ICRC News 09 / 12.03.97

ICRC News 09 / 12.03.97


ALBANIA
VIOLENCE UNABATED

With the unrest in Albania continuing to spread, insurgents have seized 
control of a quarter of the national territory. In the south of the
country, law and order are no longer being enforced and military bases
have been abandoned to the population. As a result, large numbers of
people are armed and, according to unofficial sources, at least 40 have 
died since the beginning of the insurrection.

The Albanian Red Cross is active throughout the country, including the
areas of unrest, delivering medical aid and food to hospitals. To date,
the ICRC has provided it with essential surgical supplies for the
treatment of 400 wounded.

The ICRC, which returned to Albania on 4 March, is also setting up an
office in Tirana this week. Its delegates are currently conducting
surveys in the south and meeting the highest Albanian authorities in the 
capital with a view to being granted access to detainees held by the 
government.

Further information: Michael Kleiner, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2281


SOMALIA
FLOOD CONTROL IN THE JUBA VALLEY

The ICRC has just completed the first phase of a major project in
southern Somalia's Juba Valley to protect against flooding, which
destroys crops and causes severe hardship for thousands of farming
families every year. The project, launched following a survey along a 
200-km stretch of the Juba Valley, aims to rehabilitate more than 100
damaged sections of dykes built to protect fields bordering the Juba
River. Already, the four worst-hit sections, all located south of Jilib
and totalling 1.5 km in length, have been repaired.

The main problems are erosion of the riverbank on which the dykes are
built; overflowing during major floods, which washes the dykes away;
damage caused by farmers who dig into the dykes to irrigate their fields;
and termite infestation, which weakens the structure until breaches
occur. Most of the dykes, originally constructed by the former Somali
government, have not undergone any systematic repairs or maintenance
since the early 1990s.

According to ICRC experts, the US$500,000 rehabilitation project, which 
involves carrying out repairs to just under 8 km of the dyke structure, 
will help reduce the threat of flooding and improve food security for 
farmers and all the people who depend on them. The project is being 
undertaken in close cooperation with the local communities, which have 
provided teams of labourers to do the work, using heavy machinery and 
equipment made available by the ICRC. Construction is scheduled to be 
completed by mid-May.

During last year's floods - the worst for more than a decade - tens of
thousands of hectares of crops for the Gu season, which is the main
growing season in Somalia, were washed away. In a bid to make up for the 
shortfall, ICRC staff distributed new seed to some 20,000 farmers and 
supplied sandbags to shore up the river banks as a stopgap measure. The 
ICRC has been supporting communities in the Juba Valley for more than two
years through a variety of health, agricultural, veterinary and
sanitation programmes, and has been providing them with food and other 
relief.

Further information: Claude Voillat, ICRC Nairobi, Somalia delegation,
tel. ++2542 723 963


During the week-end of
15 - 16  March 1997, for all information
please call the press officer on duty, Rolin Wavre, on
(mobile) 41 79  357 15 24


New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org :
- Update 97/1 on ICRC activities  in Albania, dated  10.3.97
- Update 97/3 on ICRC activities in Zaire, dated 10.3.97
- Update 97/1 on ICRC activities in Tajikistan, dated  5.3.97