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CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 238 for 30 July - 6 Aug 2004 - OCHA IRIN

Sunday 19 September 2004


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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 238 for 30 July - 6 Aug 2004

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

KENYA: Agencies in US $85.6-million appeal for drought victims
BURUNDI: First Nepalese peacekeepers arrive
BURUNDI: Army repels Interahamwe militiamen
BURUNDI: Cabinet nominates five to electoral commission
DRC: Militiamen escape army custody
DRC: Government distributes donated schoolbooks
UGANDA: Kony wives, children flown home from Sudan

Also see:

DRC: Special Report on War and peace in the Kivus:
Full story

KENYA: Agencies in US $85.6-million appeal for drought victims

Two United Nations agencies appealed on Thursday for $85.6 million to help some 2.3 million Kenyans facing food shortages because of a prolonged drought.

The World Food Programme launched an emergency appeal for $82 million, while the Food and Agriculture Organization said it needed $3.6 million. Relief operations during the next six months will be directed at farmers and livestock keepers.

This follows President Mwai Kibaki’s appeal on 14 July for emergency aid for people in the Coast, Eastern, Northeastern and Rift Valley provinces.

Full story

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BURUNDI: First Nepalese peacekeepers arrive

The first 170 Nepalese peacekeeping troops for the UN Operation in Burundi arrived in the capital Bujumbura on Friday, ONUB military spokesman Maj Modisane Masebe said at a weekly news conference.

They are part of the 900-man Nepalese contingent expected to join the mission next week. They are also the first non-African troops to arrive but will be joined by Pakistanis in a few days. Masebe said equipment for a Pakistani second level hospital had already reached Burundi.

ONUB Chief of Public Information Isabelle Abric said these contingents would join the 2,900 UN African troops already in Burundi. Those troops - from Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa - had previously served in the African Mission in Burundi until 1 June, when they began operating under a UN mandate.

Full story

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BURUNDI: Army repels Interahamwe militiamen

Burundian government troops have succeeded in repelling an unknown number of Rwandan militiamen who crossed into Burundi from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, army spokesman Maj Adolphe Manirakiza said on Tuesday.

He said the Interahamwe militiamen had fled across the River Rusizi at the Buganda Commune of Burundi's northwestern Cibitoke Province, bordering Congo. He said the invaders were flushed out after security forces prevented them from getting food supplies from the Congo.

The army engaged the Interahamwe on Sunday after local residents reported the rebel presence in the area, he said. The army seized a rocket launcher, three sacks of ammunition, and cooking materials.

Full story

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BURUNDI: Cabinet nominates five to electoral commission

In a bid to prepare for Burundi's upcoming general elections, the cabinet has nominated five members to form the National Independent Electoral Commission, government spokesman Onésime Nduwimana said on Tuesday.

Their names will be sent to the national assembly for endorsement and then to the head of state for promulgation. He said commission members were chosen for their integrity and patriotism, as stipulated in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord of August 2000.

The nominations follow the June session of the Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Arusha agreement that urged the government to set up commission by 31 July.

Full story

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DRC: Militiamen escape army custody

Twenty-five Rwandan Hutu militiamen have escaped army custody in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the spokesman for the 10th Military Region in South Kivu Province said on Tuesday.

The spokesman, Lt Kasanda Wa Kasanda, said it was unclear how the militiamen escaped without a shot being fired. The commander of government forces in the region, Gen Mbuza Mabe, said 100 of his troops had been guarding the militiamen who are all members of the Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR). They had been captured on 30 July in the commune of Buégera, South Kivu, as they tried to cross the border into Rwanda.

Congo is under treaty obligation to track down and disarm all armed FDLR forces on its soil, in accordance with the Lusaka Cease-Fire Agreement signed with Rwanda in 1999.

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DRC: Government distributes donated schoolbooks

Authorities began distributing mathematics and French language textbooks on Tuesday worth €5 million (about US $6 million) to some 1.3 million schoolchildren.

Students of 18,344 public schools will receive the books during the 2004-2005 school year. Copies of a teacher's manual were also distributed to 43,229 primary school teachers, according to the Congolese minister of primary, secondary and professional education, Constant Ndom Nda Ombel.

The Belgian government made the donation. Textbooks had become rare in Congo's schools and many parents cannot afford to buy them.

Full story in French

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UGANDA: Kony wives, children flown home from Sudan

Seventy-seven former fighters of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), most of them child soldiers, were flown from Sudan on Wednesday to the northern Ugandan town of Gulu, together with four ex-wives of LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony.

Ugandan northern army spokesman Lt Paddy Ankunda told IRIN that 13 of Kony's children were on the flight. The repatriation, he added, was organised by the Ugandan government and aid agencies.

Full story

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[ENDS]

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 244 for 11-17 Sept 2004, 17/Sep/04

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 243 for 4-10 September 2004, 10/Sep/04

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 242 for 28 August - 3 September 2004, 3/Sep/04

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 241 for 21-27 August 2004, 27/Aug/04

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 240 for 16 - 20 August 2004, 20/Aug/04

Other recent reports:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 195 for 4-10 September 2004, 17/Sep/04

IRAQ: IRAQ CRISIS: Weekly round-up Number 79 for 11-17 September, 17/Sep/04

SWAZILAND: Constitution to be passed by parliament, 17/Sep/04

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 196 for 11-17 September 2004, 17/Sep/04

HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HOA Weekly 211 for 11-17 September 2004, 17/Sep/04

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