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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[The weekly roundup is based on IRIN daily updates and other relevant information from UN agencies, NGOs, governments, donors and the media. IRIN issues these reports for the benefit of the humanitarian community, but accepts no responsibility as to the accuracy of the original sources.]
Central and Eastern Africa: IRIN Weekly Round-up 36-98 covering the period 28 Aug-3 Sep 1998
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Rebels admit loss of Matadi
Rebels battling the government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila acknowledged they withdrew over the weekend from Matadi, the capital of Bas-Congo and the main port linking Kinshasa with the sea, and from the Inga hydro-electric dam to the west, the main source of power for the capital.
"We pulled out of Matadi and Inga and we will concentrate on Kinshasa now," Reuters quoted Ernest Wamba die Wamba, chairman of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) as telling reporters in the rebel stronghold of Goma. "Now, we are conducting a guerrilla type of war." The RCD also claimed to have taken Moba on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the southeast of the country on Saturday.
RCD chairman says rebels ready to meet Kabila any time
Wamba dia Wamba also stressed the conflict in DRC should be resolved politically. In an interview published by this week's 'EastAfrican', he said the end of the war would "depend on Kabila". "We are willing to meet Kabila whenever he wants to meet us and discuss a ceasefire," he said. "The aim is find a solution to Congo's problems once and for all."
In another interview carried by the same paper, rebel military commander Jean-Pierre Ondakane said he wanted a "short war". "I'm not going to ask my boys to walk all the way from Goma again," he declared. He again ruled out any Rwandan involvement in the war, stressing the pan-Congolese nature of the rebellion: "soldiers from Mobutu's old army, Katangans, Banyamulenge, Kabila's fighters, the Mayi-Mayi."
Meanwhile, Gabonese Africa Number 1 radio, monitored by the BBC, reported the Angolan army entered Matadi in force following heavy looting overnight after the rebel pull-out on Saturday. It said the Angolan troops immediately began mopping-up operations in the city. The local authorities called on the police to work with the Angolans to arrest looters.
Kinshasa reported less tense after fighting
Kinshasa was reported "less tense" after DRC troops, backed by their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies, ousted rebel infiltrators from the eastern outskirts of the city. Radio France Internationale reported "a considerable decrease in tension" and said "summary executions had practically ceased". Loyalist forces had spent much of Friday and Saturday pounding the eastern suburbs of Masina and Kimbanseke with heavy weapons. Accurate casualty tolls from the fighting were not available, media organisations reported. On Sunday, AFP reported the main road leading from the centre of Kinshasa
to Ndjili airport was partially reopened. It said a group of Congolese journalists were able to travel to the airport along the road which had been closed since the previous Wednesday. The 'Daily Herald' newspaper in Harare reported on Saturday that Zimbabwean-led troops had driven the rebels from their positions on the strategic highway. It said the rebels had been forced to abandon a bridge on the road following a three-day battle with troops from DRC, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Kabila visits Mugabe
Kabila flew to Zimbabwe on Sunday and held talks with his ally President Robert Mugabe to discuss the next stage in the war, news organisations reported. Mugabe, who has reportedly now sent as many as 2,800 troops to DRC, previously launched a bitter attack on Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa, saying they were "hypocrites" for urging a ceasefire while "pouring arms into the conflict".
On Saturday, Angola's national media broke with its hitherto veiled commentary on the conflict and dubbed the action of its forces "a liberation". National television reported the "triumphant march" of its forces.
As the war of words between protagonists and their allies hotted up, Rwanda again reiterated it reserved the right to intervene in the conflict if its borders were threatened. Calling for a ceasefire, Foreign Minister Anastase Gasana once again denied his country was already militarily involved. "We do know Kabila and his government have gathered today 10,000 members of a militia force being trained in Katanga... if we feel we need to protect our country from the militia, then we may need to go into Congo," he told reporters. Gasana was leading the Rwandese delegation to this week's summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Durban, South Africa.
