CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 399 for 15 - 21 September 2007
NAIROBI, 21 September 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
DRC: Regional ministers push to end violence in the east
DRC: Displaced civilians scared to return to North Kivu town
DRC: Typhoid confirmed in western Kasai Province
UGANDA: Schools stay closed as floods hit eastern districts
BURUNDI: Congolese asylum seekers moved to transit site
ALSO SEE:
RWANDA: Genocide survivors ready to forgive but not to forget
Full report
UGANDA: Optimism in Karamoja despite lingering security concerns
Full report
UGANDA: Uganda Diaries
Full report
DRC: Regional ministers push to end violence in the east
The United Nations Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Congolese army should step up efforts to eliminate "negative forces" to improve the security situation in eastern Congo, regional foreign ministers meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said in a communiqué issued on 17 September.
"Delegations expressed concern about deteriorating security conditions in eastern Congo, in particular the destabilising roles of former general, Laurent Nkunda, and the ex-FAR/Interahamwe," the communiqué said.
The region has suffered violent clashes since the early 1990s, which evolved into a regional war that raged in the DRC between 1998 and 2003.
Full report
DRC: Displaced civilians scared to return to North Kivu town
Thousands of Congolese civilians displaced in August by fighting in Sake town, North Kivu Province, were still living in camps fearing resumed fighting, a UN official said on 19 September.
"Sake is almost a ghost town; some of the displaced come to the town during the day but return to IDP [internally displaced persons] camps around Goma [the provincial capital]; they are still afraid," Eusebe Hounsokou, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said.
Fighting erupted in August between the Congolese army and troops loyal to Nkunda, who has stated he is defending the rights of ethnic Tutsis in the region, leading to scores of deaths and the displacement of thousands of villagers.
Full report
Also see: Displacement, insecurity worsen humanitarian crisis in east
DRC: Typhoid confirmed in western Kasai Province
Five cases of typhoid fever were confirmed in Kampungu, western Kasai Province in the DRC, where investigations for Ebola are ongoing, a UN World Health Organization (WHO) official said on 20 September.
"We are seeing multiple causes for the reports of illness and death," Gregory Hartl, WHO communications advisor, said.
According to the WHO, figures released by various sources mention 375 cases and 167 deaths in the province, but the causes for all the deaths cannot be confirmed yet with only one case of Shigella, and less than 10 of Ebola, so far being confirmed.
Approximately 1,200 deaths have been documented since the Ebola virus was first identified in the western equatorial province of Sudan and in a nearby region of DRC in 1976 after epidemics in Yambuku, northern DRC and Nzara in southern Sudan.
Full report
Also see: TANZANIA: Health authorities issue Ebola alert
UGANDA: Schools stay closed as floods hit eastern districts
Thousands of school children were forced to stay home as schools remained closed due to flooding in eastern Uganda. The floods washed away roads, homes, buildings and crops in the region.
"The situation borders on a crisis. Nine people have so far died and the floods have affected up to 300,000 people," Musa Ecweru, the Ugandan minister for disaster preparedness said on 14 September.
Many of those affected by the floods were families that had just returned to their villages after years of displacement in camps due to a civil war between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.
Full report
BURUNDI: Congolese asylum seekers moved to transit site
Hundreds of asylum seekers from the DRC who had been camping in a playground in front of the UN refugee agency offices in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, were to be moved to Northern Ngozi province starting on 20 September, officials.
Several hundred Congolese nationals started arriving in Burundi early this year, fleeing violence in the South Kivu region of eastern Congo with between 50 and 100 asylum seekers arriving each day, Didace Nzikoruriho, the officer in charge of refugees in the Burundian ministry of home affairs said on 19 September.
Full report
aw/
|
Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition
[ENDS] |
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] |
|
|
|
|
|