The Federal Foreign Office is making some EUR 61,700 available to the Maltese Cross Relief Service from the humanitarian relief budget. The Maltese Cross Relief Service will use these funds to provide medication and aid as well as guarantee basic health services for the some 17,500 Congolese refugees who fled the fighting between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups over the town of Bunia in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo heading for the north of the Ituri province.
Humanitarian emergency assistance from
the Federal Foreign Office for the refugees from Bunia has thus increased
to EUR 598,700 since the start of the current crisis. Support for refugees
from Bunia has been granted to two projects organized by World Vision and
German Agro Action respectively. So far this year, the Federal Government
has made some EUR 1.65 million available for humanitarian relief all over
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.