ICRC News 11 / 30-Mar-00

** SHORT MENU....

Angola: Aid stepped up for displaced persons in Caala:
Following a recent ICRC survey of nutritional needs, aid for displaced
persons housed in five centres at Caala, seven kilometres from Huambo, was
increased last week.

Kosovo: Emergency phase of winter operation ends:
Tens of thousands of householders, schoolchildren and hospital patients and
staff have survived the harsh Balkan winter thanks to the efforts of the
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in Kosovo.


** STORIES IN FULL...

Angola
Aid stepped up for displaced persons in Caala

Following a recent ICRC survey of nutritional needs, aid for displaced
persons housed in five centres at Caala, seven kilometres from Huambo, was
increased last week. Some 2,800 displaced families (12,700 persons), to
whom half rations had been distributed every month since July 1999, are now
receiving whole rations consisting of maize, dried beans, oil and salt.
Food aid for the displaced at Caala will be maintained until they are able
to return home. However, the food and agricultural programme launched in
July 1999 for 61,341 displaced and resident families on the outskirts of
Huambo is currently under review.

Meanwhile, a programme to improve hygiene by constructing latrines in the
centres was suspended when the local authorities announced plans to move
the entire displaced population to a single new camp.

The ICRC will soon open a health-care centre at Caala in cooperation with
the provincial section of the Angolan Red Cross. This will be the fifth
such National Society facility to receive assistance from the ICRC (there
are already two in Uige and two in Kuito). Four other health-care centres
near Huambo have been receiving equipment and medical supplies from the
ICRC since May 1999.

Further information: Juan Martinez, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 22 81


Kosovo
Emergency phase of winter operation ends

Tens of thousands of householders, schoolchildren and hospital patients and
staff have survived the harsh Balkan winter thanks to the efforts of the
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in Kosovo.

Over a dozen National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have worked
alongside the ICRC, which coordinates the Movement's activities in Kosovo,
to repair houses, community centres, schools and hospitals in order to help
people survive the first winter since the end of a conflict that left large
swathes of the province devastated by Serbian forces. The work is
complementary to that being done by the international community, led by the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

With the emergency phase virtually completed, over 30 hospitals and
health-care posts, 130 schools and some 6,000 houses have been repaired.
Equipment has been donated to help rebuild a further 3,600 homes.

Geoff Allison, the ICRC's water and habitat coordinator, says that while
some people have certainly found this first winter a struggle, the goals
for the operation's emergency phase have largely been met. "It is a very
good example of what can be achieved when we tap into the vast resources of
the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement."

Further information: Nic Sommer, ICRC Pristina: tel.: ++ 381 38 590 074 or
++ 381 63 344 164


New on the ICRC's public server (http://www.icrc.org):
- Fact sheets - all dated March 2000 - on the organization's activities in
  Mexico and Peru.
- Fact sheets - all dated March 2000 - on the work of ICRC regional
  delegation in Guatemala.


During the weekend of 1 - 2 April 2000, for all information please call the
press officer on duty Amanda Williamson, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 16