IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 288 for 16-22 July 2005
CONTENTS:
DRC: Thousands displaced by attack in South Kivu
CENTRAL AFRICA: Militias to be forcefully disarmed
BURUNDI: Over 2,000 Rwandans "asylum seekers" in northern provinces
BURUNDI: Teachers to coach students during strike
KENYA: 9,000 now displaced in Marsabit, Red Cross says
KENYA: Nairobi heavily policed on third day of protests
KENYA: Polio vaccinations to target 1 million children
KENYA-UGANDA: Dozens of cattle rustlers killed in cross-border raid
UGANDA: ARV targets achieved ahead of schedule
UGANDA: High HIV/AIDS levels among fishing communities
DRC: Thousands displaced by attack in South Kivu
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said on Tuesday that some 13,000 civilians were displaced from their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Kalonge Chiefdom, in South Kivu Province, following an attack earlier in July by Hutu Rwandans militias.
"In the village of Fendula, 90 percent of the population has fled, which is 13,000 out of 14,476 inhabitants," said Nadia L'Heureux, the information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bukavu, the provincial capital.
She said OCHA was leading an interagency mission to the chiefdom, some 100 km northwest of Bukavu, to evaluate the humanitarian situation. The mission arrived on 16 July.
She also said the total number of displaced refugees in Kalonge since the February and April attacks was 32,000. Displaced people told the members of the mission that they were still too afraid of further attacks to return to their villages. Many of the women burned to death on 9 July by the militiamen had been raped beforehand, L'Heureux said.
The army has said it lacks transport and communication to hunt down the rebels hiding in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
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CENTRAL AFRICA: Militias to be forcefully disarmed
The presidents of Angola, Gabon, DRC, and the Republic of the Congo, ended a summit on 16 July with an agreement to disarm all militias and armed groups forcibly, as a matter of urgently, who are trying to destabilise the peace process in DRC.
"The four countries are working together with the African Union, United Nations and the European Union in order to set up an Economic Community of Central African States [ECCAS] brigade to ensure the ongoing democratic process in DRC," Dennis Sassou-Nguesso, the ROC president and current ECCAS chairman, said.
BURUNDI: Over 2,000 Rwandans "asylum seekers" in northern provinces
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates there are still more than 2,000 Rwandan asylum seekers in the northern provinces of Burundi despite a joint operation by Burundian and Rwandan authorities on 13 June to repatriate them.
"Small numbers of asylum seekers have kept coming from Rwanda and others probably never left," Catherine-Lune Grayson, the UNHCR external relations officer in Bujumbura, said on Wednesday.
She said UNHCR added the numbers of Rwandan asylum seekers in different areas in northern Burundi that were provided by local authorities, the local Red Cross and representatives of asylum seekers to come up with its estimate.
UNHCR is currently assisting 62 of the asylum seekers in the centre of Mugano Communce, in Ngozi Province. However, she said many others were dispersed in the communes of Mparamirundi and Gatsinda in Ngozi; as well as in Rwisuri, in Kirundo Province.
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BURUNDI: Teachers to coach students during strike
Burundian teachers decided on Thursday to coach pupils for their national exams scheduled for 26-29 July even though they will continue their strike to demand payment of their salary arrears.
"But we will not supervise [the exams] or correct them," Philbert Ngenzahayo, the chairman of the high school teachers union known as CONAPES, said at the end of a teachers unions' general assembly.
Teachers are continuing a strike that began on 29 June to demand a total of US $5 million, which they say was promised to them.
"The government has failed to honor its pledges," Ngenzahayo said.
KENYA: 9,000 now displaced in Marsabit, Red Cross says
The total number of people displaced by fighting in the northern district of Marsabit has now increased to 9,000 the Kenyan Red Cross Society said on Monday. It said the situation was still volatile with possible escalation of the conflict.
It added that villagers continued to move to locations they considered safe. "The Boranas are moving to areas with more Boranas, while Gabras are moving to villages with more Gabras," Anthony Mwangi, the spokesman for the Kenya Red Cross, said.
Armed raiders, believed to have been members of the Borana ethnic group, first attacked villages inhabited by the Gabra community in the Turbi area of Marsabit on 12 July, killing dozens and wounding scores of others.
