Report No. 40 of 1996 Date: 11 October 1996
This report includes: A) Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire and Tanzania B) Liberia and Sierra Leone C) Afghanistan
>From P. Ares, Chief, Programming Service. For information regarding resources, donors are requested to contact Mr. F. Strippoli or Mr. M. Crosthwaite, WFP Rome (Ph. 39 6 5228 2504 or 5228 2004). Transmission problems should be reported by fax to 39 6 5228 2837.
PART I - HIGHLIGHTS (Details below in Part II)
A. EAST AFRICA: REGIONAL OPERATION FOR BURUNDI, RWANDA, ZAIRE AND TANZANIA
1. Burundi
a) Assessment missions to visit Kayanza, Gitega and Karuzi to establish food aid needs of people affected by recent conflict.
b) WFP and UNHCR assist Banyamulenge refugees from South Kivu. Preparations in place in case of a further influx.
c) General insecurity in Kayanza province and heavy fighting in Muramya province may make the provinces inaccessible to humanitarian operations in coming weeks. Conflict in the hills near Bujumbura results in further movement of people to the Johnson Centre in the capital.
2. Zaire - Goma
a) Better stock situation leads to increase in the ration to 1,250 kcal.
b) Increase in number of malnourished children in Kibumba camp results in increase in enrolment in special feeding programmes. c) UNHCR requested by regional authorities to encircle Goma camps with barbed wire.
d) Rocket attack on bus between Bukavu and Ishasha north of Kibumba camp. Seven persons reported killed and 16 others injured.
3. Zaire - South Kivu (Bukavu and Uvira)
a) Deputy Governor of South Kivu states on 8 October that all Banyamulenge people should leave the area within one week; government spokesman in Kinshasa down plays the one-week ultimatum.
b) Situation in Bukavu and Uvira tense and humanitarian workers harassed by Zairian military. A number of UN and NGO staff relocated from Uvira.
c) Hospital in Lemera, south of Bukavu, attacked.
d) Three trucks carrying WFP food commodities, accompanied by military escort, arrive in Bukavu from Uvira on 10 October, using newly reopened escarpment road. Earlier attempt blocked due to cross-border shooting. Stock levels remain low while most food air continues to be rerouted via Goma.
4. Rwanda
a) Tension in eastern Zaire raises fears of further influxes of refugees into Rwanda.
B. LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE
1. Liberia
a) Security deteriorates further in Grand Cape Mount County. Renewed fighting in Tiene and Wangeko result in displacement of large numbers of people; UN/NGO mission sent to the area to assess needs.
b) WFP general distribution on hold in the area until security situation improves; fighters reported to be looting villages, abducting and killing civilians.
c) OXFAM feeding centre in Vonzola and World Vision therapeutic feeding centre in Medina supplied with food by WFP.
d) More people are emerging from the bush having heard about WFP emergency food distribution in accessible areas of Bomi County.
e) Extremely high malnutrition rates reported in Margibi and Bong Counties. Save the Children is distributing WFP food in these counties.
f) WFP food distributions to beneficiaries in displaced centres in and around Monrovia continues.
2. Sierra Leone
a) Transport of WFP supplies by road to Bo from Freetown after restarted after closure 18-25 September due to rebel ambushes.
b) Food distribution resumed in both Bo and Kenema. Food distributions also carried out in Mbai and Nyandehun areas, and in Kailahun. ICRC distribution of 6-week rations to IDPs in rural Pujehum completed. C. AFGHANISTAN
1. Update
a) Kabul calm following the Taliban take-over on 4 October, although fighting reported near Bagram airport.
b) WFP continues discussions with Taliban authorities on the future of WFP activities.
PART II - DETAILS
A. EAST AFRICA: REGIONAL OPERATION FOR BURUNDI, RWANDA, ZAIRE AND TANZANIA
1. BURUNDI
1.1 WFP's reduced programme of assistance benefited a total of 36,234 people from 30 September to 6 October. Needs assessment missions are planned in Kayanza, Gitega and Karuzi following reports that people recently affected by conflict in those areas may be in need of food relief.
1.2 MSF-Belgium, which assists a hospital and health centres in Karuzi province, recently undertook a nutritional survey among the displaced population, finding 14 per cent global malnutrition and 3.7 per cent acute malnutrition among the under-five population. There are an estimated 50,000 displaced in the province, prevented by conflict since July from returning to their homes. WFP has assisted this population on an ad hoc basis.
1.3 The planned importation of 215,000 litres of fuel by WFP for use of UN agencies and NGOs is expected by 13 October. This will replenish the needed supplies for humanitarian operations in Burundi.
