ACT delivers assistance to victims of
the war in Chechnya
As the war in Chechnya continues to
draw an ever closer circle around Grozny, several ACT member agencies are
delivering assistance to war victims and displaced in Chechnya as well
as to those who have sought refuge in Ingushetia, Georgia and Stavropol.
Tents and stoves have been delivered to camps in Ingushetia. Materials needed to start a bakery in one of the camps there will arrive shortly. Smaller but still significant amounts of food and medical supplies are getting to needy populations in Chechnya and other parts of the region as well.
Because of a difficult security situation in the region, it is hard to give exact figures of the people benefiting from this assistance but aid workers on the ground estimate that they reach tens of thousands of beneficiaries. Not least the medical supplies are crucial as they arrive at hospitals which otherwise would have no remedies and medicines to treat sick or wounded displaced people.
The fate of civilians left inside Grozny and in other areas under continuous heavy attack is unknown but gives cause to great alarm. The World Council of Churches is just one of many international bodies which have expressed this concern and has appealed to the warring parties to take every possible measure to protect civilian lives during this conflict.
On November 3, ACT International appealed for US $ 2 million for assistance to the victims of the crisis in Chechnya and the northern Caucasus. So far only US $ 625,000 has been pledged and members working on the ground urge that they urgently need further funding.
For further information please contact:
Nils Carstensen (mobile ++ 41 79 358
3171).
ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org
ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response. The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.