Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 18:03:44 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,046  [2001106]
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U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
for Central and Eastern Africa

Tel: +254 2 622147
Fax: +254 2 622129
e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org

IRIN-CEA Update 1,046 for the Great Lakes (Monday 6 November)

CONTENTS:

DRC: Bunia tense after coup attempt against Wamba
DRC: ICRC helps 93 children rejoin their families
DRC: Kinshasa says it will accept Angolan refugees
RWANDA: Extra drought mitigation measures needed
RWANDA: Kagame attending Vatican jubilee
UGANDA: Three Ebola cases confirmed in Mbarara


DRC: Bunia tense after coup attempt against Wamba

The situation in the northeastern DRC town of Bunia was "tense and
confused"  on Monday following a weekend attempt to overthrow Professor
Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the leader of the governing Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML).  Bunia has
been growing increasingly fraught over the last few months after Wamba
suspended his two deputies, Mbusa Nyamwisi and Ateenyi Tibasima, accusing
them of planning a mutiny. So-called reconciliation talks were held in the
Ugandan capital, Kampala, last month, and a declaration was signed,
agreeing that the two would be appointed respectively as Wamba's first and
second vice-presidents. But on Saturday, the tension spilled over into
armed combat. Militiamen loyal to Mbusa Nyamwisi surrounded Wamba's
residence and opened fire in the vicinity. An official loyal to Nyamwisi
told IRIN on Monday Wamba had reneged on the deal and "did not bring about
the unification of the RCD-ML". He maintained that Wamba had been
overthrown and Mbusa Nyamwisi - as first vice-president - automatically
became the new RCD-ML leader.=20

However, Wamba's adviser, Colette Ramm, on Monday denied the comments. She
told IRIN the Ugandan government had condemned the coup attempt and
announced its support for Wamba, after reinstating him as the movement's
leader. She said Nyamwisi's fighters had freed at least 300 prisoners from
Bunia's military prison over the weekend and distributed weapons to them,
leading to a "very frightening situation". Fighting continued on Monday,
but abated in the afternoon. However, Nyamwisi's militiamen were still
holding their positions and it was feared there could be further fighting
overnight.  [For further details, see separate IRIN story of 6 November
headlined "Bunia tense after coup attempt against Wamba"].=20

DRC: ICRC helps 93 children rejoin their families

A group of 79 unaccompanied children and adolescents were on Friday flown
from rebel-controlled Goma in North Kivu, eastern DRC, to the
government-controlled Congolese capital Kinshasa by the ICRC to rejoin
families from which they had been separated. Most of the children had been
separated since the DRC conflict flared up most recently in August 1998, a
press release from the ICRC stated. The Red Cross-chartered Boeing 737
then returned to Goma carrying 14 other children, who were also to rejoin
their families in the east of the country, the statement said. "This was
the largest airlift of unaccompanied children to date, and the first time
that an ICRC aircraft has been able to go directly from Goma to Kinshasa
overflying Congolese territory," it added.=20

The ICRC described the separation of children from family members as "one
of the most tragic consequences of any conflict", and said it and hundreds
of volunteers were "working tirelessly to reunite unaccompanied children
with their parents or other relatives able to take care of them." Since
January, it has reunited 234 Congolese children with family members, as
well as repatriating 310 minors to Rwanda and one to Burundi. It expects
to take 77 children from Goma to Lubumbashi, in the southeastern province
of Katanga, in another flight scheduled for this week.=20

DRC: Kinshasa says it will accept Angolan refugees

The DRC government has told the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) that an estimated 18,000 Angolans fleeing intensified
fighting in Angola=92s Lunda Norte province will be allowed to cross into
Kahemba in the DRC. Kahemba already hosts 10,000 Angolans who had fled
during earlier stages of the conflict. Some refugees are reported to have
crossed in the past few days, but there are no firm estimates on numbers;=
=20
the rest of the group has been waiting for several days on the Angolan
side of the border, waiting to cross, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told a
press briefing on Friday. Local officials had told UNHCR they would help
in disarming possible members of the UNITA rebel movement who may be
present among the refugees, he said.=20

