CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 400 for 22 - 29 September 2007
NAIROBI, 28 September 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
UGANDA: Thousands out of class after floods wash away schools
UGANDA: Population out of step with peace talks - report
KENYA: Thousands still affected by flooding in the west
CAR-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission
CONGO: Nearly half the provinces affected by sleeping sickness
DRC: More displaced in North Kivu as fighting resumes
DRC: Ebola cases suspected in Kasai Oriental
ALSO SEE:
UGANDA: The battle of the floods
Full report
UGANDA: Malnutrition the main challenge in Karamoja's "chronic emergency"
Full report
UGANDA: Thousands out of class after floods wash away schools
Flash floods sweeping across northern and eastern Uganda have damaged hundreds of schools, leaving at least 100,000 children out of class, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. The floods have also destroyed sanitation facilities, preventing the 289 affected schools from reopening, two weeks after other Ugandan schools resumed classes.
"The heaviest impact has been in areas where basic services had already been overstretched," UNICEF said in a statement on 26 September. "Assessments show flood damage further disrupting those services and exacerbating the situation."
Full report
See also: Agencies need $43 million for flood-hit areas
UGANDA: Population out of step with peace talks - report
Northern Ugandans are feeling disconnected from peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the region’s 20-year conflict, according to a report published on 24 September by the Oxfam international development agency.
The report, The building blocks of sustainable peace, based on surveys and focus groups in the north’s displacement camps, found Ugandans' knowledge of the Juba peace talks to be “uniformly poor”, resulting in an increased feeling of marginalisation.
The Ugandan government and Lord’s Resistance Army rebels have promised to consult civilians affected by the brutal conflict on what sort of justice and reconciliation settlement they would prefer. But the LRA’s plan to airlift war victims into their jungle camp has been criticised by the Acholi traditional leader, Paramount Chief Rwot Achana, who says it will not lead to the meaningful consultation desired by victims.
Full report
KENYA: Thousands still affected by flooding in the west
At least 28,000 people are still affected by flooding in the Budalangi area, in Kenya's western district of Busia, a humanitarian official has said.
"An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 internally displaced people are in six camps while a further 2,000 remain marooned," Mercy Manyala, a national officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Kenya office, said on 27 September.
Budalangi has an estimated population of 64,000 and experienced the latest deluge with the collapse of a dyke on the River Nzoia in August. "It is difficult to get information on who is displaced," Manyala said.
Full report
CAR-CHAD: France takes the lead on new UN-EU peacekeeping mission
France will be the largest single troop contributor to a new joint UN-European Union “multi-dimensional” peacekeeping mission to Chad and Central African Republic authorised by the UN Security Council on 25 September.
The former colonial power of both countries already has a military base in Chad and some troops in Central African Republic. It is expected to contribute about half of the EU force of 3,000 to 4,000 troops to support the new UN Mission, MINURCAT. Deployment is expected to start in November, preceding the arrival of the UN-African Union hybrid force expected in the Darfur region of neighbouring Sudan early next year.
Full report
CONGO: Nearly half the provinces affected by sleeping sickness
Because of the civil wars that have ravaged the Republic of Congo over the past few years, monitoring of trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, was considered a low priority. There has, however, been a resurgence in prevalence rates, affecting five of the country’s 11 districts.
“At the end of the 1997 civil war, the sleeping sickness situation was almost catastrophic. We are continuing to register cases in certain regions of the country,” said Stéphane Ngampo, head of the national programme to combat trypanosomiasis in the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and the Family.
The disease had been virtually wiped out in colonial times (before the 1960s), he said. “In colonial times the strategies employed to overcome trypanosomiasis were successful. The number of people suffering from the disease could be counted on the fingers of one hand,” Ngampo added.
Full report
DRC: More displaced in North Kivu as fighting resumes
Military dissidents loyal to renegade army general Laurent Nkunda have resumed fighting in the eastern province of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated by the UN Mission in the Congo (MONUC).
"The insurgents launched attacks against three of our positions in the morning, in Ngungu where the clashes had ceased, in Karuba and in Kichanga [in Masisi territory, northeast of Goma, the provincial capital]," Colonel Delphin Kahindi, the deputy commander of the Congolese army in the province, said on 24 September.
"There were clashes this morning in Ngungu and in Mweso, but it is not known if the fighting continued," Major Gabriel de Brosses, MONUC's military spokesperson, said. "One cannot say the ceasefire was broken because they were just clashes," De Brosses added, saying MONUC had sent a patrol and was awaiting an update on the situation."
Full report
DRC: Ebola cases suspected in Kasai Oriental
Two cases of suspected Ebola haemorrhagic fever have been reported in Kasai Oriental, the neighbouring province to Kasai Occidental, where at least nine cases have been confirmed, according to health officials.
"We received samples from two suspected cases in the village of Mwene Ditu that have been sent to the laboratory in the United States," Benoit Kebela, the secretary-general in the ministry of health, said. Mwene Ditu is 100km south of Mbuji Mayi, the main town in the province. “We are awaiting the diagnosis of the samples sent to the laboratory.”
Kebela said the suspect cases were not directly related to the epidemic that had affected hundreds of people in the village of Kampungu, in Kasai Occidental. Kampungu and its environs have been quarantined by the government to contain the outbreak.
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