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DRC: Suspected
haemorrhagic fever kills three in Equateur Province
KINSHASA, 13
June 2008 (IRIN) - Three people in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Equateur
Province have died from what is suspected to be haemorrhagic fever, according
to medical sources.
Samples
collected in Boende, 300km east of Bandaka, have been sent to the Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the USA, to determine whether or
not the disease is viral.
According to
its spokesman, Eugene Kabambi, the UN's World Health Organization has sent a
team of experts to Boende together with government doctors.
"The
third death, that of a child, was reported on Wednesday" 11 June, said
Jacques Mokange, the province's medical inspector.
"The
first death was recorded on 29 May after the patient presented with fever, haemorrhage
and finally bleeding from all the orifices in his body," added Mokange,
who declined to speculate about whether the deaths were caused by one of the
Ebola group of viruses, the fatality rates of which range from 50 to 90
percent.
"Our
investigations show no evidence of contamination among the four infected people
and we are following those they were in contact with - family, friends and
nurses - but we tentatively conclude that this could be a haemorrhagic fever
but that it is not viral," said the doctor.
An isolation
centre had been set up in Boende just in case the disease did turn out to be
viral, he added.
Other response
measures include the provision of free care at a newly established health
centre, and local radio broadcasts about the importance of hygiene.
Various kinds
of haemorrhagic fever frequently break out in DRC. The most deadly case took place in 1995, when an Ebola
outbreak killed over 250 people in Kikwit, Bandudu Province. ei/am/cb[END]
GLOBAL: Civil society demands more
partnership with governments
NEW YORK, 13 June 2008 (PLUSNEWS) - After going into an unscheduled third day,
the United Nations High-Level meeting on HIV/AIDS ended on 12 June with civil
society groups complaining over the lack of true partnership with governments
in the fight against the pandemic.
"Greater involvement of civil society has been identified by the UN as a
critical strategy to combat AIDS ... The involvement of civil society in
official national delegations must be effective, not just tokenistic,"
stated a Civil Society Declaration signed by some 100 groups.
"Real partnership between donors, governments, civil society, UN agencies
and affected populations requires a balance of power in making decisions. Only
through genuine partnership can we overcome the challenges and achieve
universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support for all people by
2010," the statement continued.
The signatories included the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, the
Association of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, the Lesotho Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS, the Service and Healing Coalition for Women of
South Africa, the Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS, South
Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, and Simao Cacumba Faria - an Angola
organisation.
The statement voiced disappointment that few heads of state attended the
meeting and that many governments failed to fully disclose the reality of their
country's HIV/AIDS epidemics in their national progress reports submitted to
UNGASS earlier this year.
Olayide Akanni, of the African Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS and
Journalists Against AIDS, a Nigerian NGO, pointed out that some governments had
failed to submit progress reports at all. "That is totally unacceptable.
It was agreed that government would regularly update the UN on the progress and
some governments have declined doing that," she said.
Although some participants felt that civil society had been given greater space
to air their views than at the last UNGASS meeting in 2006, they also worried
that governments had made little effort to share that space. "In the side
events it was just like we were talking to ourselves," said Gcebile
Ndlovu, a Swaziland-based coordinator for the International Community of Women
Living with HIV/AIDS.
Ndlovu also noted that some countries, including Swaziland, which has the
highest HIV prevalence in the world, did not have any civil society component
to their government delegations. "This was supposed to be a partnership
thing, but it can't be partnership at the global level if the partnership is
not realised at the country level."
A final declaration that emerged from the 2006 meeting was regarded by most
civil society groups as greatly weakened by the attempt to reach consensus
between countries with conflicting attitudes and priorities. This year's
meeting dispensed with a declaration, but a closing statement by UN General
Assembly President Srgjan Kerim summarised some of the major themes that had
emerged in discussions about how to build on current efforts to reach universal
access by 2010.
He emphasised the importance of leadership and political accountability - at
both national and local levels - and reiterated the point made by several
speakers at the meeting that an effective response to the pandemic must have
human rights and gender equality at its core.
