Civilians still caught up in conflict in Pool region

A humanitarian team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the conflict-affected areas of the southern Pool region on 9 and 10 December - the first time it has been able to travel to these areas since renewed fighting broke out in late December 1998. While the security situation had improved in some parts of the southern Pool region in recent months, civilians are still caught up in the conflict in other parts, the ICRC reported on Thursday, adding that the most urgent needs reflected the complete breakdown of administrative and health services. Insecurity, food shortages and lack of adequate medical care was still forcing hundreds of people a week - most of them malnourished and in urgent need of medical treatment - into the main towns, Kinkala and Boko, in search of assistance, it said. Relief programmes recently established in the towns were "still insufficient to cover the population's needs," ICRC added.