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IRIN Africa | East Africa | CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA | CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 275 for 16-22 April 2005 | Other | Weekly
Friday 29 April 2005
 
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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 275 for 16-22 April 2005


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


CONTENTS:

DRC: UN troops kill; wound 40 militiamen in gun battle
DRC: Army deploys two more battalions to Ituri
DRC: UN extends arms embargo
BURUNDI-RWANDA: UN agency relocates newly arrived refugees
RWANDA: Refugees could be joining rebels, minister says
TANZANIA: Thousands of Zanzibaris homeless after heavy rains

ALSO SEE:

DRC: Who's who in Ituri - militia organisations, leaders
Full report
CHAD-SUDAN: Governor urges UN to help local Chadians as well as Darfur refugees
Full report
CHAD-SUDAN: New spat over Chadian rebels in Darfur highlights difficult relations
Full report



DRC: UN troops kill; wound 40 militiamen in gun battle

UN ground troops supported by two combat helicopters "killed or wounded" 40 militiamen during a "cordon and search" operation on Monday in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokeswoman in Bunia for the UN mission in the country, said.

The spokeswoman, Elian Nabaa, said a battalion of Pakistanis, Nepalese, Bangladeshis, Moroccans and government troops returned fire on several hundred militiamen in Katoto and Lingo, 25 km northeast of Bunia in the district of Ituri. The fighting took place in an area controlled by the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a militia group of the Hema people.

"Militiamen shot at the UN troops as they arrived in the sector, who then returned fire," she said.

Nabaa said 18 militiamen from Lingo surrendered. She said the operation was aimed at dismantling militia camps and to cut their rear bases. The UN mission, known as MONUC, had given all militias in Ituri till midnight of 1 April to hand in their weapons.

The Katoto-Lingo operation was the third by MONUC to disarm the militias, following the expiry of its deadline for the fighters to disarm voluntarily.

Of the estimated 13,000 Ituri militiamen, 10,644 have already been disarmed by Thursday in seven sites. Among them are 1,286 UPC fighters whose total fighting strength is close to 4,000.



DRC: Army deploys two more battalions to Ituri

Two more battalions of the Congolese Armed Forces have arrived in Bunia, the main town in the northeastern district of Ituri, ahead of their deployment to formerly militia-occupied territories of Mahagi and Aru, Lt Gulain Umba, the army liaison officer, told IRIN on Tuesday.

He added that the army would assess the situation across an area spanning 480 km from Bunia through Djugu, a territory occupied by Front des nationalistes intégrationistes and Union des patriotes congolais militias. Due to a shortage of police officers, Umba said, the battalions' duties would, in addition to protecting national security, extend to the protection of the lives and property of civilians.

Full report

DRC: Three killed, thousands displaced as army takes on militia group



DRC: UN extends arms embargo

The UN Security Council extended an embargo on arms and military financing in the DRC on Monday, to include a travel ban on violators and the freezing of their assets.

Security Council resolution 1596, adopted unanimously, condemned the continuing illicit flow of weapons into the east of the country it said, "continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region".

"The resolution bans military equipment for any recipient in the DRC, except to those police and soldiers who make up the country's national army, and those arms used for technical training and for [MONUC]," Fred Eckhard, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said on Monday in New York.

The resolution called for Annan to select a group of four experts to monitor the ban – which extends the original embargo of 2003 - and to add a fifth expert to deal with financial matters.

Full report



BURUNDI-RWANDA: UN agency relocates newly arrived refugees

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Monday it began relocating the more than 2,000 refugees fleeing Rwanda since the end of March. They have been camped out across the border of northern Burundi.

For reasons of security, the agency does not provide aid to the refugees at borders, Catherine-Lune Grayson, the head of UNHCR public relations in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, told IRIN Monday.

"We encourage people to move inland," she said.

The officer in charge of refugees in Burundi's Ministry of Interior, Didace Nzikoruriho, said the refugees were only being moved to temporary camps at Songore in the northeastern province of Muyinga, and at Mishisha in Cankuzo Province.

"The government and its partners are yet to decide on more long-term places to relocate them," he added.

The refugees have not been receiving assistance from UNHCR, while at the border, said Felix Niragira, the governor of Ngozi Province, which has been host to 1,152 refugees, including 480 children, at Marangara Commune.

Full report



RWANDA: Refugees could be joining rebels, minister says

Rwandans who have been fleeing to Burundi and Uganda since the beginning of April could have been recruited into rebel groups, Rwandan Minister for Local Government Protais Musoni said on Thursday.

"We have information of some elements trickling in and out and mobilising these people," he said in Kigali.

He added that fear of indictment in the country's traditional justice system, known as "Gacaca", could have caused many of the refugees to leave the country. Gacaca courts were established in March to help bring to trial tens of thousands of suspects accused of being involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan government estimates 937,000 people died during the genocide between April and June 1994.

In recent months, some 2,000 Rwandans have fled to northern Burundi, and another 1,118 to Uganda, according to the UN.

Full report

BURUNDI-RWANDA: Hundreds flee Gacaca courts
RWANDA-UGANDA: Over 1,000 refugees flee to Uganda



TANZANIA: Thousands of Zanzibaris homeless after heavy rains

Thousands of people in the north of the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar were made homeless on Tuesday following the heaviest rains on the island for more than three decades, a government official told IRIN on Wednesday.

"We are still assessing the magnitude of the damage," Said Shabaan, the deputy permanent secretary in Zanzibar's chief minister's office, said.

Some homes were swept away, he said. Others are flooded. He estimated that 400 families had been affected, with each family having between four and six members, although some may have up to 10.

Zanzibar's chief minister, Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, appealed for international aid saying the families needed food, blankets, mattresses, mosquito nets, clothes and medicine. He also said people risked catching diseases such as cholera and malaria.
Relief organisations are awaiting an official government report on the extent of the damage before acting, officials in Nahodha's office said.

Full report


[ENDS]


Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 276 for 23-29 April 2005,  29/Apr/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 274 for 9-15 April 2005,  15/Apr/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 273 for 2-8 April 2005,  8/Apr/05

Interview with Ibrahima Fall, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General ,  4/Apr/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 272 for 26 March to 1 April 2005,  1/Apr/05

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 29/Apr/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 17 covering the period 23 - 29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

ZIMBABWE: Mining decline hits workers hard, 29/Apr/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 228 for 23-29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly 274 covering 23 - 29 April 2005, 29/Apr/05

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