"We must not lose the momentum of the global response," Kerim said.
By the end of last year, according to the latest UN report, 3 million people
had access to antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries; an
increase of nearly a million over the previous year but still only 31 percent
of those in need of such treatment. ma/ks/oa [END]
AFRICA: One voice on
climate change
JOHANNESBURG,
12 June 2008 (IRIN) - Africa needs one common strategy on climate change to
stand any chance of persuading rich countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions
by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020, environment ministers agreed at a meeting
in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week.
"Africa
only emits 3.8 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions, but will suffer the
most from the climate threat, so it needs to ensure that its voice is
heard," said Ogunlade Davidson, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) working group on mitigation.
The IPCC has
suggested cuts of between 25 and 40 percent by 2020 to avoid a 2-degree Celsius
increase in global temperature - the kind of increase that is expected to
destroy 30 to 40 percent of all known species, with bigger, fiercer and more
frequent heat waves and droughts, and more intense weather events like floods
and cyclones.
The impact on
Africa will be dire. Food production is expected to halve by 2020, and 250
million people - over 25 percent of Africa's population - will not have easy
access to water.
No delays
"We
cannot afford to delay any more. We have agencies like UNEP [United Nations
Environment Programme] who have been trying to get one united African voice on
board. This process here at AMCEN [the African Ministerial Conference on
Environment] is the beginning to get the African Union (AU) to buy in to the
process," said Davidson.
Namibia's
environment minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah noted, "We have decided that
the African Union has to take our position forward at the negotiations [between
the developed and developing countries]." Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol,
industrialised countries agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and help
the developed world reduce theirs.
The ministers
meeting in Johannesburg this week have asked the AU to adopt a common African
position at its 13th summit in June and July 2009, ahead of the Copenhagen
climate change summit in December that year. At Copenhagen a new agreement to
cut emissions is expected to be approved before the first commitment phase of
the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
Talk is cheap
But Africa
needs to more than just gear itself up for the negotiations. Under the Bali
Roadmap, approved at the last major climate change talks in the Indonesian
Island in December 2007, developing countries agreed to put in place
"measurable, reportable and verifiable " steps to tackle their
emissions, supported by cleaner technology, financing and skills building, said
Davidson. "Most countries in Africa don't have the capacity to do that."
Several funds
have been announced by rich countries to help Africa adapt and access clean
energy technologies. "We need to be proactive and engage these funds - but
the question is do we have the capacity to receive these technologies?"
pointed out Davidson.
All these
strategies will have to be chalked up under an "African roadmap" in
the next few months, he said. In the meantime, African countries can mitigate
some of the impact of climate change.
"We can
save our food production - about 50 percent of our food production is wasted
off and on farms every year because we still harvest and market our produce by
hand -w e can opt for simple mechanized farming techniques - we can also start
harvesting water." jk/oa [END]
DRC: Sexual abuse
widespread among fresh wave deportees from Angola
KINSHASA, 11
June 2008 (IRIN) - Most women arriving in parts of the province of Kasai
Occidental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among a new wave of some
27,000 deportees from Angola, have been sexually abused, a local health
official said.
"There
are many injured people and 80 percent of the women [who arrived] had been raped," Pierre Didi Mpata, a
doctor and director of an NGO running a local health centre in Kamako village.
The village is located along the Congolese border with Angola.
According to
Kemal Saiki, the spokesman for the UN mission in DRC, MONUC, some 22,230 DRC
citizens sent back from Angola between the end of May and 9 June were now
between Kahungua and Tembo, some 95 kilometres from the Angolan border.
"The
numbers keep growing," he said, adding that those expelled lacked adequate
food and blankets. "They have nothing and are exhausted after their long
walk." An additional 5,000 are now located in Kamako, also in Kasai
Occidental province, he said.
Among the
people who had been sexually abused was Caroline Lomelo (name changed), a
mother of two. Lomelo spoke with difficulty as she was attended to at the
health centre.
