NAIROBI, 17 November (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

DRC: Bemba rejects poll results CAR: Concerns over food availability as rebels advance ROC: Six die as heavy rains continue to pound Brazzaville RWANDA: Military tribunal convicts priest of genocide, rape TANZANIA: Expulsion of illegal immigrants begins TANZANIA: Environmental woes hit lakes, rivers SUDAN: Government 'accepts' UN troops in Darfur

ALSO SEE: AFRICA: Continent lags behind in carbon market - World Bank [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56395 ]

SUDAN-UGANDA: Jungle boost for peace process [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56411 ]

GLOBAL: Continue supporting Africa, Annan urges [http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56393 ]

DRC: Bemba rejects poll results

Jean-Pierre Bemba, challenger to President Joseph Kabila, has rejected the provisional results of the run-off presidential poll announced by the Democratic Republic of Congo's Independent Electoral Commission.

"I regret to say to our people and the international community that I cannot accept the results that are far from reflecting the truth of the election results," Bemba told a news conference on Thursday in the capital, Kinshasa.

The commission announced on Wednesday that Kabila had won the 29 October poll by garnering 58 percent of the vote, against Bemba's 43.5 percent.

"I promise to use all the legal channels to respect the will of our people," Bemba said, without giving details of what he planned to do. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56409 ] [Also on the Net: Kabila wins presidential election: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56387 ]

CAR: Concerns over food availability as rebels advance

A humanitarian team on an assessment mission to Bria, northern Central African Republic, found a shortage of meat in the area, a sign that most of its cattle-breeding residents had fled because of rebel activity, a United Nations official said on Thursday.

At the same time, a rebel coalition that has already captured three towns in the north claimed it had captured a fourth town on Wednesday. The town of Ouadda, in the northeastern prefecture of Haute-Kotto, reportedly fell into rebel hands after government troops there joined the rebellion.

Briefing journalists in Bangui, the capital, on Wednesday's trip to Bria, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Toby Lanzer, said local authorities had told him that 5,000 to 10,000 people had fled the town. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56396 ] [Also on the Net: Displaced civilians flock to town targeted by rebels: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56358 ]

ROC: Six die as heavy rains continue to pound Brazzaville

Six people have died and at least 5,000 others rendered homeless by heavy rains that have caused extensive flooding in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo.

The rains have continued non-stop for the past three days, sweeping away houses and causing massive population displacement, a government official said on Friday on national radio. The deaths occurred in the past two weeks after landslides in Brazzaville's southwestern neighbourhood of Kinsoundi, the official said. Two of the dead were children aged six and eight. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56303 ] [Also on the Net: Flood victims in need of aid: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56398 ]

RWANDA: Military tribunal convicts priest of genocide, rape

A military tribunal in Rwanda has found a priest, resident in France, guilty of rape and involvement in the 1994 genocide and sentenced him in absentia to life in prison. The tribunal handed down the sentence on Wenceslas Munyeshyaka on Thursday in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

It found Munyeshyaka guilty of rape and aiding militias in the killing of hundreds of Tutsi refugees at the Holy Family Cathedral in downtown Kigali, where he was head priest. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56408 ]

TANZANIA: Expulsion of illegal immigrants begins

Tanzanian authorities have started sending back immigrant pastoralists in the northwestern region of Kagera, who had moved into the area from neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, the deputy Livestock Development minister, Charles Mlingwa, has said.

"We began repatriating the illegal immigrants last month [October] with their livestock as the trend was likely to create a serious environmental crisis in the area," Mlingwa said on Tuesday during a parliamentary session in Dodoma, the country's political capital.

The immigrants, estimated by the government to number at least 100,000, moved into grazing land in Kagera, bringing 42,550 cows, 8,920 goats and 2,100 sheep, he added. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56376 ]

TANZANIA: Environmental woes hit lakes, rivers

The Tanzanian government is working with community stakeholders to mitigate the effects of climate change on water levels in Lake Victoria and other lakes.

The effects are biting hard as millions of people in the East African country suffer from power outages, decimated water supplies and suspended or reduced transport services. Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office in charge of Environment, Mark Mwandosya, attributed the changes to the reckless felling of trees and cultivation on river banks. [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56388 ]

SUDAN: Government 'accepts' UN troops in Darfur

The Sudanese government has 'agreed in principle' to the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur alongside African Union forces, officials said after a high-level meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

"A hybrid operation is agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force," stated a communiqué released at the end of the meeting. "The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character [but] backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN."

The meeting, which discussed the continuing violence in Darfur, was attended by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU and representatives from Security Council member countries. . [Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56407 ]

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