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
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e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org


CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA
IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-Up 430
10 - 16 May 2008


CONTENTS:

KENYA: Claims of torture by army and militia, as food shortages grip Mt
   Elgon
KENYA: Govt raises funds, resettlement ongoing despite hitches
UGANDA-SUDAN: Fresh questions as Kony remains elusive
UGANDA: Food concerns grow in Karamoja
DRC: After two key deals, what progress towards peace in North Kivu?
CAR: Cautious welcome for rebel ceasefire


ALSO SEE:

CAR: "Our daughters have no future"
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78233]

GLOBAL: Export controls curtail aid for hungry neighbours
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78187]



KENYA: Claims of torture by army and militia, as food shortages grip Mt
Elgon

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has called for an
investigation into allegations of torture committed by security forces
deployed in the clash-torn Mt Elgon district in western Kenya.

"In seeking to return sanity to the area as a result of the atrocities
being committed in the area, the military should stop the excesses of
the security forces deployed therein," the commission said on 15 May
when it launched a report, The Mountain of Terror, which highlights some
of the atrocities allegedly committed by the security forces and a
militia group that has been active in the area since 2006.

The commission said it had written to the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Louise Arbour, urging her to recommend to the UN Security
Council the suspension of Kenya's armed forces in any ongoing or future
UN peacekeeping missions "on account of the violations".

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78254]


KENYA: Govt raises funds, resettlement ongoing despite hitches

The Kenyan government has raised Ksh1.46 billion (US$22.4 million) of
the Ksh30 billion ($462 million) it says it needs to resettle at least
350,000 people displaced during the post-election crisis.

"The magnitude of the destruction caused by the violence was enormous;
we will therefore require about 30 billion shillings to meet the full
costs of resettlement, including reconstruction of basic housing,
replacement of household effects, as well as rehabilitation of community
utilities and institutions destroyed during the violence," President
Mwai Kibaki said on 12 May during a funding drive in Nairobi.

Kibaki helped to raise Ksh457,272,129 ($7 million), with donations
mainly from government ministries and individual businesses, for the
Humanitarian Fund for Mitigation of Effects and Resettlement of Victims
of Post-2007 Election Violence.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78169]


UGANDA-SUDAN: Fresh questions as Kony remains elusive

The failure of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony to meet a team of elders
has created a stalemate that raises fresh questions over the viability
of talks between his group and the Ugandan government, a regional
analyst said.

"Kony managed to buy time and ease off pressure from the Ugandan
government or the international community through the Juba process,"
Levi Ochieng, a Kampala-based analyst said.

Juba, capital of Southern Sudan, has been the venue for peace talks
between the Ugandan government and Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. [Full
report: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78234 ]


UGANDA: Food concerns grow in Karamoja

Home to about 1.1 million people, Karamoja in northeastern Uganda is a
harsh, semi-arid region largely inhabited by agro-pastoralists, with the
highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the country, and the
lowest life expectancy.

In a January to April situation report, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said part of the problem was the
increasing impact of climate change across Karamoja.

"Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s the severe drought cycle was every
10 years, at present droughts are coming every two to three years, while
2006 and 2007 saw back-to-back years of extended dry spells," it said.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78204]


DRC: After two key deals, what progress towards peace in North Kivu?

Two agreements signed since the end of 2007 offer some hope for an end
to more than a decade of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), even if fighting has continued and a lasting solution has
yet to be found to the presence in the region of Rwandan Hutu rebels,
according to analysts.

Since the DRC government and various armed groups in the chronically
unstable North Kivu province signed a ceasefire in January, the truce
has been repeatedly violated and the number of displaced civilians in
the province has increased.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78205]


CAR: Cautious welcome for rebel ceasefire

The signing on 9 May of a ceasefire between the government of Central
African Republic and the only rebel group that had yet to join a
national peace process has drawn mixed reactions from within the
country.

The truce with the Armee populaire pour la restauration de la republique
et la democratie, based in northwestern CAR, was signed in the Gabonese
capital, Libreville, after a month of discussions with the Bangui
government.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78201]


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