"I was
badly beaten up and raped by five Angolan police officers when they forcefully
expelled us," she said. Lomelo returned to the DRC five days ago from
Angola.
According to
Mpata, Lomelo can barely stand because she has a sexually transmitted
infection. She is also six months pregnant.
"She is
in danger of having an abortion because of the [gonorrhoea] infection she
contracted," Mpata said.
Lomelo, who
was training to be a nurse, said she had gone to Angola from her home town of
Lodja, in the central province of Kasai Oriental, to look for her brother.
There are
other patients who are waiting to be operated on at the health centre after
they suffered internal injuries due to the sexual violence, according to Mpata.
"It's a miracle they survived," he said.
Those who had
returned were living in churches and schools where supplies of basic items were
inadequate, Mpata said. They had arrived in the DRC after walking for at least
100 km.
On 5 December
2007, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounced what it described as "the
pervasive and systematic use of rape and violence perpetrated by the Angolan
army during the expulsions of Congolese migrants working in diamond mines in
the Angolan province of Lunda Norte".
Previous mass
expulsions in the area had been halted by an agreement between the two countries.
The Angolan
authorities began to expel illegal immigrants from the country in December
2003, targeting illegal workers in its diamond mines near the border with the
DRC. ei/aw/jm [END]
DRC: Thousands displaced after rebel attacks
KINSHASA, 5 June 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 5,000 people have been displaced following
a Rwandan rebel attack on two civilian camps in a village in the Democratic
Republic of Congo province of North Kivu, a humanitarian official said.
"The Force armιes pour la libιration du Rwanda (FDLR) attacked
two camps in Kinyando [on 4 June] where the residents of a neighbouring village
had sought refuge after fleeing fighting between the FDLR and the Congolese
army," Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesperson for the United Nations
Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said. Kinyando is located 70 km north of Goma, the
main town in the province.
At least six people were killed and another 14 injured in the attack which
displaced between 2,000 and 5,000 people, Dietrich said.
The rebel atack was in reaction to military operations launched by the DRC's
armed forces against Rwandan rebels in the villages, he said.
The special representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC, Alan Doss,
along with US and European Union representatives in the region condemned the
"terrorist" acts against the civilian population. A team had also
been sent to the area to assess the situation.
Following increased security after the attacks, some of the displaced people
had begun returning to the village, Dietrich said.
The attack took place at a time when the government and two small Rwandan Hutu
rebel groups were awaiting the implementation of a roadmap for their
disarmament and demobilisation. The roadmap was announced in the town of
Kisangani in late May.
The FDLR declined did not participate in the Kisangani process and has disowned
the roadmap. ei/aw/am[END]
DRC-RWANDA: DRC: A small step towards peace
in the east (analysis)
KISANGANI, 5 June 2008 (IRIN) - A disarmament pledge by two minor Rwandan Hutu
rebel groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a welcome, if
small, step to restoring peace in the devastated region, according to the
government and analysts.
Rwandan insurgents are one of the key elements in a complex web of armed groups
in a region where violence, especially sexual violence against women, is still
widespread five years after the official end of DRC's last civil war. Well over
a million people in eastern DRC are internally displaced and most depend on assistance
from humanitarian agencies.
Under the 'roadmap for disarmament', unveiled in the city of Kisangani on 26
May, the Ralliement pour l'unitι et la democratiι (RUD) and the
Rassemblement populaire rwandais (RPR) agreed to gather at two sites and start
handing over their weapons. In return, they want their security to be
guaranteed, the UN mission in DRC, MONUC, to oversee the process, and the DRC
government not to forcibly repatriate them to Rwanda.
"I think since we are offering to disarm and to be relocated, the
international community will aid in convincing the Rwandan government that it
is essential that there is a political framework; a framework is simply
inter-Rwandan dialogue to ensure the fighters [in DRC] feel safe to go
home," RUD spokesman Augustin Dukuze told IRIN.
The Rwandan government, however, has long refused to talk to those it holds
responsible for the 1994 genocide. President Paul Kagame twice sent troops into
eastern DRC to try to neutralise the so-called 'gιnocidaires'.
