Recent contacts between Congolese and Rwandan officials are being followed closely by humanitarian organizations, in the hope that they will facilitate aid operations. In the meantime, the ICRC is
pursuing its activities for victims of the conflict that has ravaged eastern Congo in recent months.
Latest report on ICRC activities in the field General situation
The
humanitarian situation in the Kivus remains a source of concern for the ICRC, even though there has been less fighting during the past week.
Following the withdrawal of the armed opposition
movement of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) from Ishasha and Nyamililma last week, residents who had fled their homes to escape the fighting have started to return.
Several thousand people have chosen to remain in refugee camps in neighbouring Uganda, however, until the situation stabilizes.
The ICRC has supplied medicine to several hospitals in the
area to help them cope with additional needs.
In south Lubero, the civilians that fled the fighting are slowly returning to the towns of Kirumba, Kayna and Kanyabayonga.
What
the ICRC is doing Re-establishing family links
Fifteen children were reunited with their families this week thanks to ICRC radio broadcasts.
They had been separated by the
recent outbreak of fighting.
The ICRC is working with four radio stations in North Kivu and the network of local branches of the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to
trace children's relatives as quickly as possible.
Altogether, the Red Cross has identified and registered 134 unaccompanied children since end of October.
A total of 115 Red
Cross messages were collected in and around Goma for relatives in territory controlled by the CNDP.
These messages are one of the only means of communication for families dispersed by the
recent fighting.
Assistance Sake, Bweremana and Minova (30 to 45 km west of Goma)
Together with the Congolese Red Cross, the ICRC distributed food to over 70,000 people in
Sake, Kirotshe, Shasha, Kihindo and Bweremana last week in coordination with the World Food Programme.
The aid is reaching displaced people and residents, many of whom are hosting the
displaced.
Beneficiaries received a two-week supply of flour, beans, cooking oil and rice.
Around Minova the ICRC distributed food, blankets, kitchen sets, mats, soap and
clothing to more than 8,800 people.
In Saké, the ICRC is upgrading the water supply system to providing safe drinking water for the town's 30,000 inhabitants and its large displaced
population.
The Kibati camps for the displaced (6 km north-east of Goma)
The ICRC and the Congolese Red Cross continue to supply drinking water to two distribution points -
Kanyarutchinia and Munigui - that have no infrastructure.
Every day, more than 80,000 litres are delivered by truck for the benefit of over 30,000 people.
The ICRC and the
Congolese Red Cross continue to support two counselling centres for victims of sexual violence where qualified staff listen to the victims, counsel them, mediate between them and their families and
conduct community-awareness campaigns to ward off rejection and stigmatization of the victims.
Congolese Red Cross volunteers continue to raise awareness of basic hygiene among the
displaced in a bid to stave off any outbreak of contagious disease.
Goma
An ICRC surgical team continues to work in Katindo Military Hospital.
Local Red Cross volunteers
help keep the hospital clean.
The Congolese Red Cross has distributed food and other essentials to over 1,200 displaced people who took refuge in five schools and churches.
The
ICRC continues to visit people held in Goma prison and to provide humanitarian protection.
The ICRC has carried out a second round of food aid for the prison inmates.
Rutshuru territory
An emergency facility in Vitshumbi set up by the ICRC and run by the Congolese Red Cross continues to produce 70,000 litres of drinking water a day, helping to stave off
water-borne diseases among the area's 12,000 residents and displaced people.
The ICRC has conducted a survey of the areas affected by last month's fighting to assess needs.
It
noted that displaced people have begun trickling back from the Kibati camps in Goma.
Kitshanga (Masisi territory)
ICRC engineers are carrying out repair work on the town's water
network with a view to providing safe drinking water for 25,000 residents.
The ICRC is installing a new 90,000-litre reservoir for the 32,000 displaced people in Mungote and Kahe camps.
This will triple the camps' current water storage capacity and finally meet their needs.
Béni, Butembo and Kirumba (150 km north of Goma)
The ICRC has reinforced its
presence in this area to cope with the increasing need for humanitarian aid.
The organization has upgraded its base to a fully-fledged office with over 30 staff.
It has been
conducting a survey of needs in the area.
Counselling centres
Thirty-four ICRC-supported centres, spread across the two Kivu provinces, continue to help victims of sexual violence
on a weekly basis.
Around 2,500 people of all ages have come to consult ICRC-trained staff in the last year.
Thanks to an ICRC awareness-raising campaign, around 20% of patients
come to the centres within 72 hours of being raped to take post-rape medicine.
This is up from just 12% last year.
Taken within this period, the medicine considerably reduces the
risk of contracting venereal diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
A woman carries water on her head whilst carrying her child on her back in the Budiriro suburb in Harare December 10, 2008. The death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak soared ...
