UN mission delivers aid to 22,500 needy civilians

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, has begun delivery of non-food emergency aid to 22,500 needy people in the northwestern province of Equateur, the mission reported on Thursday.

"Populations in Equateur are among the neediest and most poverty-stricken in the DRC," Nancee Bright, the chief of MONUC's Humanitarian Affairs Section, was quoted as saying.

The aid, worth US $90,000, is being delivered on MONUC flights to the towns of Bolomba and Basankusu, "where people are so desperate that some have started making disposable clothing out of humanitarian rice bags".

MONUC reported that the aid, comprising items such as clothes, fabric, blankets, soap and jerry cans would be delivered over three weeks. The next flight is scheduled for the week of 17-21 May.

"This UNICEF [UN Children's Fund] and Caritas initiative, which MONUC is supporting, will go some way toward helping the populations mitigate the crisis," Bright said.

MONUC reported that at a ceremony in the capital, Kinshasa, on Monday, the representative of Action pour la solidarité et le développement (ASODEV), Abbé Bagaza, urged UNICEF to open an office in Equateur. UNICEF representative Gianfranco Rotigliani said the absence of a sub-office in the province was due to lack of funds.

"What is happening today is a small sign that things are beginning to move forward," Rotigliani was quoted as having said at the ceremony. "I hope this initiative will encourage the government and donors to do more."

MONUC reported that Equateur, the scene of intense fighting during Congo's five-year war that ended in 2002, remained one of the poorest areas in the country.

Only 24 percent of the population have access to clean drinking water, MONUC reported, adding that HIV/AIDS rates were high, "health care is nonexistent, and the province has the highest numbers of syphilis infections in the country".