The roadmap was immediately disowned by the much larger, if somewhat
fragmented, Forces dιmocratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR),
which boasts around 7,000 fighters, compared to RUD and RPR's estimated 400.
"Whatever happened in Kisangani does not concern us because we were not
present," said FDLR spokesman Ignace Murwanashyaka.
Long road ahead
Nevertheless, for Anneke van Woudenberg, a senior researcher on DRC for Human
Rights Watch, the agreement left room for optimism.
"The Kisangani meeting was a step in the right direction by encouraging
some Rwandan armed groups in Congo to disarm and resettle in Rwanda or
elsewhere, but we are far from reaching the end of the road," she told
IRIN.
"It's the FDLR who pose a serious problem for peace in eastern Congo and
the safety and security of its citizens. Their failure to participate was
disappointing," said Woudenberg, adding, however, that armed action
against the group should only be used once all other means had been exhausted.
In November 2007 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the DRC and Rwandan
governments renewed their commitment to dealing with such armed groups in an
agreement that provided for the use of military action if efforts towards
voluntary disarmament failed.
"As part of these non-violent options, diplomats must remind the Congolese
government that they must stop any financial or military support given to FDLR
combatants, either directly or indirectly, through other groups . They must
also urge Rwandan authorities to take concrete steps towards providing an
environment that would encourage the voluntary return of FDLR combatants,"
added Woudenberg.
David Mugnier, Central Africa Project Director for the International Crisis
Group, was also encouraged by the roadmap, despite the small size of the groups
involved, saying it could finally "kick start the process of disarmament,
repatriation or relocation", not least because the process is backed by
the DRC government, civil society in the Kivu provinces and most of the international
community.
"Whether or not these two groups will effectively regroup and disarm is a
bit too early to say but [...] the process seems to be on track and this could
create an incentive for other combatants to join it," Mugnier told IRIN.
But the process is not without risks, he added. "It cannot be excluded
that the FDLR could rapidly take control of the areas vacated by RUD and RPR.
For the moment the capacity of MONUC and the [DRC military] to challenge them
is limited."
Renewed efforts
MONUC spokesman, Kemal Saiki, told IRIN that representatives of "certain
branches of the FDLR" had actually been present during the Kisangani
talks, even if the group proper had distanced itself from the roadmap.
"So I don't think it will be long before discussions take place. [But]
there is a principle that is not negotiable and that is the departure or the
temporary relocation [of the armed Rwandan Hutu groups in eastern DRC]",
he said.
Getting the FDLR on board "is the aim of the Nairobi process", added
Saiki.
"There are sensitisation efforts going on... there are also political and
diplomatic options and military pressure that are still present."
Some of the diplomatic pressure comes from the United States, an active sponsor
of peace efforts in eastern DRC. "The time is now for the Rwandan armed
groups in Eastern Congo to disarm and repatriate or face consequences of
further isolation and condemnation," the State Department warned in late
May.
Seraphin Ngwej, Joseph Kabila's roving ambassador and special envoy for the
Great Lakes region, told IRIN that two disarmament sites and eight transit
sites had already been identified.
"We are not talking about size of the groups involved but the possibility
of solving once and for all the issue of Rwandan combatants in the DRC. In the
DRC, there's no RUD, FDLR/FOCA (the armed wing of FDLR), no RPR, there is only
the problem of the Rwandan armed groups, and once one of the groups is involved
in the process, we consider it a very good thing," he said.
Last chance
Congo's Interior and Security Minister, Gen. Denis Kalume, said, "This
process [disarmament and demobilisation] is the last chance for all the Rwandan
armed groups before forceful action is taken."
According to MONUC, the DRC army has already deployed supplementary battalions
in North Kivu's Walikale district, and in areas previously under FDLR's
control.
However, Philippe Biyoya, a professor of political science at Kinshasa's
Protestant University, said this was a dangerous move.