1.4 The request by WFP to double the number of rotations by the WFP regional aircraft between Nairobi and Bujumbura has been refused by the Kenyan National Sanctions Committee. WFP is looking into the possibility of chartering a larger aircraft, capable of carrying 50 passengers or 2 tons of cargo, to increase capacity on the limited number of flights allowed. Domestic Twin Otter operations in Burundi were resumed on 11 October, after aircraft maintenance was completed.
1.5 The Regional Sanctions Coordinating Committee met on 8 October. A further summit of regional leaders was postponed until 12 October, in Arusha. The meeting was expected to recommend that sanctions against Burundi be continued.
1.6 Across the border in Zaire, conflict between the Zaire army and armed Banyamulenge groups continues in the Uvira area of South Kivu (see below). In collaboration with UNHCR, WFP was last week assisting 568 Banyamulenge refugees in Burundi. These refugees are presently at various locations, but there are plans for limiting assistance to one site in Bubanza province (at Gihanga) to encourage the refugees to assemble there. The UN Humanitarian Situation Report for Burundi of 9 October gives the total number of Banyamulenge refugees in Burundi as 800 (300 of them in Cibitoke province). Humanitarian agencies are preparing for a further influx.
1.7 Reports have been received in Ngozi of general insecurity in many parts of Kayanza province. Heavy fighting has been reported in Muramya province. Deterioration in the situation may make the provinces inaccessible to humanitarian operations. Security problems were also reported in Ruyigi province and Bujumbura Rural. On the road between Bujumbura and Bururi, there was an ambush of a civilian vehicle (leaving one dead, four wounded) last week, and an ambush of a minibus (with unknown casualties). Sabotage of a power pylon in Bujumbura Rural has affected electricity and water supplies in the Bujumbura city. Conflict in the hills near the city has forced several hundred people to seek refuge in the capital at the Johnson Centre, which is already host to over 6,500 displaced people.
2. ZAIRE - GOMA
2.1 WFP Goma received a total of 1,967 tons of WFP food aid over the past week; 976 tons were dispatched to Bukavu. The healthier stock situation has permitted an increase in the ration to 1,250 kcal. 2.2 In comparison with the previous week, the number of special feeding programme beneficiaries increased by 21 percent this week, largely due to the increasing number of malnourished children in Kibumba camp.
2.3 The Zairian Government regional authorities have requested UNHCR to encircle the camps with barbed wire.
2.4 On 6 October, three rockets were launched at a Zairian bus carrying local people to Ishasha from Bukavu. This occurred on the main road north of Goma, just north of Kibumba camp. Initial reports are that seven persons died and 16 others were injured.
2.5 In Lac Vert camp on 29 September armed robbers entered the house of one of the refugee leaders and killed his wife. There is a general increase in the level of criminality in the camps, and while this may be linked to the low ration level in recent weeks, there is speculation that it is also connected to decreased respect among the refugees for their representatives and leaders.
3. ZAIRE - SOUTH KIVU (BUKAVU AND UVIRA)
3.1 The UN and all other aid agencies working in South Kivu are deeply concerned by statements of regional authorities in the area in recent days: on 8 October, the Deputy Governor of South Kivu stated in a press conference that the Banyamulenge people are destabilizing eastern Zaire, and that they should leave the area. He announced that a corridor will be opened for the Banyamulenge to leave the area. Any persons remaining in the affected area after one week, he stated, would be considered rebels, and will be treated as such.
3.2 On 10 October a government spokesman in Kinshasa stated that although Zaire wanted the Banyamulenge to leave, there had not been an official one-week ultimatum issued.
3.3 The general security situation in Bukavu and Uvira remains tense with frequent harassment of humanitarian workers by the Zairian military. A number of NGO and UN vehicles have been confiscated. In Uvira, Zairian soldiers went on a looting rampage on 8 October which lasted for several hours.
3.4 On 9 October, 18 UN and NGO staff relocated from Uvira due to the deteriorating situation.
3.5 It has been reported that a hospital in Lemera town, located some 40 km south of Bukavu, was attacked by armed persons on 6 October, and a number of patients and hospital staff killed.
3.6 On 3 October, following the announcement by local authorities that the escarpment road had been reopened, WFP Bukavu attempted to send a convoy to Uvira under military escort. The convoy was blocked mid way due to cross-border shooting. However, on 10 October, three trucks carrying WFP food commodities, again accompanied by military escort, arrived in Bukavu from Uvira. Additional WFP convoy movements were scheduled for 11 October.
3.7 Due to the security problems on the southern axis, stock levels remain low, especially for cereals, pulses and CSB. All commodities continue to be rerouted through the northern axis via Goma.
