Norway gives US $15.7 million in humanitarian aid

Norway has given the Democratic Republic of the Congo 40 million kroner (US $15.7 million) for emergency relief measures, State Secretary Vidar Helgesen announced on Thursday. "In spite of some hopeful signs in the peace process and the establishment of a transitional government in the capital, Kinshasa, the humanitarian situation in the eastern part of the country is precarious, he said in a statement. He termed the conflict in the Congo as "one of the forgotten crises of our time". He said the latest aid was part of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry's allocation towards new emergency relief measures in the Great Lakes region, which had brought to 130 million kroner ($18.5 million) the total humanitarian aid it had given the region since the beginning of the year. The aid, being channelled through the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Norwegian Red Cross and Norwegian Church Aid, is used to support schooling for children, women rape victims, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers and to help with tracing separated family members. An estimated three million people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of the fighting in the Congo since 1998, with 3.5 million Congolese displaced, "and there are regular reports of murder, ill-treatment and rape of civilians", Norway said. Norway has also supported the training of a Congolese police force in Kinshasa, under the auspices of the UN Mission in the Congo, known as MONUC.