CENTRAL AND EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 404 for 20 - 26 October 2007
NAIROBI , 26 October 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:
BURUNDI: Villagers flee as rebel fighters attack splinter group's position
BURUNDI: Assessment to determine whether FNL "dissidents" are genuine
DRC: Nkunda’s men fail to show up at integration centre
DRC-UGANDA: Influx of IDPs to Uganda as clashes continue in North Kivu
KENYA: UN honours Red Cross chief
KENYA: Land feud claims more lives in Mt Elgon district
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DRC: Caught in a web of clashes between armed groups
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BURUNDI: Villagers flee as rebel fighters attack splinter group's position
Fighters of Burundi's last active rebel group have for the second time in one week attacked a position occupied by a break-away faction, forcing villagers to flee their homes, a senior military official said.
The evening raid by combatants of the Front National de Liberation (FNL), led by Agathon Rwasa, took place on 24 October evening on a site where the so-called FNL "dissidents" have gathered in Gakungwe village of Kabezi commune in Bujumbura Rural province.
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BURUNDI: Assessment to determine whether FNL "dissidents" are genuine
Mediators in Burundi's peace process are investigating whether members of the country's last active rebel group, who have fallen out with their leader and expressed a willingness to join the process, were genuine combatants with the movement.
“We will not just sit and make an assessment and say that they are FNL combatants without testing," said the head of the mediation team, Charles Nqakula, who is also South Africa’s security minister.
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DRC: Nkunda’s men fail to show up at integration centre
Some 200 men under the command of dissident Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) General Laurent Nkunda failed to show up at a centre for integrating armed groups into the regular army, a UN official said - a day after Nkunda’s top aide announced their handover.
Military integration, or ‘brassage’, is a key component of efforts to bring peace to eastern DRC, a region rife with pro-government militia and renegade troops, where fighting has displaced some 370,000 civilians since the end of 2006.
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DRC-UGANDA: Influx of IDPs to Uganda as clashes continue in North Kivu
An estimated 8,000 people fleeing violence in the North Kivu province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have entered Uganda since 19 October, the UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) said.
"The influx into Bunagana [a border post in southwestern Uganda's Kisoro district] started Friday [19 October] night as Congolese living in villages close to the Uganda border crossed into Uganda to escape clashes between government soldiers and troops allied to the renegade army general Laurent Nkunda," said Robertta Russo, spokeswoman for UNHCR in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Fighting between Nkunda's forces and government troops in North Kivu has intensified since September. UN estimates say violence has forced at least 370,000 civilians in the region to flee their homes since December 2006.
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KENYA: UN honours Red Cross chief
Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) secretary-general Abbas Gullet has been given the UN in Kenya Person of the Year 2007 award for his work in reforming the organisation into a successful and partly self-financing operation.
In 2001, when Gullet was appointed, the society was heavily in debt and had lost credibility among its membership. Today, the KRCS says it is a leading humanitarian agency, partly self-financing and operating through a network of 58 branches and 69,000 volunteers countrywide. Gullet attributes the revival to good governance and transparency and has challenged local and national NGOs to do the same.
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KENYA: Land feud claims more lives in Mt Elgon district
A simmering feud over land rights in western Kenya's Mt Elgon district was blamed for several killings there in October, as disease spread among those displaced by the unrest.
"At least seven people have been killed in the month of October in the district," Maurice Anyango, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) relief officer, said on 26 October. The dead include an area administrator (locally known as a ‘chief’), who was shot dead in his office on 16 October in Kapkaten, in Kopsiro division.
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