UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
DRC: Humanitarian crisis on Minembwe/Itombwe
Plateau
A worsening humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the south of South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as fighting rages between mainly Rwandan army troops and the dissident Banyamulenge forces of Commandant Patrick Masunzu, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Tuesday. "It is one of the hottest spots in the Congo," a humanitarian worker said. Up to 100 villages have been deserted and some 40,000 people have been displaced on the Minembwe/Itombwe Plateau. Some have fled either into regroupment areas or into the mountain peaks and forests. "The fighting has apparently intensified over the past week with the use of aerial bombardment," the source said. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(601]
DRC: ADB approves US $800 million in arrears clearance scheme
The African Development Bank and the African Development Fund jointly approved on Wednesday a mechanism designed to help the DRC clear arrears of US $800 million owed them. The bank reported that the sum represented 60 percent of the total arrears the DRC owed both bodies. The bank's approval follows similar action by the IMF and the World Bank, "paving the way for the re-engagement of the DRC with the international financial institutions and the international donor community", the African bank reported. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(585]
DRC: WFP begins airlift to 24,000 in Katanga Province
Thousands of weary war victims in the eastern DRC will soon get some relief from hunger, following the UN World Food Programme's (WFP) announcement on Tuesday that it had resumed an emergency airlift operation for people cut off by fighting. The agency said it would transport 1,100 mt of food to at least 24,000 people in the northern part of Katanga Province - its third life-saving airlift in eastern DRC in the last 12 months. "Tens of thousands of people continue to come out of their hiding places in the woods, attracted by food distributions provided in nutritional centres," Felix Bamezon, WFP's representative for the DRC, said. Most of them, he added, were women and children whose nutritional status was precarious. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(628]
CAR: UNICEF says humanitarian needs at crash site minimal
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, said on Friday it did not foresee "any humanitarian needs arising" from the crash of a Sudanese Boeing 707 cargo jet near the international airport at M'poko in Bangui, capital of the in the Central African Republic. UNICEF's officer-in-charge in Bangui Diego Zorrilla told IRIN 20 people aboard the aircraft died and two others were wounded in the crash on Thursday. The condition of three others, still trapped in the wreckage, was unknown, he said. [For full story see: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID(672]
BURUNDI: Governor of Makamba says rebels massing for attack
Hundreds of Burundian Hutu rebels massing on the Tanzanian side of the River Maragarazi pose a "serious threat" to Burundi's southern province of Makamba, the provincial governor, Col Gabriel Gunungu, has said. He said on Tuesday on Radio Publique Africaine that the rebels, from the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie, were preparing to attack the communes of Kayogoro, Mbanda, Kibago and Nyanza-Lac, all bordering on Tanzania. Burundi army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema told IRIN on Wednesday that there were perhaps hundreds of rebels concentrated in pockets across the border, and that the army had deployed to face the threat. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(625]
BURUNDI: 4,000 families in Kabezi in need of food
Just over 4,000 families (about 20,000 people) in Kabezi and two other locales in this commune of Bujumbura Rural Province are in need of food following fighting that broke out in the area on 22 June between Hutu rebels and government troops, the information officer for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Burundi told IRIN on Thursday. [Full report at http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID(652]
BURUNDI: Former president returns from exile
Former Burundi President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza returned home on 29 June after four years of self-imposed exile, saying he wanted to take part in the nation's political life, news organisations reported. "I am delighted by this opportunity offered to me to return to the country where I was born," he said on Burundi Radio. "What will I do? I will just do what you are doing. I will make my contribution, at my own level, to the betterment of life." [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(584]
RWANDA: Ex-mayor freed in Tribunal's first acquittal
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda upheld on Wednesday a lower court's ruling acquitting Ignace Bagilishema of genocide crimes committed in 1994, the tribunal said. This was the court's first acquittal since its inception in 1995. The president of the Appeal's Chamber, Judge Claude Jorda, announced Bagilishema's acquittal at the tribunal's Arusha headquarters in northern Tanzania. Jorda said the chamber's five judges had unanimously rejected all the arguments submitted by the prosecutor, and ordered Bagilishema's immediate release. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(642]
RWANDA-UGANDA: Confidence building measures agreed
The defence ministers of Rwanda and Uganda have signed an agreement designed to build confidence and understanding between their once hostile armies, the Ugandan military spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Monday. The memorandum of understanding, signed on 28 June in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, by Amama Mbabazi of Uganda and his Rwandan counterpart, Brig-Gen Emmanuel Habyarimana, provides for an exchange of military liaison officers, exchanges of information between military intelligence chiefs of the two nations, and operational procedures for patrols and liaison officers who will monitor national parks in border areas. "The agreement is an effort to normalise relations and attain lasting peace between the two countries," Bantariza said. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(586]
UGANDA: New coalition formed to tackle northern conflict
Twenty-five civil society organisations in Uganda have announced the formation of a new coalition aimed at ending insecurity in northern Uganda. The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda, as it is known, was formed on Tuesday, after members met to express growing concern over the escalating "cycle of violence" in the north. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the coalition said its mandate was to stimulate debate on some of the causes of the long-running conflict in the north and search for solutions. The statement said the coalition wanted to contribute to a "timely and successful resolution" of the conflict between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and the government. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(624]
KENYA: Appeal for disaster relief
The Kenyan government and the UN on 28 June launched an international appeal for $62.5 million to assist over one million flood and drought victims in Kenya. Representatives from more than 20 foreign missions, various UN agencies and some NGOs, including the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), participated in the launch of the appeal, according to a report issued by the WFP. The funds would provide nine drought-stricken districts with a population of approximately one million with urgent food aid, the report said. A targeted 300,000 people within these districts would be absorbed by a food-for-work programme. An additional 16 districts would be targeted for expanding school feeding programmes, and roughly 150,000 flash-flood victims in Nyanza, Coast, Western and North Eastern provinces would also receive aid. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(605
KENYA: Somali Bantu refugees move camp en route to US
The relocation of Somali Bantu refugees in Kenya resumed on Monday following a slight setback to the operation last week after clashes broke out in the refugee camp, reportedly over recruitment policies. A total of 11,800 refugees are due to be moved from Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya to Kakuma camp in the northwest of the country, on the first leg of a journey that will eventually take them to the US. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(615]
TANZANIA: Clare Short arrives for talks
Clare Short, Britain's Secretary of State for International Development, arrived in Tanzania on Tuesday for talks with the Tanzanian government. While it is officially being seen as a routine visit, there is speculation that the focus of the trip will be the controversial air traffic control deal between the Tanzanian government and British Aerospace Systems. Short will spend two days in Tanzania, Britain's second biggest recipient of foreign aid, talking to various government officials on a range of issues, an official of the British government's Department for International Development told IRIN. [Full report at: http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID(614]
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