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SIERRA LEONE: ASSISTANCE IN THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY: On 23 March, an ICRC-chartered aircraft flew a team of delegates from the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown to Kenema, where they delivered 700 kg of medicines, which had arrived by truck the previous day, to two clinics run by the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society and to the town's main hospital, which has been supported by the ICRC since early 1997.
UGANDA: HELPING DISPLACED PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES: The ICRC launched a large-scale agricultural aid programme in northern Uganda on 5 March. Its aim is to enable more than 260,000 persons displaced by the conflict between government forces and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army to grow their own food.
CTTE D'IVOIRE: LOCAL OFFICIALS DISCUSS HUMANITARIAN LAW: On 23 March a group of some 30 senior local officials gathered in the Ivorian capital Yamoussoukro for the first in a series of three-day seminars on international humanitarian law organized by the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Ctte d'Ivoire.
INDONESIA: RELIEF WORK CONTINUES IN IRIAN JAYA: The relief survey and distributions launched in November 1997 by the Indonesian Red Cross Society and the ICRC in the highlands of Irian Jaya have overcome enormous logistical hurdles and now begun to show results.
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SIERRA LEONE ASSISTANCE IN THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY
On 23 March, an ICRC-chartered aircraft flew a team of delegates from the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown to Kenema, where they delivered 700 kg of medicines, which had arrived by truck the previous day, to two clinics run by the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society and to the town's main hospital, which has been supported by the ICRC since early 1997.
The ICRC, which had suspended relief work outside Freetown owing to the recent fighting, has now been able to assess the medical needs, food situation and clean water supply of Kenema's residents, displaced people and those detained as a result of the fighting. Delegates hope to resume relief work in the next few weeks in areas where security conditions permit.
In Freetown, delegates working with National Society volunteers have completed a distribution of food and other supplies to persons whose homes were destroyed in the recent fighting and looting. In addition, one-time food distributions were made in March to displaced people and Liberian refugees as well as to some 6,500 people in various public institutions such as hospitals and orphanages. The ICRC plans to continue providing food aid to such facilities over the next two months.
Delegates regularly visit more than 1,000 detainees being held at Freetown's central prison, where they also distribute personal hygiene items to new arrivals.
Further information: Jean-Luc Metzker, ICRC Freetown, tel. ++ 232 241 438
UGANDA HELPING DISPLACED PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES
The ICRC launched a large-scale agricultural aid programme in northern Uganda on 5 March. Its aim is to enable more than 260,000 persons displaced by the conflict between government forces and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army to grow their own food.
On 16 March, 50,000 residents of the Pabbo camp for displaced people, 50 kilometres north-west of Gulu, received hoes and more than 100 tonnes of seed. Christina is a woman living in one of the endless rows of straw huts that make up the camp. "I am a widow and have five children to feed", she explains. "Food is my biggest problem." The supplies provided by the United Nations' World Food Programme with which the ICRC is coordinating its own distributions together with the harvest expected from the seed distributed by the ICRC, should significantly improve the situation of displaced people. The ICRC programme was timed to coincide with the planting season, with harvesting expected to take place in June-July. Distributions will be carried out over three weeks with the help of several dozen volunteers from the Uganda Red Cross Society and almost 30 ICRC employees. Each family has access to a plot of land suitable for cultivation, located either on the periphery of the camps or part of the fields owned by the family near its home (in which case they must leave the fields at nightfall and return to the camp). Each family receives nine kg of locally purchased maize, bean and sorghum seed, as well as a hoe and vegetable-seed kit.
In all, 465 tonnes of seed, 52,000 hoes and as many seed kits will be distributed in 18 camps for displaced people in the Gulu and Kitgum districts. Gilles Le Goff, the ICRC relief coordinator in Kampala, summed up the operation: "Our aim is to help displaced people regain their self-sufficiency".
Further information: Josui Anselmo, ICRC Nairobi, tel. ++ 2542 716 339
CTTE D'IVOIRE LOCAL OFFICIALS DISCUSS HUMANITARIAN LAW
On 23 March a group of some 30 senior local officials gathered in the Ivorian capital Yamoussoukro for the first in a series of three-day seminars on international humanitarian law organized by the ICRC and the Red Cross Society of Ctte d'Ivoire.
Intended for senior officials from prefectures around the country, the event is the first of its kind in Africa and is being arranged in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior and National Integration. Its aim is to provide the participants with information on the humanitarian treaties by which their country is bound and to make them aware of the rules applicable in the event of armed conflict or internal violence.
Workshops will be held on subjects such as implementing humanitarian law during conflict, incorporating that law into Ivorian legislation, humanitarian law and the maintenance of public order, and the ICRC's activities to prevent violations of humanitarian law and protect the victims of conflict.
The Yamoussoukro meeting is also an opportunity to explain to civilian authorities the reasons why the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement must always observe the principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence in its work.
Further information: Reni-Luc Thivoz, ICRC Abidjan, tel. ++ 225 22 24 59
INDONESIA RELIEF WORK CONTINUES IN IRIAN JAYA
The relief survey and distributions launched in November 1997 by the Indonesian Red Cross Society and the ICRC in the highlands of Irian Jaya have overcome enormous logistical hurdles and now begun to show results. >From November to the end of January, approximately 15,000 victims of an unprecedented drought received medical assistance and emergency food aid. Helicopters flew supplies to 19 villages in Mimika district, a mountainous region in the heart of Irian Jaya. Last year, malnutrition and malaria wreaked havoc there among its population of farmers, who had been forced to flee to the forests or to low-lying valleys because of fighting between the Indonesian army and the Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or Free Papua Movement, a Papua rebel group.
The nutritional and health situation of the region's most vulnerable inhabitants, which was considered disastrous as 1997 drew to an end, has now gradually improved. In some villages the incidence of malaria has fallen from 80% to 20%. Regular distributions of rice and high-protein biscuits have enabled farmers in Mimika district to avoid premature harvesting and consumption of sweet potatoes, the local staple food.
Since February, teams from the ICRC and Indonesian Red Cross have turned their attention to surveying the Wamena region and the Baliem valley in Jayawijaya, to the east. Initial reports indicate that the medical and nutritional situation in the area, which has also been struck by famine and malaria, is every bit as bad as in the Mimika district. Emergency relief is currently being planned for about 10,000 people in the area.
Further information: Joerg Stoecklin, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++ 41 22 730 29 06
New on the ICRC Public Server - http://www.icrc.org : - Update 98/01 on ICRC activities in Irian Jaya, dated 24.03.98
During the weekend of 28 - 29 March1998, for all information please call the press officer on duty, Rubhn Ortega, on (mobile) 41 79 217 32 03