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Monday 20 March 2006


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IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 320 25 Feb to 3 March 2006

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

CONTENTS:

DRC: Hundreds flee fighting in Ituri District
DRC: UN heads drum up support for vulnerable Congolese
BURUNDI: Donors pledge US $170 million for post-war recovery bid
TANZANIA: Army worms destroy 20,000 hectares of crops
TANZANIA: Mount Kilimanjaro climb for safer cities
TANZANIA: Zanzibaris must carry identity cards by 1 April
UGANDA: Museveni sets priorities after re-election
KENYA: Leading media house shut down by armed men
EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages

ALSO SEE:
KENYA: Sharing food with starving livestock in Mandera
Full report
EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages
Full report
UGANDA: War-ravaged north rues Museveni
Full report

DRC: Hundreds flee fighting in Ituri District

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced by fighting between United Nations-supported government troops and militiamen in the northeastern province of Orientale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, Ituri District.

Three hundred displaced persons fled fighting in the town of Tcheyi and arrived in Aveba village, 12 km south, on Monday, Modiba Traore said. "That adds to the 4,000 other displaced who have been in Aveba since the end of January," he added.

At this point, no urgent humanitarian interventions were needed, he said, but the aid community was ready to respond.

During a three-week period, between 8,000 and 10,000 people fled Tcheyi to Aveba following warnings by Gen Bob Ngoy, commander of a government operation in the northeast, that an attack by his forces to disarm the militiamen was imminent.

Full report

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DRC: Provincial health officials say cholera epidemic in check

Health officials in South Kivu Province announced on Thursday a reduction in the number of cholera cases in the area.

"We have recorded a decline of 33 percent of affected people in the region," Dr. Rick Shamavu, the provincial health inspector, said on Thursday.

He said the epidemic peaked at the end of January with 178 registered cases in one week; but not before causing 14 deaths in the province's territories south of the Bukavu, where the outbreak has been greatest.

Health authorities had set up a special programme to help at least 1,185 cholera patients registered between October 2005 and 27 February. In addition, the UN World Health Organization doctor in charge of Bukavu, Collin Ngobila, said together with the Congolese Red Cross the UN agency had revived a cholera prevention committee to chlorinate water sources.

"We have made sure that there are communication networks to raise public awareness on prevention and we have supplied [medicines] to cholera treatment centres that have reopened," he said.

Full report

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DRC: UN heads drum up support for vulnerable Congolese

The heads of three United Nations humanitarian agencies, who are on a joint mission to Africa's Great Lakes region, identified on Tuesday the alleviation of human suffering, security and protection of vulnerable people as some of the issues vital to stability and peace in the DRC.

"This mission is timely, it comes just as funding for the UNHCR [the UN refugee agency] is drying up," said Eusebe Hounsokou, the UNHCR representative in the DRC, on Tuesday in Bukavu, capital of the eastern province of South Kivu. "We hope the mission brought the DRC back to the attention of the international community and that it will result in enhanced funding for our operations in the country."

From Bukavu the officials - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, World Food Programme Executive Director James Morris and UN Children's Fund Executive Director Ann Veneman - went to Rwanda where they said despite political progress in the region, aid had to be increased in order to maintain security.

Full report

On the third and final leg of their three-nation tour, they pledged in Burundi on Thursday to significantly help the country, which faces malnutrition and food insecurity after over a decade of civil war and regional conflict.

"We committed to the president and the Burundian people our unconditional support," James Morris, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said on national radio.

Africa's Great Lakes region is emerging from a tempest of conflicts that have left millions dead and forced millions more to flee their homes since the 1990s.

[UN agencies pledge unconditional support]

[GREAT LAKES: UN chiefs push for more aid to region]

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BURUNDI: Donors pledge US $170 million for post-war recovery bid

Burundi received pledges of about US $170 million at the end of a donor�s conference on Tuesday, to cover the cost of its emergency post-war recovery needs for 2006.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Burundi Deputy President Alice Nzomukunda expressed satisfaction with the donors� pledges.

"The total of the needs have been covered," she said.

Burundi had asked for some $168.2 million for the recovery effort to cover urgent needs such as aid to the drought-stricken population; the rehabilitation of social infrastructures; the improvement of health care; the repatriation of refugees; and the resettlement of vulnerable people. The money received will also help Burundi ensure good governance and restore the rule of law.

Full report

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TANZANIA: Army worms destroy 20,000 hectares of crops

Army worms have destroyed about 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of maize and other crops in northern and southeastern Tanzania and the situation is likely to worsen in the next few weeks, National Army Worms Forecasting Services Centre Coordinator Wilfred Mushobozi said on 24 February.

"The situation is extremely grave," he said.

He said about 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) of crops had already been lost in Kiteto, in the Simanjiro District of Manyara Region. He added that the worms were likely to reach other districts in the central, northern and southern parts of the country. Worms have already been spotted in Babati District, the headquarters of the newly-created Manyara Region in northwestern Tanzania. They have also been observed in urban and rural Iringa as well as the districts of Mufindi and Kilolo in the south of the country. Mushobozi said the worms would soon "engulf" Tanzania's designate capital, Dodoma.

