Tens of thousands expelled in urgent need of humanitarian aid

Tens of thousands of Congolese nationals expelled from Angola are in urgent need of humanitarian aid in two southwestern provinces of the Democratic Repopublic of the Congo, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its situation report of 17 April. It said the returnees in the provinces of Bandundu and Kasai Occidental needed food, water, health services and non-food items. Others needed transport to cross the Tungila River that separates Angola and the DRC. Determination of this situation followed an OCHA-led inter-agency needs assessment mission on Thursday to the provinces of Bandundu and Kasai Occidental. OCHA reported that humanitarian partners and the Ministry of Solidarity and Humanitarian Affairs had estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 Congolese "have been or will soon be forcibly expelled in this latest wave of population movements". It said that the government of Angola began in December 2003 and in January 2004 a policy of expelling Congolese civilians who had been living and working illegally in the country as manual diamond miners. "Starting in April, this situation has taken a turn for the worse and an acute humanitarian crisis is in the making," OCHA reported. It added that since 2 April, at least 40,000 Congolese had been registered in Bandundu and Kasai Occidental after crossing the Tungila River. OCHA said the daily arrival was more than 2,500 people although the real number was likely much higher as many of these people were not passing through registration points. "The localities are remote, with tenuous transport links," it said. Listing national and international responses, OCHA said a national emergency crisis committee was assisting in the registration of arrivals as well as in sensitisation campaigns in one of the arrival points in Bandundu. The UN Children's Fund had sent 1,000 boxes of high energy biscuits, 2,000 blankets, 2,000 20-litre jerrycans and 5,000 doses of oral rehydration salts, which would be taken to Kahungila and Tembo in Bandundu Province, OCHA reported. Other organisations that had responded included the UN World Food Programme, which provided 8.6 mt of food for some 2,000 people in Kahemba, Bandundu Province; the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which provided two trucks for transport assistance; Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium, which started providing emergency health assistant in Kahungila, and international NGO Caritas, which was providing limited health assistance in Popokabaka in Bandundu Province. OCHA said it was planning another inter-agency mission to Tshikapa, another affected zone in Kasai Occidental, where at least 15,000 people had been registered. OCHA reported that the DRC government had asked the UN Humanitarian/Resident Coordinator in Kinshasa for international aid in support of UN and government relief efforts to help the affected populations. It said as a result of the government request, and in order to respond to the most urgent needs, the humanitarian community had requested that OCHA facilitate coordination of the dispatch of relief items from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Brindisi, Italy. The items to be sent include 30 tents, 20,000 bars of soap, 10,000 blankets, four generators, 10,000 generators and 10 pneumatic boats. In response to a request by the Un Humanitarian/Resident Coordinator, OCHA said it was prepared to serve as a channel for cash contributions to be used for immediate relied aid in the two provinces. [The OCHA situation report is available online at: www.reliefweb.int]