4. RWANDA
4.1 The continuing tension in eastern Zaire has raised fears of further influxes of refugees into Rwanda. Adding to the tension are the reports of official statements from South Kivu, reported above.
4.2 During the week leading up to the recent Zairian announcements, refugees from Zaire had continued to arrive in Rwanda. From 30 September to 7 October, 220 asylum seekers came from the Uvira area and 104 from Masisi. The former are temporarily accommodated at Bugarama returnee transit centre (Cyangugu), and the latter at Umubano refugee camp (Gisenyi). By 9 October a total of 555 persons from Uvira were located in Bugarama transit centre and 14,200 refugees from Masisi in Umubano camp. By this date approximately 1,000 persons from the Uvira region had fled into Rwanda, many of whom have opted to present themselves as returnees.
4.3 In total, from 30 September to 7 October returnee transit centres received 1,443 Rwandans coming back from neighbouring countries, most of them returning from Zaire (1,138).
4.4 The number of Burundian refugees in Cyangugu Prefecture has dropped to 3,046 persons. This is attributed to an encouraged return to Burundi and to an improved verification of the beneficiary numbers.
B. LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE
1. LIBERIA
1.1 Security continues to deteriorate in Grand Cape Mount County. A team made up of members from WFP, UN-HACO (the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Office in Liberia) and two local NGOs, Concerned Christian Community (CCC) and LIURD, carried out a fact-finding mission to Medina, Vonzula and Sinje on 7 October after renewed fighting in the Tiene and Wangeko areas over the weekend resulted in large population movements.
1.2 WFP general distribution in the area is presently on hold. Although the need for food in the areas visited by the mission is evident, most people interviewed by the mission stress that the security situation must improve before food distribution takes place. Fighters have been moving into villages, looting food and belongings, and abducting, injuring or killing civilians. WFP continues to monitor the situation closely, and will carry out much needed food distributions as soon as security permits.
1.3 WFP has set up registration points in Sinje, Vonzula, and Medina with implementing partner LIURD, to register population movements. WFP ration tickets, which will be used both for identification purposes and towards the introduction of food and non-food item distribution when possible, are being distributed to heads of family upon registration.
1.4 Some 300 supplementary and 100 therapeutic feeding patients have been registered in Vonzola, where WFP is supplying food to an OXFAM feeding centre, which was established on 5 October. In Medina, a World Vision therapeutic feeding centre was established on 4 October, and as of 7 October, 121 cases were registered. More patients, arriving from both villages and the bush, are expected in both centres over the next few days.
1.5 On 1 October, a two-week ration was distributed through implementing partner CCC to 1,736 beneficiaries residing in Giah Hills, and the surrounding villages in Bomi County. These people have emerged from the bush upon learning about WFP emergency food distribution in accessible areas of Bomi County.
1.6 WFP has provided some 94 tons of assorted food commodities to Save the Children for distribution to 1,180 heads of family in response to recent nutritional and health assessment surveys carried out by MSF and Action Contre la Faim in Margibi and Bong Counties, which reported extremely high malnutrition rates in some areas. WFP will continue food convoys to both counties.
1.7 From 26 September to 2 October, WFP distributed some 607 tons of food commodities to 132,115 beneficiaries residing in 26 displaced centres in and around Monrovia.
2. SIERRA LEONE
2.1 WFP has resumed road movement to Bo from Freetown after the route was closed from 18-25 September due to rebel ambushes, including the 17 September hijacking of a WFP-contracted truck. WFP started October food distribution this week for the 144,000 beneficiaries who did not receive September rations due to the road closure.
2.2 WFP was able to resume food distributions on 7 October for both Kenema town and the people in camps in the area following a truce between the military and Kamajors in Kenema after violent confrontations in late September. Sporadic clashes reportedly continue between Kamajors.
2.3 WFP is presently carrying out food distribution in the Mobai and Nyandehun areas to 18,107 internally displaced persons. A further 16,280 IDPs will be served next week in Baiima and Baoma. IDP distribution in Kailahun was carried out from 1-9 October. ICRC has completed a 6-week distribution to 6,800 IDPs in rural Pujehum.
C. AFGHANISTAN
1. UPDATE
1.1 Following the Taliban take-over of Kabul reported previously (WFP Emergency Report no. 39), fighting with rival forces has been reported near Bagram airport, approximately 50 kilometres from Kabul. Kabul itself appears calm although some air activity has been reported.
1.2 The WFP Country and Regional Directors met with the Taliban Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mullah Ghous and a member of the Taliban Supreme Council, Mullah Abbas, on 7 October. Discussions on the future of WFP activities continue.
(End WFP Emergency Report No. 40 of 1996 - October 11, 1996)
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