ICRC News 44 / 06.11.96GREAT LAKES ICRC READY TO ACT
Given the scope of the human tragedy now unfolding in Zaire, the international community is urgently seeking ways to deal with the situation. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is all the more concerned as thousands of victims of the fighting are in an area which is, for now, off limits to all humanitarian organizations.
Yet ICRC teams in the area have 11,000 tonnes of food and emergency relief supplies at the ready - sufficient to meet the immediate needs of some 360,000 people - and enough sanitation supplies (in particular for the provision of drinking water) for 200,000. A fleet of some 70 trucks and one aircraft are standing by. The ICRC is in contact with all the parties to the conflict and is reminding each of its obligations under international humanitarian law, as well as reaffirming its own desire to begin work as quickly as possible. A relief operation has now become imperative owing to the scale of the needs created by the conflict and aggravated by the adverse weather. All that is standing in the way of the operation are adequate security guarantees.
The ICRC has therefore sent its Director of Operations, Mr Jean de Courten, to Brussels to take part on 7 November in the European ministerial meeting called to study possible means of assisting the victims of the fighting in Kivu. The World Food Programme and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are also sending representatives.
Further information: Rolin Wavre, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2876 Nic Sommer, ICRC Nairobi, Tel. ++25 42 716 339
SIERRA LEONE EMERGENCY MEDICAL ACTIVITIES IN BO
Clashes in Bo on 29 and 30 October between the Sierra Leonean armed forces and Kamanjoes (traditional hunter groups recently formed into militias) resulted in dozens of casualties. The ICRC immediately dispatched a nurse to the city to join a delegate already at the scene. The two worked with first-aid staff from the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, evacuating the wounded and visiting the government hospital, which treated some twenty patients suffering from gunshot wounds.
The ICRC is carrying out a medical and public health programme in the Kenema, Kailahun and Pujehun districts in the east of the country, supplying basic medicines and covering all the operating costs of 12 health centres in the area. ICRC nurses supervise local medical staff and monitor both obstetric cases and the nutritional status of local children. A vaccination campaign was launched last March to combat childhood diseases and yellow fever. The ICRC is also repairing and chlorinating wells in order to increase the amount of drinking water available for the region's population, most of whom have been displaced for several years.
Further information: Laurent Fellay, ICRC Freetown, Tel. ++232 22 240 981
NORTHERN IRAQ AID TO INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE
The ICRC launched a relief operation on 2 November for over 3,000 internally displaced people in northern Iraq who have for several weeks been taking refuge in the Zaleh region, near the Iranian border. Delegates have distributed tents, blankets and cooking and hygiene items to people who fled the fighting in October 1996 between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A similar programme is now under way in Arbil for nearly 2,000 displaced people from the governorate of Sulaimaniyah.
ICRC delegates are continuing visits to people captured by both factions. They have registered over 900 detainees since 12 October, when the PUK began its counter-offensive.
The ICRC is currently working in the governorates of Dahuk, Sulaimaniyah and Arbil, with a staff of 13 delegates and over 70 local employees.
Further information: Rolin Wavre, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2876
AFGHANISTAN MEDICINE ON THE MOVE
The ICRC has stepped up its emergency medical activities in response to the continuing fighting north of Kabul. To supplement the warring parties' own arrangements for the evacuation of the wounded, delegates working in conjunction with the Afghan Red Crescent Society have had two ambulances ferrying casualties every day from the front line to the main hospitals in the Afghan capital. The victims are collected along two main roads linking Kabul and Bagram airport some 60 kilometres away. Evacuating the war-wounded often entails crossing enemy lines, and on 3 November an ICRC vehicle driven by a field officer was caught in the cross-fire.
In October more than 300 war-wounded were admitted to the capital's Taliban-run military hospital, a facility receiving a degree of ICRC medical support. Over the same period, two other Kabul hospitals, both of which have since 1993 been receiving full ICRC support for their surgical services (medicines and other medical supplies, fuel oil and food), admitted nearly 350 more victims of the conflict. The five facilities administered and assisted by the ICRC in Afghanistan (Karte Seh and Wazir Akhbar Khan hospitals in Kabul, Mirwais hospital in Kandahar, Jalalabad provincial hospital and Ghazni hospital) have admitted a total of 1,877 patients since 29 September. Many other victims have been hospitalized outside the capital by the belligerents themselves, some in the Panjshir valley, under the control of Commander Masood. The ICRC has therefore dispatched a consignment of medicines and other medical supplies there as well.
On 31 October delegates assessed the need for surgical supplies at the Qala-I-Now hospital located in Badghis province in the north-west, where General Dostom's forces are engaged in an offensive. The ICRC sub-delegation in Herat is also closely following the situation of hundreds of civilians who recently streamed into the town after fleeing the fighting.
In both Kabul and the rest of the country the ICRC is continuing its protection work. From 29 September to 4 October, 1,054 new detainees held by all parties to the conflict were visited and registered.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Kabul, Tel. ++873 382 280 131 Peter Iseli, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2086
NORTHERN CAUCASUS / CHECHNYA GROZNY DROWNING IN SEWAGE
Water and electricity have been restored to some parts of Grozny, but the volume of waste water and sewage that has accumulated since August 1996 is so great that the drainage system is completely clogged, leaving pumping stations unable to function. Sewers are beginning to overflow into the basements of buildings and some streets, posing a serious public health risk.
ICRC engineers have begun working to clear and repair the city's thirteen pumping stations. It will take extra equipment and two weeks of work removing some 10,000 m3 of sludge before the drainage system can be overhauled.
The ICRC also plans to work closely with local media in an information campaign to warn the population of contamination risks.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2307
TAJIKISTAN THREE MILLION FRANC BUDGET EXTENSION
Faced with a need for humanitarian action in Tajikistan that is growing more acute day by day, the ICRC has once again increased its budget for programmes to assist the victims of the conflict between government and opposition forces in that country. The estimated expenditure for 1996 has therefore increased from 12 million to 15 million Swiss francs.
The harsh climate and appalling road conditions are posing serious logistical problems for the ICRC, which has been forced to take special measures (acquiring 15 additional four-wheel-drive vehicles) to keep some population groups from becoming completely cut off by the snows. An example is Tavildara, a town that has seen sporadic fighting. There the ICRC has distributed food, warm clothing and medicines to the remaining population of some 2,500, mostly women, children and elderly people.
Over 20,000 displaced people who have fled the fighting or the resulting isolation are currently receiving regular ICRC assistance in Dushanbe, the Garm valley and Kalai-Khum, in Gorno-Badakhshan.
Further information: Suzanne Berger, ICRC Geneva, Tel. ++41 22 730 2307
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org :
- Update on ICRC activities in Zaire, dated 04.11.96
During the week-end of 9-10 November 1996, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Pierre Gauthier, on (mobile) 41 79 202 42 00