"I think using military operations to compel them to disarm won't be a
solution for the government because the FDLR are well organised and that will
trigger a new Rwandan war on Congolese soil," he warned. ei-am/bn/jm[END]
RDC: Camps de déplacés
spontanés, une tendance préoccupante
NAIROBI, 28
mai 2008 (IRIN) - La communauté humanitaire du Nord-Kivu, dans l'est de la
République démocratique du Congo (RDC), a exprimé des préoccupations au sujet
de la prolifération des camps « spontanés » de personnes déplacées à
l'intérieur de leur propre pays (PDIP) dans la province, qui compte au moins
857 000 PDIP.
« Ces camps
spontanés, assez nouveaux au Nord-Kivu, sont essentiellement dus au peu de
moyens dont disposent les familles d'accueil pour héberger les déplacés », a
indiqué à IRIN Caroline Draveny, chargée de communication publique au Bureau
des Nations Unies pour la coordination des affaires humanitaires (OCHA). « Nous
nous efforçons de trouver le moyen d'aider les PDIP touchés, ainsi que les
familles d'accueil elles-mêmes ».
Certaines
organisations humanitaires, dont plusieurs agences des Nations Unies et
organisations non-gouvernementales (ONG), ont formé un groupe de travail chargé
de concevoir des méthodes et des moyens adaptés pour traiter l'émergence de ces
camps spontanés.
Selon un
bulletin d'information humanitaire publié par OCHA sur la période du 17 au 23
mai, les territoires de Rutshuru et de Masisi comptent au moins 20 camps de
PDIP spontanés et 11 camps de PDIP organisés.
En plus du
nombre croissant des camps spontanés, la question de l'occupation des édifices
publics (tels que les églises et les établissements scolaires de Rutshuru) par
des PDIP doit être résolue, selon l'agence.
« Depuis le
mois de janvier, trois écoles primaires de la ville de Rutshuru ont été
occupées par des PDIP », a expliqué Mme Draveny. « Cela a des conséquences
néfastes directes sur l'éducation [des enfants] ».
La communauté
humanitaire s'efforce de trouver des solutions pour faire libérer les édifices
publics, a-t-elle ajouté.
En ce qui
concerne la situation de sécurité dans la province, OCHA a expliqué qu'au moins
10 incidents de sécurité avaient été déclarés au cours de la période couverte
par le bulletin ; parmi ces incidents : le pillage de deux véhicules, dont l'un
appartient à une ONG internationale. Aucun décès n'a en revanche été signalé.
« Cela porte à
12 le nombre des incidents de sécurité dirigés contre les travailleurs
humanitaires, sur ce territoire depuis le mois de janvier 2008 », selon OCHA.
La province du
Nord-Kivu ainsi que d'autres régions de l'est du Congo sont le théâtre d'un
conflit qui dure depuis plusieurs années, malgré la conclusion d'un accord en
2003, qui a ramené le calme dans la plupart des régions de ce vaste pays.
Une majorité
des derniers affrontements survenus au Nord-Kivu, en mai et à la fin du mois
d'avril, opposaient l'armée congolaise aux Forces démocratiques de libération
du Rwanda (FDLR), une faction armée hutu d'environ 6 000 hommes, formée par les
auteurs fugitifs du génocide rwandais de 1994.
Le
gouvernement de la RDC et plusieurs factions armées de la province du Nord-Kivu
ont signé un accord de cessez-le-feu en janvier, mais cette trêve a été rompue
à plusieurs reprises, ce qui a entraîné une hausse du nombre de déplacés.
Selon les
prévisions de certains analystes, il est probable que davantage de civils
soient déplacés au cours des prochaines semaines et des prochains mois, à
mesure que l'armée congolaise tente une incursion offensive dans les zones aux
mains des FDLR. js/jm/nh/ail [FIN]
DRC: Rise in spontaneous IDP sites worrying
- official
NAIROBI, 28 May 2008 (IRIN) - The humanitarian community in North Kivu, eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has expressed concern over the
proliferation of the number of "spontaneous" sites for internally
displaced persons (IDPs) in the province, hosting at least 857,000 IDPs.
