ICRC News 03/17
Following various assessments made in
2002, the ICRC conducted a large-scale operation to assist the most vulnerable
displaced and resident families in Djolu, in Equateur province, between
20 January and 7 February.
Three thousand families each received a kit containing cooking utensils, a hoe, a bucket, salt, sugar, soap, clothing and blankets.
The distribution of these kits, which ought to have taken place in the last quarter of 2002, had been held up by various logistical problems posed by the isolation of the region. As part of the operation, a plane had to bring in some of the relief supplies from Mbandaka, where they had been placed in temporary storage, at a rate of three flights a day for two weeks.
In addition, four springs in the Bolombo, Lindja I and Lindja II districts of Djolu are being tapped so as to supply the city's 15,000 inhabitants with drinking water.
The ICRC is assisting civilian victims of the four-year conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo so as to improve their living conditions, in the first place, and then help them to become self-sufficient.
Further information: Antoine Tawamba, ICRC Kinshasa, tel: ++243 98 17 12 or 99 00 074