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UNICEF calls for urgent Zaire rescue

Tuesday, 22 April 1997: UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy issued a strong call for action today as the situation in eastern Zaire deteriorated further into tragedy.

"As the world watches and waits, hundreds of children are at death's door," she said. "But food and medicine are close at hand. These innocent children can be saved."

Ms. Bellamy appealed to African leaders to use their influence with the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire. In particular, she urged South African President Nelson Mandela to intercede directly with Laurent Kabila to ensure the care and protection of refugee children and the immediate evacuation of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children.

"With his overwhelming influence and his unique moral stature worldwide, Nelson Mandela might well turn this desperate situation around," she said.

UNICEF is also contacting several African regional leaders to encourage them to use their influence to halt the looming catastrophe, and has spoken to the UN/OAU Special Representative, Mohamed Sahnoun, to convey a rising crescendo of alarm.

For four days the threat of violence has prevented aid workers from reaching the refugees who are scattered in camps between Kisangani and Ubundu. Humanitarian aid has been looted, fuel for aid flights taken, aid workers threatened and local villagers massacred by parties unknown. Reports of an attack on the refugee camp at Kilometre 25 on Monday have raised fears that thousands of refugees living in the camp may have fled into the surrounding forest.

"There is no doubt that if aid workers are not allowed access to the refugees, hundreds of children and their families will die of neglect," Ms. Bellamy said. "The senseless deaths of innocent victims must be prevented." More than 5,000 unaccompanied children were to be airlifted from Kisangani to Goma beginning last Friday. They were to be the first group in an operation to evacuate 80,000 to 100,000 people over the next three months. But local authorities delayed the evacuation, first saying that there was a risk of spreading cholera to other cities, and then arguing that the airlift would congest the airports.

Aid workers maintain that the cholera outbreak is containable and that evacuation is the population's only chance of survival. Transit centres in Goma, run by non-governmental organizations and supported by UN agencies, have been set up to care for unaccompanied children, who are registered and given food and medical assistance, before being reunited with their families.

Recent events run contrary to promises from Alliance leaders. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Stephen Lewis, on mission in the region last week, received assurances that the evacuation could proceed as planned, and that aid workers would not be prevented from working in the camps.

Aid agencies have also consistently assured local authorities that the needs of internally displaced people and the local population are being addressed. Basic services, rehabilitated by UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies, are already functioning in eastern Zaire, offering health and educational facilities to local communities.

"I urge the Alliance to make the evacuation possible," said Ms. Bellamy. "Time is running out for innocent children caught in the conflict."

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