South Africa shifts stance and hails military intervention
In a shift of policy, South Africa on Thursday expressed support for the military intervention of Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola in the DRC conflict on the side of Kabila, the BBC reported. However, President Nelson Mandela said the shift did not signify a conflict with regional attempts to broker a ceasefire. He was speaking after a meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders attended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim. The talks were held on the sidelines of the non-aligned movement (NAM) summit.
Annan encouraged by talks
At a press conference following the meeting, Annan said he had been encouraged by the talks and that they were "moving in the right direction". He is due to meet the Ugandan and Rwandan presidents later today. "We are dealing with an evolving situation," he added. Kabila meanwhile, who arrived unexpectedly in Durban, lashed out at Uganda and Rwanda accusing them of "killing, raping and destroying structures" in western DRC. Addressing the NAM summit, he also accused them of the massacre of Hutus in the country. The SAPA news agency said Kabila was not present at the SADC meeting, but had separate talks with Annan. Annan had previously echoed a call by the Security Council for a ceasefire, withdrawal of foreign troops and a political dialogue to resolve the crisis.
Conflict impacting on humanitarian situation
Hostilities in western DRC over the past four weeks have seriously affected the humanitarian situation in Kinshasa, according to UN sources. They noted that although the situation was not yet critical, deteriorating food security conditions, intermittent drinking water supplies and cuts in electrical power in the city had weakened the population's ability to cope with the current crisis. With the capital's main supply lines cut, shortages of basic goods had emerged, with a tripling in the price of some basic food commodities reported.
An estimated 100,000 people displaced by fighting in the Masina, Kingasani and Ndjili areas near the international airport between 26-28 August had moved towards the city centre, while six city hospitals were facing shortages of fuel and electric generators, the sources said. Up to 50 civilians were estimated to have been killed by the clashes in Kinshasa, and 282 wounded civilians were received at the city's main referral hospitals on the night of 27 August alone.
Rebels deny government counter-offensive, claim takeover of Kabila's hometown
The DRC authorities on Monday claimed their troops had besieged the Katangese town of Kalemie in an eastern counter-offensive, but rebel sources told IRIN this was untrue and eastern Congo was calm.
AFP quoted rebel commander Bob Ngoy as saying Kabila's Katangese hometown of Manono had been seized and the rebellion was now focusing on DRC's second city, Lubumbashi. "When we have taken Lubumbashi, we'll be at ease," Ngoy was quoted as saying.
"Disappearance" of ethnic Tutsis in Lubumbashi reported
The Brussels-based Comite pour le respect des droits de l'homme et la
democratie au Rwanda (CRDDR) said it had received reports about the "disappearance" of 80 ethnic Tutsi detainees in Lubumbashi. They had been held for three weeks at the Vangu military camp, near the city. CRDDR said they had probably been executed, in a scenario reminiscent of the situation in Kinshasa where numerous Tutsis are being held and "summarily executed" at the Kokolo military camp.
Following a request by the DRC Minister of Human Rights, the government of Congo-Brazzaville is reportedly willing to allow some 180 Congolese and Rwandan Tutsi civilians from Kokolo to be evacuated to Brazzaville on humanitarian grounds, on the condition that they be resettled in other countries as quickly as possible, UN sources said.
More Congolese refugees flee conflict
UNHCR said 104 Congolese refugees arrived in the Rwandan town of Cyangugu, on the border with Bukavu, over the weekend. It also said 334 Congolese and 30 Burundians had arrived in Kigoma, western Tanzania, between Friday-Sunday, taking to 2,056 the total number of Congolese refugee arrivals there since 2 August.
RWANDA: ICTR finds Akayesu guilty of genocide
On Wednesday, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda passed its first-ever judgement by finding the former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. The judgement was also the first ever issued by an international court for the crime of genocide. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the verdict as a "landmark decision". "This judgement is a testament to our collective determination to confront the heinous crime of genocide," he said in a statement. "Let us never again be accused of standing by while genocide and crimes against humanity are being committed."
