Camps needed for ex-combatants' families, NCDDR says

The Executive Secretary of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (NCDDR), Francis Kaikai, has appealed for assistance to run special camps for the families of ex-combatants, according to an NCDDR information bulletin dated 17 February. The camps would be sited close to demobilisation centres. Addressing a team from the German Ministry of Economic Co-operation, the German development agency and the Bank for Reconstruction, Kaikai said the move would help solve the problem of congestion in demobilisation centres as some ex-combatants now live in these centres with their families. The refusal of some ex-combatants to leave the camps after receiving their first allowance and after their pre-discharge training was another cause for overcrowding, Kaikai said. He added that ex-combatants who have opted to continue serving in the army are still staying in demobilisation centres, even though they are not supposed to be there.