In progress at UNHQ

IHA/677

UN AGENCIES APPEAL FOR EMERGENCY AID FOR AFRICA'S GREAT LAKES REGION

14 December 1998


Press Release
IHA/677


UN AGENCIES APPEAL FOR EMERGENCY AID FOR AFRICA'S GREAT LAKES REGION

19981214 GENEVA, 10 December (UN Information Service) -- United Nations agencies today issued a joint appeal in Geneva for $314 million for humanitarian aid in four countries of Central Africa's Great Lakes region during 1999. The appeal covers the operations of 10 agencies in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.

More than 1.4 million individuals from the four countries are now living as internally displaced or as refugees within the region. Tens of thousands more have fled insecurity to neighbouring States, while the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has displaced large numbers of people, but made access to most of them impossible. The number of people and communities affected by ongoing conflicts in the Great Lakes region has actually increased since last year.

Events during the second half of 1998 in each of the countries have renewed the cycle of flight and destruction and exposed enormous humanitarian needs. Against this backdrop, United Nations agencies are requesting funds for the delivery, coordination and monitoring of emergency aid. The appeals form a regional approach to assistance in the Great Lakes countries.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the second rebellion in as many years brought a sudden halt to rehabilitation projects and the repatriation of Congolese refugees, and since August over 25,000 Congolese have fled to Tanzania and Burundi. United Nations agencies have cooperated in contingency planning for areas put at risk by the hostilities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Organizations have strengthened their ability to respond to new crises and have developed principles of engagement governing humanitarian operations in the country. Already, reports from missions to the east of the country have raised great concern for the country's basic infrastructure and the population's access to clean water, adequate food and health facilities. Agencies have requested support which will allow them to be flexible and intervene quickly as soon as security allows.

Mediation efforts have raised hopes for a return to stability in Burundi and a lifting of sanctions in the near future. The more than 300,000 Burundi refugees in Tanzania are currently the region's largest group, and close to a tenth of Burundi's population are surviving in extremely difficult conditions as internally displaced. The programmes outlined in the joint appeal will

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help the return to productive activity by meeting the basic needs of affected populations in the areas of health care, education, food and water.

Humanitarian needs in Uganda have increased dramatically, as the number of internally displaced has climbed to half a million, principally in the North. United Nations agencies are giving short-term help to some 400,000 Ugandans. Tanzania hosts the largest number of refugees in the Great Lakes region and has witnessed the arrival of several hundred more each week since fighting broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Agencies are feeding and sheltering almost 350,000 refugees in western Kigoma and Ngara regions.

Copies of the appeal document may be requested from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)/Complex Emergency Response Branch, by e-mail on: erlinda.umali@dha.unicc.org. The document is also available on OCHA's website: http://www.reliefweb.int. For press inquiries, please contact Phyllis Lee (011-41-22-917-2113 or 917-1107).

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For information media. Not an official record.