The tribunal judges were unanimous in finding Akayesu guilty of nine out of 15 counts on which he was charged. The defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. A court hearing will be held on 28 September before sentencing is announced. [On Friday, former Rwandan premier Jean Kambanda, who had pleaded guilty to the crime of genocide, was sentenced to life imprisonment.]
New Zealand, Sweden urge release of nationals abducted by Rwandan rebels
The governments of New Zealand and Sweden have called on the Rwandan rebel Hutu organisation Peuple en action pour la liberation du Rwanda (PALIR) to release immediately their nationals being held hostage by the group. PALIR released a fourth hostage, a Canadian, with a statement dated 20 July 1998 calling for international condemnation of the "massacre of Hutus" which it blames on the Rwandan and DRC authorities. The four tourists were abducted last month near the Uganda-Rwanda border during a visit to see the mountain gorillas.
BURUNDI: Moi says sanctions should be reviewed
President Pierre Buyoya held talks with his Kenyan counterpart Daniel arap Moi on Monday. Kenyan radio said they discussed the situation in Burundi and the ongoing regional sanctions against the country. Moi was quoted as saying progress has been made in meeting the conditions for lifting the embargo and said
the issue should be reviewed to alleviate the suffering of the Burundian people.
Agreement reached on working committees for Arusha process
An envoy for peace mediator Julius Nyerere, who is visiting Bujumbura, said agreement has been reached on the composition and leadership of five working committees established for peace talks. Mark Bomani told the Agence burundaise de presse (ABP) he had been sent by Nyerere to hold discussions on the working committees as part of the external Arusha peace process. Bomani confirmed that the Burundi embassy in Dar es Salaam would be reopened with a Burundi government representative in place. Burundi had previously accused Tanzania of allowing the embassy to be "occupied" by representatives of the opposition party FRODEBU and CNDD rebels.
UGANDA: Drought-affected populations to receive WFP food aid
WFP will provide over 4,000 mt of food aid to some 126,000 people in drought-affected areas of northeastern Uganda, according to the latest WFP weekly emergency report. The US $1.6 million project aims to protect the health and nutritional status of most-affected groups, prevent migration of people to other areas and encourage self-reliance of the affected population through food-for-work rehabilitation activities. The WFP food distributions will target the areas of Kotido, Moroto and Kitgum for a three-month period.
SUDAN: OLS denies "surveillance" accusations
Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) has denied Sudanese accusations that one of its planes was involved in surveillance ahead of the US bomb attack on a Khartoum factory. According to news reports, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had said an OLS plane had asked for permission to land at Khartoum airport, but instead circled the area several times and left without landing. An OLS spokeswoman told IRIN the organisation "is not, nor has it ever been, involved in surveillance for anyone". She stressed OLS activities were "strictly humanitarian", adding that the UN had discussed the issue with the Sudanese government who said the foreign minister was misquoted and the incident "is not an issue".
Tens of thousands displaced in east
The IFRC says over 55,000 people in Sudan are believed to have been displaced in the east of the country after shelling from across the border with Eritrea. The situation had gone unnoticed due to media focus on south Sudan, but hundreds of families were sweltering in the Shamboub makeshift camp set up beneath the Taka mountains, IFRC said. At least 36,000 people were languishing in pitiful conditions with little food and in increasingly bad health. Meanwhile Sudanese television reported 80,000 people were displaced in the eastern town of Kassala after the River Gash burst its banks.
KENYA: Bomb appeal launched
The government launched an appeal to raise nine billion shillings (US $156 million) for victims of the 7 August bomb blast, Kenyan radio reported. Minister of State Gideon Ndambuki said the appeal document was aimed at ensuring the coordination of various contributions and a mechanism to ensure accountability for resources mobilised by the appeal was being established.
GREAT LAKES: DRC information sharing exercise
On Wednesday 9 September, at 10:00, OCHA will host an information-sharing meeting on events currently unfolding in the DRC. All interested parties are invited to attend. The meeting will take place at the OCHA compound opposite the UN Gigiri complex.
Nairobi, 4 September 1998 11:30 gmt
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