent protest over controversial media bill

Kenyan reporters have been covering their mouths in a silent protest
against amendments to a new media bill they say would suppress press
freedom by forcing them to reveal confidential sources.

They have urged President Mwai Kibaki not to sign the bill. "Freedom is
not a negotiable commodity," protest spokesman Dennis Itumbi said. "We
will hold on, keep on the fight."

Marching through the streets of Nairobi on 15 August, hundreds of media
workers took part in a demonstration, covering their mouths with
handkerchiefs and sticky tape to symbolise the gagging of the press.

Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73768


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