IP/97/74
Brussels, 30 January 1997
Emma Bonino in Zaire
The Member of the Commission with special responsibility for humanitarian
aid, Emma Bonino, will be in Zaire from Friday 31 January to Monday 3
February.
The main aim of the visit by Ms Bonino, who will be accompanied
by a delegation from the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO),
is to assess the situation
of the victims of the fighting which broke out in
eastern Zaire last November and the logistical and safety problems which
have to be overcome in order to get the international aid to them.
Ms Bonino said the humanitarian agencies have already located several hundred
thousand Rwandan Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire who had fled the fighting and
had been beset by hunger and disease for the last three months.
There were
also displaced Zaireans, whose numbers were difficult to calculate, in need of EC
assistance.
She hoped the Zairean authorities would cooperate in ensuring safe
access to these people, so that large scale humanitarian aid could immediately be
resumed.
Following a day in Kinshasa, Ms Bonino plans to travel to Kisangani and visit the
refugee camps which have recently been set up nearby.