"These spontaneous sites are quite new in North Kivu and they are mainly linked to reduced capacities of host families to accommodate
the displaced," Caroline Draveny, the public
information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) told IRIN. "We are working on ways of assisting the
affected IDPs as well as the host families themselves."
Aid agencies - incorporating UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - have set up a working group to devise ways and
means of dealing with the spontaneous sites.
According to an OCHA humanitarian update for 17-23 May, the territories of Rutshuru and Masisi have at least 20 spontaneous IDP sites
and 11 managed IDP camps.
In addition to the growing number of spontaneous sites, the issue of the occupation by IDPs of public buildings such as churches and
schools in Rutshuru territory needs to be solved, the agency said.
"Since January, three primary schools in Rutshuru town have been occupied
by IDPs," Draveny said. "This has direct negative consequences for
education."
She added that the humanitarian community was working on finding solutions for
vacating these public buildings.
Regarding the province's security situation, OCHA said at least 10 security
incidents had been reported during the period under review; these included the
looting of two vehicles, one belonging to an international NGO. No casualties
were reported.
"This brings the number of security incidents against humanitarian workers
to 12 since January 2008 in this territory," OCHA said.
North Kivu province and other parts of eastern Congo have experienced several
years of conflict despite the signing of an agreement in 2003 that brought calm
to most parts of the vast country.
Most of the latest clashes in North Kivu, in May and late April, have pitted
the Congolese army against the Forces Démocratique de la Libération du Rwanda
(FDLR), a Hutu armed group of about 6,000, founded by fugitive perpetrators of
Rwanda's genocide in 1994.
The DRC government and several armed groups in North Kivu province signed a
ceasefire in January, but the truce has been repeatedly violated, increasing
the number of displaced.
Analysts have predicted that even more civilian displacement is likely in the
coming weeks and months because the Congolese army is moving aggressively into
areas held by the FDLR.Js/jm [END]
DRC: Cholera outbreak in North Kivu worsens
KINSHASA, 20 May 2008 (IRIN) - An outbreak of cholera in North Kivu province,
in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has claimed more sufferers in
the past two weeks, medical and humanitarian officials said.
The most severely affected areas are the health zones of Pinga and Mweso in the upper and forested Masisi North area.
"The cholera epidemic has fluctuated in this zone but over the past couple
of weeks we have seen a dramatic rise in [the number of] cases," said Gaby
Lumangamenga of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) in the North Kivu
capital, Goma.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma, 12 deaths were reported in Pinga over just
one week in late April, while 159 cases were recorded between 5 and 11 May.
Lumangamenga said Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Solidarités had built water chlorination facilities and latrines but the problem
persisted because the residents did not like to drink chlorinated water.
"They say it has a disagreeable smell and persist in drinking water from
rivers," Lumangamenga said.
He said although there was a high number of cholera cases in Mweso, fatalities
were relatively low because MSF-Belgium had opened a clinic there.
North Kivu's Masisi area has, in the past, been the theatre of fighting between
several armed groups that have continued to wage war in eastern Congo, despite
a 2003 peace agreement that restored calm to most parts of the country.
Caroline Draveny, the OCHA spokeswoman in Goma, said the area was still tense
despite there having been no fighting in the past month.
OCHA estimates that Mweso has up to 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs)
in Kachuga, Kalembe and Mweso villages, which have a combined population of
213,000.
The fighting pits the Congolese army and the Congrès national pour la défense du people (CNDP), a rebel group led by renegade army
commander Laurent Nkunda, who claims to be defending the rights of the Tutsi in
the country. The other armed groups include the Patriotes résistants congolais
(Pareco - of the Hunde ethnic community) and Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Forces
démocratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), largely accused of being
responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
CNDP and Pareco are signatories to the latest ceasefire agreed with the
government in January in Goma. However, since then, they have violated the
peace deal and have yet to be integrated into the army.
"There is still tension because the different groups do not live together but side by side," said a humanitarian worker, working
in Masisi, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ei/am/mw[END]