At least 10 members of the Borana community were killed in a revenge attack on 13 July. Police have put the total number of people who died during the clashes at 79, including 15 attackers killed by security forces.
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KENYA: Nairobi heavily policed on third day of protests
Heavily armed police patrolled the streets of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, on Thursday as demonstrations called by political parties and NGOs against constitutional reforms entered their third day.
One person was killed on Wednesday as police clashed with protesters, officials said, describing the dead man as a "looter". The police spokesman, Jaspher Ombati, said many people had taken advantage of the chaos to loot and cause havoc in the city’s central business district.
However, Kepta Ombati, a member of the National Convention Executive Council, a pro-reform coalition of political parties and NGOs that helped to organise the mass action, said his organisation was "scandalised" by Wednesday’s events.
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KENYA: Polio vaccinations to target 1 million children
Kenya is to undertake two rounds of emergency polio vaccination in August and September to protect nearly a million children from the disease which has been reported in neighbouring countries, the Ministry of Health said on Monday.
The director of medical services, James Nyikal, said his ministry was concerned about the possibility of the poliovirus being imported after the illness was reported in Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.
The immunisation drive would cost approximately $1.5 million, he said, and would be undertaken in partnership with the UN World Health Organization and the UN Children's Fund.
Two rounds of emergency polio vaccination were carried out earlier this year the frontier districts of Marsabit, on the Ethiopian border, West Pokot, which borders Uganda, and Turkana, next to Sudan, where an outbreak of polio occurred in 2004.
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KENYA-UGANDA: Dozens of cattle rustlers killed in cross-border raid
At least 40 armed Ugandan cattle rustlers were killed by Kenyan warriors and security forces on Wednesday when they crossed into neighbouring Kenya to raid cattle, Ugandan military officials said.
The army spokesman in northeastern Uganda, Lt Gabriel Lomongin, said up to 90 Karamojong raiders from Uganda crossed into Kenya late on Tuesday to steal cattle from the Turkana community. He said Ugandan security forces had prior knowledge of the planned attack, and had alerted their counterparts in the northwestern Kenyan area of Lodwar.
Kenyan police spokesman Jaspher Ombati confirmed the attacks, but said he was unaware of the number of fatalities. He said, however, that the Ugandan raiders had killed a 12-year-old Kenyan boy. Humanitarian sources in Kenya said one Kenyan was killed and another four wounded during the clashes.
Dozens of civilians were killed in northeastern Uganda last week as the Ugandan army battled armed rustlers accused of stealing livestock from a rival clan. The area is notoriously lawless and the frequent cattle raids between the Karamojong and their neighbours on the Kenyan side of the border, the Turkana and the Pokot, often result in death and destruction of property.
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UGANDA: ARV targets achieved ahead of schedule
Uganda has achieved its targets for the number of HIV-positive people accessing anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy six months earlier than anticipated, officials said on Wednesday.
"We were supposed to have 60,000 people on ARVs by the end of the year. We currently have about 65,000," Paul Kaggwa, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said.
Kaggwa attributed the achievement to international support from the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, the UN World Health Organization, and other international partners.
Kaggwa said if more resources continued to come into the country, Uganda would be able to triple the number of people accessing ARVs by the end of 2006. Some 120,000 Ugandans are estimated to be in critical need of the life-prolonging drugs.
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UGANDA: High HIV/AIDS levels among fishing communities
Alarmingly high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Ugandan fishing communities are threatening the lucrative fishing industry, which brought some US $105 million into the country in 2004, a new government survey has found.
It added that the productivity of the fisheries sector, which makes up 12 percent of Uganda's Gross Domestic Product and nearly 20 percent of its total exports, could witness a decline with the impact of HIV/AIDS.
The 2004 survey studied 21 communities living on the shores of Lake George, Lake Edward, Lake Albert, the Albert Nile, at the border with the DRC and Lake Victoria, which Uganda shares with the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania.
Recorded HIV/AIDS cases up to the end of 2002 showed that the highest prevalence in the country was in districts located along the shoreline of Lake Victoria.
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