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 419
9 - 15 February 2008


CONTENTS:

KENYA: UN humanitarian envoy winds up visit as mediation talks enter
   "crucial" week
RWANDA: Another quake hits southwestern districts
DRC: Cholera outbreak spreads in Katanga
CAR: Scramble to contain meningitis epidemic


ALSO SEE:

KENYA: Clashes, tension "routine" in troubled Molo
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76663]

KENYA: Crisis highlights cluster complications
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76698]

AFRICA: New round in the GM crop debate
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76728]


KENYA: UN humanitarian envoy winds up visit as mediation talks enter
"crucial" week

John Holmes, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
and Emergency Relief Coordinator, wound up a three-day visit to Kenya on
10 February as African Union-mandated mediation efforts entered what has
been described as a "crucial stage".

"We hope the violence will stop, we reinforce the need for
accountability for those responsible for that violence, which is why the
United Nations is helping not only on the humanitarian side but helping
in the political process as far as it can," Holmes said at a news
conference on 10 February.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is leading the mediation effort
to reconcile the government and the opposition with the aim of reaching
a political solution to the crisis.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76668]


RWANDA: Another quake hits southwestern districts

Another earthquake, the third in two weeks, hit southwestern Rwanda on
15 February, killing three people and injuring several more.

Scientists at the Goma Volcano Observatory, based in the neighbouring
Democratic Republic of Congo, said the quake measured 5.4 on the Richter
scale.

At least 43 people have died and hundreds been displaced since the
quakes, of varying sizes, hit the southwestern districts of Rusizi and
Nyamasheke in Rwanda and the DRC's Kivu region.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76763]

[See also: Another
tremor hits Bukavu http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76742]


DRC: Cholera outbreak spreads in Katanga

A cholera outbreak in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo province
of Katanga has spread, despite efforts to bring the epidemic under
control.

The disease has claimed the lives of 97 people and 4,029 have been
infected since the first cases of the gastro-intestinal illness were
reported in Katanga in September 2007, according to Francois Dumont,
spokesman for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF-Belgium). The disease has
spread quickly since the end of December.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76699]


CAR: Scramble to contain meningitis epidemic

Aid agencies and the authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR)
have joined forces to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people at risk
of meningitis in the northwest of the country, officials said.

Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in CAR, said the latest
vaccination effort was targeting at least 80,000 people at the centre of
the epidemic.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on
11 February that meningitis was spreading across three northwestern
districts and was threatening up to one million people. The announcement
followed a declaration by national authorities of an outbreak of
meningitis after several cases and numerous deaths were reported in
Ouham, Ouham Pende and Nana-Grebizi districts in the first five weeks of
this year.

[Full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76711]


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