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Tuesday 21 February 2006


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Regions

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 298 for 24-30 Sept 2005

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

CONTENTS:

UGANDA: Disarm LRA rebels or we invade, Museveni tells Kinshasa, MONUC
UGANDA: Government, UN destroy 3,000 small arms
UGANDA: IDP child death rates over emergency levels, reports say
DRC: Anti-polio drive overcomes logistics hitch
TANZANIA: 44,000 to receive ARVs by end of 2005
BURUNDI: Donor shortfall means basic needs not being met
CAR: EU grants 2.4 million euros for roads in the northeast

UGANDA: Disarm LRA rebels or we invade, Museveni tells Kinshasa, MONUC

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday the Congolese government and the UN mission there known as MONUC must, in two months, disarm Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who recently crossed into eastern Congo or his army would do so.

"If the international community does not come in to do it, we shall go there," he said at a news conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

"We shall not wait for two months as [LRA Deputy Commander Vincent] Otti and his group eats up the animals in Garamba National Park. We shall not allow that."

Otti led some 400 rebels into Congo's Garamba National Park in early September, fleeing Ugandan military operations in south Sudan.

On Monday, the Congolese vice-president in charge of security and defence, Azarias Ruberwa, said in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, that the army was planning operations to oust the LRA rebels and their families. The government has given an ultimatum to all foreign groups to leave the country by the end of Friday.

"We have no choice, we absolutely have to disarm them," Ruberwa said.

Full report

[DRC-UGANDA: Kampala demands rebels' extradition]

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UGANDA: Government, UN destroy 3,000 small arms

An effort to rid Uganda of some 50,000 small arms began on Monday with the burning of about 3,000 weapons at a ceremony in the capital, Kampala.

Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda lit the pyre and said it was time the country did so since it was "largely no longer at war".

"Weapons destruction is intended to ensure that weapons seized, collected or deemed excess to national security requirements do not find their way back into illegal circulation or recycled into neighbouring conflict areas," Rugunda told the audience of mainly government officials and diplomats.

Full report

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UGANDA: IDP child death rates over emergency levels, reports say

The mortality rates for children in northern Uganda's internally displaced persons' (IDP) camps are above emergency levels, a joint survey by the Ugandan government and its partners has found.

Of the estimated 1.4 million IDPs in the conflict-ridden region, of whom 80 percent are women and children, the survey's preliminary findings reveal that crude mortality rates and under-five mortality rates are above the emergency thresholds of one death per 10,000 per day and two deaths per 10,000 per day respectively.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is faced with a 46 percent funding shortfall in the over US $40 million it requires to deal effectively with the crisis, UN News reported.

The UNICEF spokesman in Uganda, Chulho Hyun, told IRIN on Friday that the survey was jointly carried out by the Ministry of Health, the UN World Health Organization, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Agency and local authorities in the northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader.

Full report

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DRC: Anti-polio drive overcomes logistics hitch

A polio vaccination campaign in remote areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which was initially to start on 24 September, finally got underway on Tuesday after the project overcame logistical problems.

The administrator of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) vaccination project, Dr John Agbor, said the three-day campaign was aimed at some 10 million aged less than five years in six provinces in the northern and southern parts of the country.

He said UNICEF was undertaking the project because a wild poliovirus had been detected in Angola, the Central African Republic and Sudan, all neighbouring countries.

Full report

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TANZANIA: 44,000 to receive ARVs by end of 2005

The government of Tanzania plans to have at least 44,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS on anti-retroviral treatment (ARVs) by the end of 2005, President Benjamin Mkapa said on Sunday.

This figure, he said, represented some 10 percent of the actual number of those in need of ARVs.

Speaking at the general meeting of Churches United Against HIV and AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa in Dar es Salaam, Mkapa however warned that easy access to treatment and drugs should not encourage a jaded mentality towards sex and AIDS.

He urged HIV-positive clerics and church workers to openly declare their health status to reduce stigmatisation of those infected.

Full report

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BURUNDI: Donor shortfall means basic needs not being met

UN agencies in Burundi said on Wednesday that even though the country had now overcome many of its political problems, international donors were not providing enough funds to meet people's basic humanitarian needs.

Only 45 percent of the agencies' US $121 million 2005 Consolidated Appeal has so far been funded, Jean Sebastian Muni�, the programme coordinator at UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said at a news briefing in Bujumbura, the capital.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization coordinator of agricultural emergency operations Jean-Pierre Sanson, said Burundi was currently facing a food deficit of around 280,000 tonnes.

Full report

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CAR: EU grants 2.4 million euros for roads in the northeast

The European Union has agreed to give 2.4 million euros (US $2.9 million) to repair damaged roads in two provinces northeast of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, to help revitalise economic activities in the area.

"The aim of the project is to open up the countryside in order to facilitate the transportation of timber and agricultural products," Sergio Scuero, the EU desk officer for the country, told IRIN on Friday from Brussels.

The roads to be repaired run from the towns of Bambari, Ippy and Bria in the provinces of Ouaka and Haute-Kotto.

The project is part of a 100-million euro ($120.5 million) EU grant in aid to the country that resumed on 1 July following the holding of successful elections. The aid had been partially suspended in 2003 after President Francois Bozize's came to power in a coup d'etat.

Full report

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[ENDS]

�Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

Regional ministerial meeting opens, �20/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 318 11-17 February 2006, �17/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 317 4-10 February 2006, �10/Feb/06

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 316 28 January - 3 February 2006, �3/Feb/06

Regional summit to be held after DRC polls, UN envoy says, �1/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Donors pledge support for humanitarian crisis, 21/Feb/06

ANGOLA: Ready to play larger security role in Africa, 21/Feb/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 270 for 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 317 covering 11-17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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