There were also reports of more Angolans fleeing to the DRC in a separate
area, some 250 km west of Kahemba, an area that already hosts 10,000
Angolans, Janowski said. Local village chiefs were speaking of 10,000 new
arrivals there which - if confirmed - would increase the number of Angolan
refugees in the DRC=92s southern Bandundu province to close to 50,000, he
added. UNHCR has faced fuel shortages and "huge logistical difficulties"
in trying to bring relief supplies to the area, the spokesman said. Two
large trucks with supplies were already on their way to Kahemba, and UNHCR
intends to send three more by the end of this week. The DRC hosts some
170,000 Angolan refugees, a figure which could quickly rise to over
200,000 if the latest influx continued, Janowski added.=20

RWANDA: Extra drought mitigation measures needed

The southeast of the country has been seriously affected by a long period
of drought and the resultant late start to the agricultural season, with
farmers in many districts having lost seedlings and obliged to sow their
fields again. The lack of seeds and cassava cuttings was "strongly felt by
the poorest households" who had no capacity to acquire them, according to
an emergency report on Friday, arising from a joint assessment mission.
Certain actions had already been taken to mitigate the negative
consequences of poor rainfall - including setting up irrigation systems
and delivering manual pumps, motor pumps, agricultural tools and seeds -
but "additional initiatives should be implemented", the report said. The
mission had representatives from Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Forests (MINAGRI), FAO, WFP, USAID's Famine Early Warning
System (FEWS) and the European Union. The situation was especially bad in
villages under the 'imidugudu' villagisation scheme, which contain mainly
the poorest households and whose populations do not always have access to
arable land, the mission teams reported.=20

An estimated six million coffee trees have been affected by drought, with
next season's losses estimated at 1,777 mt of fresh coffee beans. Banana
plantations have also been hit, affecting both food supplies and income
generation, while cattle mortality was up to 25 percent in some districts
[communes] and the degradation of meadows threatened to accelerate
erosion, the report stated. People's coping strategies included selling
the sheet metal roofing of houses, disposing of cattle at unfavourable
prices, family migration and staying away from school, it said. Some
267,000 people in the southeast are affected by the ongoing drought,
according to the first estimates of the assessment team. In the
short-term, the FAO recommends tackling vegetable seed supply, cassava
seeds multiplication, production of short-cycle seeds, expanding
agricultural outreach in nutritional centres, and reinforcing irrigation
systems allowing water management at the farmers' level. [for further
details, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/]

RWANDA: Kagame attending Vatican jubilee

President Paul Kagame is attending Vatican jubilee celebrations in the
city state, his press secretary Nicholas Shalita told IRIN on Monday. This
will be the president's first visit to Italy and the Vatican since his
inauguration in April, and is significant as relations between the Rwandan
government and Catholic church have been strained since the genocide of
1994, in which some Catholic priests and nuns were implicated. Kagame, who
left Rwanda on Saturday, is set to meet senior Vatican officials as well
as the Italian president Carlo Azeglio Campi.=20

UGANDA: Three Ebola cases confirmed in Mbarara

Sixteen people are now under surveillance for possible Ebola infection at
Mbarara University Hospital in southwestern Uganda, after reportedly
coming into contact with a Ugandan army private, Samuel Bandese, who died
at the hospital on 27 October and whose samples tested positive for Ebola
antigens, the Ugandan independent 'Monitor' newspaper reported on Sunday.
The group included 15 hospital staff and a prison inmate, according to Dr
Sam Okware, chairman of Uganda's National Task Force on the disease,
quoted in the report.=20

Three confirmed cases, including one death, had been reported in Mbarara
district, with samples confirmed by a specialist laboratory in Gulu
district, northern Uganda, where the current Ebola outbreak first
occurred, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported in its daily
outbreak report on Monday. The two most recent cases had contact with the
initial case, who subsequently died, WHO said. No other confirmed cases
had been reported among contacts who were being intensively followed up
and monitored, it added. A WHO-led team arrived in Mbarara from Gulu on
Thursday, 2 November, and was actively involved in replicating the
techniques of case management, epidemiology and surveillance and
coordination/logistics used to contain the Ebola outbreak in Gulu. The
team had set up an isolation ward with adequate protective equipment, and
were carrying out contact tracing using the standardised procedures
established in Gulu, WHO added.=20

As of 6 November, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has reported cumulative
national figures of 281 cases, including 91 deaths, it said. The UN body
recommends no special restrictions on travel or trade to or from Uganda.=20
"Many countries have routine health regulations concerning travel and
trade.  No specific measures with respect to Ebola haemorrhagic fever are
warranted or advised," it stated on Friday.=20

Nairobi, 6 November 2000, 15:00 gmt

[ENDS]

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon=
=2Eorg ]


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