"); NewWindow.document.close(); return false; } // end hiding from old browsers -->

Sunday 25 December 2005


Search

Regions

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 296 for 10-16 Sept 2005

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

CONTENTS:

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund
BURUNDI: Rebels willing to negotiate peace, but only with ethnic leaders
DRC: Claims of army desertion, rebellion in the east denied
DRC: 48 combatants arrested after returning from Burundi exile
DRC: Vaccination of 10 million children against polio begins
KENYA: UN agencies, gov't appeal for food aid as shortages persist
RWANDA: UN tribunal launches internal probe into its hiring process
SUDAN-UGANDA: Major road linking the two countries reopened

ALSO SEE:

DRC-RWANDA: Interview with Anastase Munyandekwe, spokesman for the Hutu-dominated FDLR
Full report

GLOBAL: US $150 million pledged for emergency fund

Ministers from key donor countries pledged $150 million on Thursday for an emergency fund that would enable the UN to respond more rapidly to sudden emergencies and divert resources to the world’s most neglected crises.

Attending the World Summit at UN headquarters in New York, representatives from over 20 countries and senior UN aid officials met to discuss the creation of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a key element of the UN Secretary-General’s reform package that calls for more predictable funding for humanitarian emergencies.

Luxembourg's minister of cooperation and humanitarian action, Jean-Louis Schiltz, told reporters that UN member states had made the pledge to the fund which was intended to be operational in early 2006.

"This means that once it is set up, the fund will immediately have these funds available, provided by Sweden, United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg," he said, adding that this was new money, in addition to current aid funds.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

BURUNDI: Rebels willing to negotiate peace, but only with ethnic leaders

The Libération du peuple Hutu-front national de libération (FNL), Burundi's last remaining rebel group, said on Wednesday it did not recognise the legitimacy of the new government and would only negotiate peace with representatives of the country's three ethnic groups.

"The FNL is willing to negotiate," Pasteur Habimana, the FNL spokesman, said from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

However, he said, the international community would have to act as guarantor during such negotiations which would have to be with the representatives of the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa ethnic groups. Habimana said even if the FNL's demands were not met it would not restart the war.

"The armed conflict is now over," he said.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

DRC: Claims of army desertion, rebellion in the east denied

Reports that troops are defecting in large numbers to join a dissident former general fermenting a rebellion in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were refuted by an army spokesman in Kinshasa as well as by a letter purportedly written by the ex-general, Laurent Nkunda.

Spokeswomen for the UN Mission in the DRC, Jacqueline Chenard, said a letter arrived at the office in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu that was signed by Nkunda which stated, "We don’t plan to revive war in the country except in a situation of self defence."

Chenard said the letter, dated 8 September, was also addressed to government authorities in the province. However, she said MONUC could not confirm the authenticity of the letter whose total contents she would not reveal.

The Congolese army's chief of the general staff, Lt-Gen Kisempia Sungilanga, said at a news conference in Kinshasa on Tuesday that reports of a massive desertion by Tutsi soldiers in the DRC were "disinformation".

No more than 100 troops deserted, Sungilanga said, contradicting a statement made on Monday by Gen Gabriël Amisi, commander of the 8th Military Region at North Kivu, who said some 350 troops from the 124th Battalion had defected to join Nkunda.

Full report

[DRC: Troops from the 124th battalion desert to join dissident general]

[Top of the Page]

DRC: 48 combatants arrested after returning from Burundi exile

The army said it arrested 48 dissident soldiers, including 11 officers, on Tuesday in the east of the country near its borders with Rwanda and Burundi as they were returning from exile.

"The soldiers are linked to [a dissident former colonel] Jules Mutebusi," Col Baudouin Nakabaka, the commandant in southern South Kivu Province town of Kanyola, said on Thursday.

In June 2004, Mutebusi and his men, who are mainly Congolese Tutsis, attacked Bukavu, the provincial capital of South-Kivu. Nakabaka said that after the attack they fled across the border and had only now returned.

He said the dissident soldiers crossed the border near the village of Bwegera, 150 km south of Bukavu. They had 40 two-way army radios and each soldier had a guns.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

DRC: Vaccination of 10 million children against polio begins

Local health authorities and UNICEF launched a drive on Monday to vaccinate 10 million children against polio in six provinces of the DRC bordering Angola, Health Minister Emile Bongeli said.

The vaccination drive is also to take place in two provinces in the north, bordering the Central African Republic and Sudan, where cases of polio have been registered.

On 22 September, the vaccination effort will be launched in the southern part of the country and carried through to the north. The head of the nation's vaccination programme, Dr Jean-Marie Muya Mbayo, said the last case of the wild polio virus in the DRC was detected in 2000. At least 8,000 Congolese children are victims of polio. Most cases occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the diamond-mining region of Kasai.

Full report

[HORN OF AFRICA: Polio vaccination campaign targets 34 million kids]

[Top of the Page]

KENYA: UN agencies, gov't appeal for food aid as shortages persist

UN agencies and the Kenyan government appealed for US $29 million on Tuesday to feed an estimated 1.2 million people who will need such help until February 2006 because of erratic rainfall in parts of the country.

The UN World Food Programme would require $25 million for its emergency operation between September 2005 and February 2006, Peter Smerdon, the agency's spokesman, said. Some 79,000 tonnes of food would be needed with the government providing 5,000 tonnes.

The UN Children's Fund and its partners would need an additional $4 million.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

RWANDA: UN tribunal launches internal probe into its hiring process

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda announced on Thursday it had launched an investigation into allegations that one of its senior officials unduly influenced the recruitment of another senior official.

A team will investigate whether tribunal spokesman Roland Amoussouga "assisted in anyway in the process of recruiting" the head of the court's defence management section, Pascal Besnier; according to Mandiaye Niang, the special assistant to the tribunal's registrar.

Niang said the team would consist of four senior UN officials and would take 14 days to complete its investigation. He also said Besnier's offer of employment was being held, pending the teams' findings.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

SUDAN-UGANDA: Major road linking the two countries reopened

A major road linking northern Uganda and the southern Sudanese garrison town of Juba was reopened on 10 September after almost two decades of disuse and insecurity, officials from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) announced.

"Some organisations helped us to de-mine the road. It is still rough, but traffic can now move from Koboko at the border with Uganda to Juba through Yei," George Riak, an SPLM/A official in Kampala, said on Tuesday.

He said the 260-km road became insecure in 1985 when the war in southern Sudan extended to the west and east of the River Nile. Those who insisted on using the route had to use military-escorted convoys to make it to Juba.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 310 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 309 10-16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 308 3-9 December 2005, 9/Dec/05

UN appeal seeks $154.5 million for recovery efforts , 7/Dec/05

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 307 26 November to 2 December 2005, 2/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

RWANDA: Body found in Brussels canal confirmed that of ex-minister's, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 309 covering 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 262 for 17-23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about IRIN's Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2005
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.