Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Alert - Democratic Republic of Congo - Kisangani District (1/2001)
Geneva, 8th January, 2001


As the DRC enters the forth year of war, the humanitarian crisis is
growing through out the country affecting the overwhelming majority of its
population. Massacres of innocent civilians in the villages, jungle
battles and indiscriminate bombardments have killed tens of thousands and
left countless others to die of disease and starvation. The current child
mortality rate at 200 per 1000 live births, according to the recent UN
studies, is amongst the highest in the world and mainly due to war related
outbreak of diseases and malnutrition.

The fighting between two foreign armies of Rwanda and Uganda that took
place in June 2000 in Kisangani district is said to have caused close to
800 deaths with over 3,000 injured while tens of thousands of people were
displaced. The town was literary left in ruins as public buildings such as
schools, churches and other buildings were completely destroyed by
intensive shelling. After this fighting, the Eglise du Christ au Congo
(ECC) sent an appeal proposal to the ACT CO. to respond to some of the
humanitarian needs. In order to improve the humanitarian response in the
area, ACT requested the Lutheran World Federation / DWS to work with the
churches in Kisangani in coming up with a program of response. Meanwhile,
ACT released $40,000 from the Rapid response Fund to the ECC to meet the
most pressing needs of the worst affected people.

We are glad to announce that LWF/WS has decided to open an office in
Kisangani to work with the local churches in responding to the
humanitarian needs of the people. The LWF - Kisangani office would be
under the management of the LWF/WS Kigali Office. Together with the ECC,
the LWF has now come up with a comprehensive appeal proposal for
responding in Kisangani. It should be mentioned though that the
administrative costs in the proposal are high at almost 40% because of the
needed costs to open a new office. Despite this, we do hope that the
appeal will get good support to provide the much needed assistance to the
victims of the war in the district. The following are the proposed
activities;

   Food Production 
   Health Care
   Nutrition Services
   Capacity Building of local church members  

The estimated budget for the appeal is $509,840.


Thank you for your attention.
For further information please contact:

ACT Co-ordinator, Thor-Arne Prois (phone ++41 22 791 6033 or mobile phone
++ 41 79 203 6055)
ACT Appeals Officer, John Nduna (phone +41 22 791 6040)


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Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide alliance of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
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   Ecumenical Centre                          Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33
   150, route de Ferney                         Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06
   P.O. Box 2100                             E-Mail: act@wcc-coe.org
   1211 Geneva 2                              Telex: 415 730 OIK CH
   Switzerland                                 http://www.act-intl.org



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