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 452
11 - 17 October 2008


CONTENTS:

UGANDA: Hepatitis E spreads, IDPs most vulnerable
BURUNDI: Heavy rains leave families homeless and in need of aid
KENYA: Floods displace thousands in northeast
GLOBAL: Defining the Rights of the Internally Displaced
KENYA: Worsening food insecurity in the north

ALSO SEE:

GLOBAL: Donor response to food crisis inadequate, agencies say

[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80954]


UGANDA: Hepatitis E spreads, IDPs most vulnerable

Hepatitis E is on the increase in Uganda's northern district of Pader, 
where it has claimed scores of lives and infected thousands in the past 
year, officials said.

Since May, there have been 55 new infections and seven deaths in Pader, 
according to Angelo Luganya, a health official in Pader. In neighbouring 
Kitgum district alone, the viral disease has infected up to 8,000 
people, and killed 129.

[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80886]


BURUNDI: Heavy rains leave families homeless and in need of aid

Hundreds of families are without assistance in the northwestern province 
of Cibitoke after heavy rains damaged houses and crops, officials said.

Some 200 hundred houses were damaged in Murwi and more than 30 in 
neighbouring Bukinanayana. The administrator of Bukinanyana, Antoine 
Girukwishaka, told IRIN the victims sought refuge with their neighbours 
or built makeshift huts to provide shelter.

[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80909]


KENYA: Floods displace thousands in northeast

More than 10,000 people have been displaced by flash floods following 
heavy rains that pounded Mandera in north-eastern Kenya and southern 
parts of Somalia this week, aid agencies said.

Kenya Red Cross Communications Officer Titus Mung'ou said that food and 
non-food items had been provided to families from an estimated 1,500 
households that were displaced by the water that has been flowing across 
Mandera district in the past two days after a long period of drought.

[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80949]


GLOBAL: Defining the Rights of the Internally Displaced

At least 26 million people across the world are displaced within their 
own countries because of armed conflict. Another 50 million have been 
made homeless by natural disasters and experts predict that the effects 
of climate change, population growth and poverty could increase that 
number to 200 million by 2050.

The plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) often takes centre 
stage in humanitarian operations and the first universal guidelines 
detailing the rights of uprooted populations, known as the Guiding 
Principles for Internal Displacement, were drawn up in 1998.

[Full Report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80942

Also see: Guiding principles violated in IDP resettlement - activists 
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80948]


KENYA: Worsening food insecurity in the north

Levels of malnutrition are rising in parts of northern Kenya while food 
insecurity is expected to further deteriorate to high and extreme levels 
in the region.

"The nutrition situation is critical," Francis Kidaki, the Turkana 
Central district nutrition officer, told IRIN. The drought-prone Turkana 
region in the northwest has experienced consecutive failed rains. Levels 
of global acute malnutrition have gone up to 22.5 percent from 14.3 in 
2007.

[Full Story: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80911]


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