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AFGHANISTAN: FOOD REACHES BAMIYAN: This week a ninth ICRC truck reached the encircled region of Bamiyan, some 250 km north-west of Kabul, bringing food to some 2,000 particularly needy families in this mountainous area of Afghanistan.
ETHIOPIA: AID FOR FLOOD VICTIMS: During much of November and December the few available helicopters were the only way of bringing assistance to the victims of devastating floods in south-eastern Ethiopia.
IRIAN JAYA: HELP ARRIVES BY SEA: A ship carrying 82 tonnes of emergency food supplied by the ICRC has managed to reach the coastal town of Timika in Irian Jaya.
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: RED CROSS MESSAGES: A SUCCESS STORY: On 12 December last, the ICRC set up a service in Brazzaville to collect Red Cross messages from people who have not been able to contact their relatives abroad since the beginning of the conflict, on 5 June 1997.
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AFGHANISTAN FOOD REACHES BAMIYAN
This week a ninth ICRC truck reached the encircled region of Bamiyan, some 250 km north-west of Kabul, bringing food to some 2,000 particularly needy families in this mountainous area of Afghanistan. The assistance was necessary because of an extremely harsh winter and the effects of the long-drawn-out conflict. Over the past month nearly 120 tonnes of food have been sent to Bamiyan, supplementing the 400 tonnes of potatoes purchased locally for distribution.
Because of the turbulent events in the north, the situation in the entire northern and central portions of Afghanistan is highly volatile and the ICRC delegation has been exercising caution in dispatching relief supplies. It was feared that any large convoys might be attacked and looted by armed groups operating in the area, so the delegation arranged with Afghan traders to have the trucks travel one by one over the hazardous roads of the Hindu Kush mountains. With the arrival of the ninth vehicle, nearly all the relief supplies for needy families in Bamiyan have reached their destination safely. Others will follow, but don't tell anyone!
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906 Juan Martinez, ICRC Kabul, tel. ++873 382 280 131
ETHIOPIA AID FOR FLOOD VICTIMS
During much of November and December the few available helicopters were the only way of bringing assistance to the victims of devastating floods in south-eastern Ethiopia. With the waters now gradually receding, in the first week of January a convoy consisting of four Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) and two ICRC trucks managed to reach the hitherto isolated settlements of Hargele and Cherati in the Afder area, bringing in much-needed aid in the form of 28 tonnes of food grain, 13 tonnes of seed, 1.3 tonnes of high-energy biscuits and one tonne of medical and other items.
The chairman of the ERCS regional branch, an ICRC health delegate and a number of experienced field staff distributed, through local communities, these emergency supplies as well as the tools needed to immediately plant maize, the crop best suited to current soil conditions.
An ICRC team using light vehicles had gone to the same area in the last week of December on a medical assistance and assessment mission which confirmed the desperate situation of small communities stranded on higher elevations or plots of land surrounded by floodwaters. It was decided that the supplies brought in by the convoy would be handed over to elders and local representatives in the region's main administrative centres - Godscubo, Hargele and Cherati - where emergency committees had been set up to seek ways of reaching isolated groups of people in outlying areas.
As the rains abated during December and the waters started to subside, it became even more urgent to distribute seed, in addition to sufficient quantities of food grain, so that the population could plant crops as soon as possible and gradually regain its self-sufficiency.
Further information: Peter Iseli, ICRC Addis Ababa, tel. ++2511 518 366
IRIAN JAYA HELP ARRIVES BY SEA
A ship carrying 82 tonnes of emergency food supplied by the ICRC has managed to reach the coastal town of Timika in Irian Jaya. The aid is intended for several thousand people hard hit by continuing drought in a region already suffering from chronic armed violence. The food will be distributed by helicopter to high-risk population groups entirely dependent on ICRC aid for their survival, first in the Mimika district and then in the southern part of the Baliem valley and the Merauke region (along the border with Papua New Guinea).
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++4122 730 2906
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE RED CROSS MESSAGES: A SUCCESS STORY
On 12 December last, the ICRC set up a service in Brazzaville to collect Red Cross messages from people who have not been able to contact their relatives abroad since the beginning of the conflict, on 5 June 1997.
Every day four Congolese Red Cross volunteers receive about 50 messages at the collection centre. Thus far almost 400 messages have been sent the world over - not only to other countries in Africa, but as far as Cuba, Russia and even China. The programme will continue until normal means of communication have been restored. More collection points will be opened shortly in other parts of Brazzaville so that a greater number of inhabitants can use the service.
In parallel, the ICRC is continuing its programme to reunite unaccompanied children with their families. At present 84 such children are in the ICRC's care in Brazzaville, a dozen in Pointe-Noire and a dozen more in Kinkole, near Kinshasa, where a reception centre was set up during the conflict for refugees from Brazzaville. So far more than 30 children have been reunited with their families.
Further information: Remo Tamburlin, ICRC Kinshasa, tel. ++243 12 34 191
During the weekend of 10 - 11 January 1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Doris Pfister, on (mobile) 41 79 202 3670