ICRC News 33 / 27.08.97

ICRC News 33 / 27.08.97


** SHORT MENU....

RWANDA: ICRC MEDICAL SUPPLIES FOR ATTACKED REFUGEES:
ICRC emergency medical supplies have been donated to the Gisenyi hospital 
in north-western Rwanda to help treat people injured in an attack late 
last week on a nearby refugee camp.

BRAZZAVILLE AND KINSHASA: MEDICAL AID ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER CONGO:
The regular shelling that continues to devastate the centre of 
Brazzaville has forced the front-line Talangay hospital, the sole medical 
facility in the northern part of the Congolese capital, to move 
elsewhere.

AFGHANISTAN: NO END TO THE SUFFERING:
With the continuing fighting, the infrastructure in ruins, the galloping 
inflation, the countless people displaced and the scourge of mines, to 
alleviate the suffering in Afghanistan is a more formidable humanitarian 
challenge then ever.


** STORIES IN FULL...

RWANDA
ICRC MEDICAL SUPPLIES FOR ATTACKED REFUGEES

ICRC emergency medical supplies have been donated to the Gisenyi hospital 
in north-western Rwanda to help treat people injured in an attack late 
last week on a nearby refugee camp.

Official reports state that over 130 people were killed and at least as 
many wounded. The Mudende camp, near the town of Gisenyi, housed 
thousands of people who had fled fighting in the Masisi region of the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

During the weekend, the ICRC delivered dressing kits for five hundred 
people and 2,000 litres of IV fluids, as well as IV kits, material and 
medication to treat burns and cuts, painkillers, antibiotics, 
antimalarial medication and sterilized and non-sterilized gloves.

Local ICRC employees visited the hospital in Gisenyi on 23 August and saw 
that supplies to care for the wounded were inadequate.  Authorization to 
donate the material was obtained the same day and, because the ICRC 
maintains emergency stocks throughout the country, delivery was completed 
within 24 hours.

"It's part of our mandate to be ready to help victims of conflict," said 
Dominique Dufour, head of the ICRC delegation in Rwanda.  "We hope these 
supplies will partly alleviate the suffering of these people."  

Further information: Bernard Barrett, ICRC Kigali, tel. ++250 77 344


BRAZZAVILLE AND KINSHASA
MEDICAL AID ON BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER CONGO

The regular shelling that continues to devastate the centre of 
Brazzaville has forced the front-line Talangay hospital, the sole medical 
facility in the northern part of the Congolese capital, to move 
elsewhere. Its staff and patients were transferred on 22 August to a 
quiet area 20 km further north and housed in a school in the small  town 
of Kintele. The ICRC has installed a 10,000 litre water tank there and 
built latrines. Delegates and Congolese Red Cross volunteers are also 
regularly distributing surgical and other medical supplies to all medical 
facilities in both northern and southern Brazzaville. 

The ICRC is meeting the needs of people fleeing the fighting: it is 
supporting temporary health posts along the roads. Up to 15 such posts 
have enabled the thousands of displaced people seeking refuge outside the 
city to be provided with drinking water and medicines.

On the other side of the river, in Kinshasa, the Red Cross of the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo has set up a triage centre with the help 
of the ICRC for the wounded and sick who manage to get across. It is 
staffed by about a dozen of the National Society's first-aid workers and 
an ICRC nurse, who treat minor injuries and ailments on the spot. More 
serious casualties are taken by the ICRC to the General Hospital in an 
ambulance loaned by the Belgian Red Cross. 

In case other victims of the conflict in Brazzaville arrive, the ICRC is 
also providing medicines and other medical supplies to the General 
Hospital, where about a hundred beds have been specially prepared, and to 
two other Kinshasa hospitals. To date, it has transferred 45 people  to 
hospital and is monitoring their progress.

Assistance is being ferried by barges across the river Congo river from 
Kinshasa to Brazzaville several times a day. Fearing that the hostilities 
as yet centred in Brazzaville might spread to other parts of the country, 
the ICRC is considering every possible means of transporting humanitarian 
emergency aid further inland by river or otherwise. Its team has been 
increased and now consists of some 30 expatriates.

Further information: Paolo Dell'occa, ICRC Kinshasa, tel. ++243 12 34 191


AFGHANISTAN
NO END TO THE SUFFERING

With the continuing fighting, the infrastructure in ruins, the galloping 
inflation, the countless people displaced and the scourge of mines, to 
alleviate the suffering in Afghanistan is a more formidable humanitarian 
challenge then ever.

Since the beginning of the year the number of direct victims of the 
conflict has risen sharply. A Taliban offensive on the Mazar-i-Sharif 
district last May resulted in particularly heavy casualties, then there 
were sporadic but equally violent clashes in July and August. After 
visiting just over 3,500 prisoners in 1996, the ICRC has already 
registered more than 5,000 in the first six months of this year. Its 
distributions of food and other relief supplies are likewise growing 
steadily: in addition to the 220,000 people already assisted by it in 
1996, especially among the needy residents of Kabul, more than 80,000 
other beneficiaries in the Herat, Qala Nau, Maimana, Mazar-i-Sharif and 
Pul-i-Khumri districts and in the Panjshir valley are now also receiving 
ICRC aid. 

The north of the country is at present a virtual enclave and essential 
medical supplies there have been severely disrupted. In the next few days 
the ICRC will be organizing an airlift of about 100 tonnes of medicines 
and other medical items to Mazar-i-Sharif to ensure their availability 
until the end of the year. It has also observed that the death rate among 
war casualties in the Charikar and Baghram districts north of the capital 
is alarmingly high: every third and sometimes even every second casualty 
is dying for lack of appropriate care.  Increased assistance in the form 
of supplies and staff is therefore envisaged.

In view of this critical situation, the management of the ICRC has just 
decided to allocate an additional 25,439,899 Swiss francs for its 
humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, thus raising the 1997 budget for its 
operations there to 87,029,314 Swiss francs. 

Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906

 
During the weekend of 30 - 31 August 1997, for all information please call
the press officer on duty, Kim Gordon-Bates, on (mobile) 41 79 357 50 03