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East Zaire: UNICEF renews appeal

Tuesday, 14 January 1997: UNICEF has expressed deep concern over the deteriorating condition of Rwandan refugees and internally displaced people sheltering in the Lubutu area, 170 kilometres southeast of Kisangani, in eastern Zaire. Recent reports reveal an alarming increase in the number of deaths, largely from diarrhoea and malaria. A food shortage is claiming more lives among these already weak, malnourished and vulnerable people.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 120,000 refugees and displaced people have settled in Tingi-Tingi, seven kilometres southeast of Lubutu, and another 60,000 people are sheltering in Amisi, 70 kilometres southeast of Lubutu. Most of them are women and children. The mortality rate in the area has increased dramatically in the last three days.

On Monday, 6 January, 23 deaths were reported, 12 of whom were children under five, who died in the therapeutic centre set up by UNICEF in Tingi-Tingi. On average, in the preceding days, three children died every day. Reports from Amisi suggest that the condition of the population there could be even worse.

UNICEF medical expert Dr. Alphonse Toko blamed the rising mortality rate on the lack of food. Refugees are weak and vulnerable to disease after a long journey with little sustenance. Mothers are often too poorly-nourished to breastfeed their babies or to give adequate care to their children.

Local communities, suffering the added demand on limited resources, are also affected by the present lack of food, which is being exacerbated by the complicated logistics of delivering food to the area, where there is only a small airstrip and where roads are often inaccessible. All humanitarian agencies are experiencing considerable difficulties in getting through adequate supplies.

A UNICEF-chartered DC-3 aircraft, with a three-ton capacity, is shuttling three times daily between Kisangani and Lubutu, carrying urgently needed supplies of UNIMIX (high protein food for malnourished children) and NUTRISET (therapeutic milk), to supplement existing UNIMIX stocks at Lubutu, which currently stand at 40 tons.

UNICEF has set up seven health centres in Tingi-Tingi and two health centres in Amisi (run by Médecins du Monde), with each health centre serving 10,000 people. UNICEF has also set up an emergency health centre 12 kilometres north of Amisi, on the road to Tingi-Tingi, where high protein biscuits, oral rehydration salts and first aid are available. A UNICEF team, together with Médecins sans Frontières, continue to run two nutritional centres in the area, one for therapeutic feeding with 100 severely malnourished children, and the other for nutritional rehabilitation, with some 700 malnourished children.

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