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Tuesday 1 November 2005


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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 295 for 3-9 September 2005

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

CONTENTS:

KENYA: One million still in need of food aid
CAR: Additional aid to Bangui's flood victims
DRC: Rwanda begins extraditing Congolese dissidents
DRC: Army to start expelling foreign fighters on 30 September
DRC: UN enlarges its mission during election period
DRC: Hundreds protest their eviction from Virunga National Park
DRC: Third plane crashes in four days
UGANDA-SUDAN: Salva Kiir pledges support against the LRA
TANZANIA: Election campaign kicks off in troubled Zanzibar

ALSO SEE:

SOUTH AFRICA: VIP protection troops in Burundi to be withdrawn, says govt
Full report

KENYA: One million still in need of food aid

Some one million Kenyans will need food aid until February 2006 despite an improvement in food security in some of the areas that had been hit by drought, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in its latest food emergency report.

The number of people experiencing shortages was estimated at 1.6 million in July, according to WFP.

The agency said a joint assessment it carried out in July with the government in 26 districts had shown that some areas in the northwest had significantly recovered from drought.

"However, there has been significant deterioration in household food security in most parts of northeastern Kenya (Wajir, Garissa, and Tana River districts) and in a few localized areas (Kajiado, Moyale, Marsabit and Turkana districts) and farming households in the southeastern and coastal marginal districts," WFP said in the report released on Friday.

Full report

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CAR: Additional aid to Bangui's flood victims

The UN says its Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has authorised an emergency grant of almost US $18,000 for nearly 20,000 people affected by August's flooding in the Central African Republic (CAR)'s capital, Bangui.

"UN agencies have already provided therapeutic high-nutrition biscuits, water purification tablets, jerry cans for clean water, and petrol lamps, which have been distributed through the national Red Cross," UN News reported on Wednesday.

The Red Cross and the government have asked for UN aid in providing food, medicines, kitchen utensils, mosquito nets, clothing, blankets, sanitation materials, as well as construction materials for emergency rehabilitation, UN news said.

It said over 2,500 homes have been ruined by the floods.

CAR Red Cross Coordinator Alphonse Zarambaud said in August that the situation could worsen further with more rainfall expected in September and October.

Full report

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DRC: Rwanda begins extraditing Congolese dissidents

The Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) announced on Saturday that Rwanda had begun extraditing dissidents associated with a breakaway army general in eastern Congo, Laurent Nkunda.

"We see this as an evolution in our relations with Rwanda," Adolphe Onusumba, the Congolese defence minister, said at a news conference on Saturday in Kinshasa, the nation's capital. "Some of these dissidents were in the process of destabilising the DRC government."

The dissidents were transferred to the Congolese border where authorities there then took them to a prison in Goma, Obusumba said. He added that one of the dissidents who left Rwanda - for Belgium - was South Kivu Provincial Governor Patient Mwendanga.

Full report

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DRC: Army to start expelling foreign fighters on 30 September

The army will on 30 September begin using force to expel all foreign rebel fighters in the country, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.

"To do this we need logistics support from [the UN Mission in the DRC] MONUC and the international community," Kasongo Kudura, the spokesman, said.

MONUC spokeswomen Rachel Eklou said on Thursday UN troops would support the army operation.

The deadline for the rebels to leave voluntarily or face expulsion was set during a meeting on Tuesday with President Joseph Kabila, representatives of the country's Independent Electoral Commission, and those of the International Committee in Support of the Transition; known as CIAT. The committee includes ambassadors from Angola, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, France, Russia, South Africa, the United States, Zambia, the African Union, the European Union, and MONUC.

Full report

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DRC: UN enlarges its mission during election period

The UN Security Council on Monday authorised the temporary deployment of additional personnel and equipment to the UN Mission in the DRC for the country's general elections due in 2006.

The Council authorises an increase of 841 personnel, which would include up to five formed police units each with 125 officers and additional police personnel.

The Council also authorised MONUC, "acting in close coordination with the UN Development Programme, to provide additional support to the Independent Electoral Commission for the transport of electoral materials."

Full report

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DRC: Hundreds protest their eviction from Virunga National Park

Police fired shots into the air on Wednesday in the town Beni in northeast DRC's North Kivu Province to disperse three hundred people protesting their eviction from Virunga National Park.

"These people have been homeless for the last week sleeping under the stars and at the mercy of nature," Julien Paluku, the mayor of Beni, said on Thursday.

The protestors were among hundreds of people evicted by police and soldiers last week from the 790,000 hectares park, Paluku said. Thousands fled there during the 1990s to escape various armed conflicts in the region.

Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda the park, which straddles Rwanda Uganda and DRC, was occupied by some 30,000 refugees and displaced people. Conservationists estimate they cleared 15,000 hectares of forest for farming

The eviction occurred during an international conference in Kinshasa on saving primates from extinction. Virungu Park is home to more than half of the world's mountain gorillas.

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DRC: Third plane crashes in four days

The third air crash in DRC in less than a week occurred on Thursday when a Twin Otter turboprop aircraft owned TMK airlines slammed into a cemetery two kilometres west of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu Province.

"All 19 passengers survived, including a baby," Lussi Kambale, the doctor in charge of Docs Hospital told IRIN, "but seven people are seriously injured."

In another incident on Monday, all 11 passengers and crew died when an Antonov 26 aircraft crashed 1,500 metres short of Isiro airstrip in the northeastern province of Orientale.

On Tuesday a plane belonging to Flying Air Service caught fire at the end of the runway of Goma International Airport. The French pilot later died of his injures.

Full report

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UGANDA-SUDAN: Salva Kiir pledges support against the LRA

Sudanese First Vice-President Salva Kiir assured Uganda on Wednesday of his cooperation in the fight against the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which operates from bases in both countries.

A statement from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's office said Kiir told the Ugandan leader that the government in Khartoum and his Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) were "willing to have joint operations with the UPDF (the Ugandan army) against rebels remnants".

Museveni's office said Kiir's pledge followed a proposal by Museveni for a joint operation involving the SPLM/A, the Sudanese army and the Ugandan military as a way to completely wipe out the LRA and its leader, Joseph Kony.

Full report

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TANZANIA: Election campaign kicks off in troubled Zanzibar

Election campaigning began on Monday in Tanzania's semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, with the main opposition expressing renewed concerns that the vote may be rigged.

"We shall explore all avenues to see that this year's polls are free, fair, transparent and peaceful," Seif Shariff Hamad, the presidential candidate for the main opposition Civic United Front party, told a campaign rally in Zanzibar's capital Stone Town.

Opposition concerns that Zanzibar's electoral commission and the ruling party are plotting to rig the 30 October legislative and presidential increased in August when the commission cancelled a contract with a South African firm, Waymark Infotech, to cross check the registration of voters.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

Governments to meet over rebel menace, 25/Oct/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 301 for 15-21 October 2005, 21/Oct/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 300 8-14 October 2005, 14/Oct/05

EU adopts development, security partnership strategy, 13/Oct/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 299 for 1-7 October 2005, 7/Oct/05

Other recent reports:

SOUTH AFRICA: Black youth still struggle for economic equality, 31/Oct/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Countries must prepare for bird flu, 28/Oct/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 254 for 22-28 October 2005, 28/Oct/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round up 301 covering 22-28 October 2005, 28/Oct/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 28/Oct/05

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