UNICEF rushes aid to 50,000 people hit by upsurge in Congo conflict
GENEVA (AP) - UNICEF (news - web sites) said Tuesday that it was providing urgently needed aid for 50,000 people caught up in an upsurge in fighting in Congo.
The UN children's agency said it had rushed food and clean drinking water to camps housing thousands of families have sought refuge from the fighting. It was working to improve sanitation and would start vaccinations to halt outbreaks of disease.
UNICEF also said it was planning to launch education programs for youngsters in the camps.
Tens of thousands of people have sought refuge near UN peacekeepers in northeastern Congo's Ituri province following rising attacks in recent weeks.
Raids by ethnic tribal fighters have grown routine in the region, as fighters loot and burn homes and kill civilians. Hundreds of women and girls have been abducted, said UNICEF.
"The fighting in (Congo) has received scant world attention, yet it is one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has known since the Second World War," said UNICEF spokesman Damien Personnaz.
Since 1999, fighting in Ituri has killed more than 50,000 and forced 500,000 to flee their homes, UN officials and human rights groups say.
The Ituri conflict came amid a larger, six-nation war in Congo that killed nearly four million people, mostly through starvation and disease.
"Children are by far the most vulnerable," said Personnaz. "Hundreds of thousands of them have died due to malnutrition and other preventable diseases."
Some 1.9 million youngsters across the country currently suffer from acute malnutrition, he noted.
Congo's 1998-2002 war ended formally with the creation of a transitional government in 2003 that has struggled to extend its authority to the vast country's often lawless east.
|
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