Full report

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TANZANIA: Mount Kilimanjaro climb for safer cities

Armed robbery victim Tim Challen, 33, began on Saturday his bid to conquer Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, in northern-eastern Tanzania, to draw world attention to the need to prevent crime and create "Safer Cities".

"I have been waiting for this day to come," he said, referring to the serious gunshot wounds he sustained from an armed robbery in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in May 2003. "I strongly believe in turning my misfortune into raising awareness to the problems of crime."

Since his shooting, he has been engaged in drawing attention to some problems in East Africa's cities through UN-HABITAT'S Safer Cities programme launched in 1996. Challen is among some 30 climbers trying to conquer the 5,896-metre snow-capped summit to raise funds for new community crime prevention projects, which are part of UN-HABITAT's programme. He expects to raise about $50,000 from the six-day expedition.

Full report

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TANZANIA: Zanzibaris must carry identity cards by 1 April

Beginning on 1 April, all adult Zanzibaris were required by law to start carrying identification cards or be subject to prosecution.

The age of adulthood in Zanzibar is 18 years. The law only affects Tanzanians of Zanzibari birth or a mainland Tanzanian who has lived on the island for at least 10 consecutive years and does not have a criminal record. Eligible Zanzibaris who refuse to register for the document could be liable to a one-year jail term, a fine of $100, or both.

The island's minister of local administration and the security forces, Suleiman Nyanga, has said the law would not affect non-Zanzibaris, including mainland Tanzanians, "as we work out possibilities of having temporary IDs for non-Zanzibaris".

At the time the identity card idea was introduced, the main opposition Civic United Front (CUF) party denounced it as a government plot to undermine the opposition and favour the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party in the 2005 general elections. However, the Zanzibar government has denied this.

"The aim of having the IDs in Zanzibar is clear. [It is] just for security reasons, and to help Zanzibaris have easy movement within the East African region," Nyanga said.

Full report

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UGANDA: Museveni sets priorities after re-election

President Yoweri Museveni, who won Uganda's first multiparty presidential and parliamentary elections in 26 years, has outlined his priorities for the next five years.

Among the priorities, he said, were energy provision to offset severe power shortages across the country, improvement of road infrastructure, poverty eradication, implementation of micro-finance schemes for small-business owners and disarmament of armed groups.

According to final results announced by the electoral commission on Saturday, Museveni, who has been in power for 20 years, won 59 percent of the votes. His main challenger, Kizza Besigye, won 37 percent.

"In the coming five years, we are going actually to take off and jump and fly because the basics are there," said the 62-year-old former guerrilla leader in a national address after winning the elections.

Full report

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KENYA: Leading media house shut down by armed men

Dozens of hooded armed men raided a leading Kenyan newspaper on Thursday, shutting down its operations three days after police arrested several reporters from the same organisation.

The chief executive of the Standard Group, Tom Mshindi, told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, that the raid targeted The Standard newspaper's editorial offices, printing plant and the transmission centre of its affiliate company, the Kenya Television Network.

The men, who stormed the newspaper at 1.00 a.m. [10.00 GMT], took away computers and transmission equipment, damaged the presses and set fire to Thursday's editions of the country's oldest newspaper.

"We have very strong evidence to suggest that these acts were carried out by the police," Mshindi said.
Kenya's information minister, Mutahi Kagwe, told journalists that he did not order the raid and knew nothing about it. He promised to hold a news conference later in the day.

Despite the police action, KTN resumed broadcast later that day.

Media owners and practitioners, civil society leaders and opposition politicians strongly condemned the attack.

Full report

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EASTERN AFRICA: Millions facing critical food shortages

An estimated 11 million people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa continue to face critical food shortages brought on by drought and non-natural factors, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said.

"African agriculture appears to be in crisis, and the compounding effect of years of wars, uprising or coups, and civil strife are responsible for causing more hunger than the range of natural problems alone," the agency's latest bulletin said on 24 February.

The IFRC cited drought, conflict, land shortages, high food prices and the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in some countries in the region as some of the underlying reasons for widespread hunger.

Drought and insecurity in Somalia had left some 1.7 million in need of food aid, IFRC observed.

Full report

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[ENDS]

�Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL & EASTERN AFRICA reports:

IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 319 18-24 February 2006, �24/Feb/06

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

Other recent reports:

IRAQ: Kurdish authorities vow to upgrade services after protests, 19/Mar/06

ZIMBABWE: One half of the divided MDC heads for 'watershed' congress, 17/Mar/06

WEST AFRICA: IRIN-WA Weekly Round-up 321 covering 11-17 March 2006, 17/Mar/06

HORN OF AFRICA: IRIN-HOA Weekly Round-up 318 for 11-17 March 2006, 17/Mar/06

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: IRIN-CEA Weekly Round-up 322 11-17 March 2006, 17/Mar/06

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