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ICRC activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – April to June 2007
08-08-2007 Operational Update
The ICRC is restoring family links, protecting people deprived of their liberty and protecting civilians. Its delegates help vulnerable people, displaced persons and those returning following displacement. This includes distributing basic necessities, supporting medical facilities, improving access to drinking water and running agricultural and fisheries projects. The ICRC is also supporting relief work carried out by the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Introduction
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, independent organization. Its exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and internal violence, and to provide them with assistance. The organization works to strengthen and promote international humanitarian law (IHL).
The ICRC has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC) since 1978. It has a delegation in Kinshasa, sub-delegations in Goma, Bukavu and Lubumbashi, and offices in Kisangani, Uvira and Kalemie.
Protection
Restoring family links
The ICRC continued its traditional work of restoring links between family members who have lost contact as a result of conflict, other situations of violence, or their direct consequences. People who had no other means of restoring or maintaining links with their families could use the Red Cross message service, which operates with operational support from the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The ICRC continued to identify unaccompanied children and former child soldiers to put them back in touch with their families – and reunite them where this was in the child’s best interests.
The ICRC:
- collected 15,339 Red Cross messages and delivered 13,326;
- reunited 94 unaccompanied children with their families, including 40 former child soldiers;
- handled 528 cases of unaccompanied children, including 161 former child soldiers;
- processed 159 tracing requests, of which 77 were successful;
- continues to handle almost 550 tracing requests, having received 110 new ones this quarter.
Visits to people deprived of their liberty
The ICRC continued to visit people in permanent and temporary places of detention, mainly in Kinshasa and in the east of the country, to promote humane treatment and conditions of detention in keeping with Congolese law and minimum international standards,.
The ICRC monitors throughout his or her period of detention any detainee who falls under its mandate and is considered especially vulnerable. This applies in particular to people arrested and detained in connection with an armed conflict or other situation of violence, or for reasons of State security.
As in its other theatres of operations, the ICRC repeats its visits to detainees and holds private interviews with them, while maintaining a confidential and constructive dialogue with the detaining authorities.
The ICRC:
- carried out 20 visits to 15 places of detention;
- monitored individually all detainees who came within its mandate;
- collected 1,059 Red Cross messages from detainees and distributed 665 to detainees, helping to restore contact between them and their families;
- The ICRC also continued to distribute soap, basic medicines and food supplements to the most vulnerable detainees, while constantly reminding the authorities of their duty to meet the needs of all people deprived of their freedom.
Protection of the civilian population in areas affected by armed violence
In the eastern provinces of the country, where civilians continued to suffer the effects of armed conflict and other situations of violence, the ICRC maintained its presence on the ground and its proximity to the population. The organization endeavoured to help them and to prevent attacks on their lives and dignity, by talking to arms bearers and by promoting compliance with humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.
Assistance
Health
The ICRC continued to provide support for health centres and hospitals, for its own limb-fitting, surgical and physiotherapy programmes and for programmes to help the victims of sexual violence.
The ICRC supported six health centres in North and South Kivu, Katanga and Kinshasa. Between them, these centres carried out:
- 5,090 curative consultations;
- 3,586 vaccinations.
The ICRC supported 13 hospitals in North and South Kivu, Katanga and Kinshasa. These hospitals:
- carried out 9,671 curative consultations;
- conducted 973 surgical operations;
- admitted 2,696 in-patients;
- treated 102 war casualties;
- carried out consultations with 391 women who had suffered sexual violence; of these, 23 arrived within 72 hours of being raped and were therefore able to receive preventive care.
Physical rehabilitation programme
The ICRC renewed its service-provision contracts with five physical rehabilitation centres spread across the country – the Kalembe Lembe prosthetic-orthotic centre and the rehabilitation centre for the physically disabled, both in Kinshasa; the Saint Jean Baptiste de Kansele hospital in Mbuji-Mayi; the Henri-Kwetu centre in Bukavu and the Shirika La Umoja centre in Goma. All these centres provide high-quality physical rehabilitation for civilian and military casualties of war.
- 186 new patients (including 19 women and 8 children) received prostheses.
- 85 new patients (including 18 women and 9 children) received orthotic devices.
- 181 crutches were distributed (including 24 for women and 4 for children).
Emergency relief and support for farmers
Many families have lost everything in the conflict. They are struggling to survive and to rejoin society and the economy. The ICRC therefore assisted several groups by running agricultural and fisheries projects in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Katanga:
- 2,033 families (totalling 10,165 individuals) in Kalembe, North Kivu, received essential items (blankets, clothing, mats, cooking utensils, soap, jerrycans, buckets and hoes);
- 1,963 farming families received vegetable seed, farming tools and the training necessary to grow vegetables during the dry season;
- 840 families belonging to 24 fisheries associations received alevins, fishing equipment and/or training in fish farming and the renovation of fishponds.
Facilitating access to water
The ICRC cooperates with specialized local bodies to improve access to clean drinking water.
In North Kivu, the ICRC:
- repaired the Pinga water-supply system (13,000 beneficiaries);
- built a new pumping station in Keshero that will supply water for Ndosho and Katindo (100,000 beneficiaries);
- extended the Kirumba water-supply system to Kayina (50,000 beneficiaries);
- repaired the water-supply system in Ndjiapanda, Lubero (25,000 beneficiaries);
- repaired a water-supply system in Biambwe, between Butembo and Manguredjipa (12,000 beneficiaries).
In South Kivu, the ICRC:
- set up a water-supply system in Langala (25,000 beneficiaries at 5 locations);
- installed a system for improving water quality (ventilator + pressurized filter) in Kalundu, Uvira (15,000 beneficiaries);
- laid a water main at Burinyi, Mwenga territory (6,200 beneficiaries);
- repaired 23 wells in the Ruzizi plain (12,000 beneficiaries).
In Katanga, the ICRC:
- repaired the Kongolo water-production unit (56,500 beneficiaries);
- drilled 14 boreholes in Kabalo territory and fitted them with handpumps (24,000 beneficiaries);
- built 10 wells in 5 villages around lake Upemba (20,000 beneficiaries in 5 villages);
- laid a new water main at Watupembe, northern Mitwaba (1,700 beneficiaries).
Promoting international humanitarian law
The ICRC continued to promote awareness of international humanitarian law (IHL) among arms bearers, the authorities and the general public.
National and international authorities
- The ICRC held two information sessions for 177 representatives of the local authorities of Kalembe and Rutshuru (North Kivu).
- National Army
- 1,738 officers attended IHL awareness events at the Luberizi and Kamina brassage centres (centres at which former combatants from different regions are trained and integrated into a single new national army).
- 816 officers serving in operational units or military districts attended IHL awareness events.
- 358 officers and NCOs of the Republican Guard based at Kinshasa attended IHL awareness events.
National police and security forces
- The ICRC ran three sessions on humanitarian principles and human rights for 126 members of the national police force.
Civil society
The ICRC:
- held an IHL awareness event for 55 journalists;
- ran two IHL events for 74 personnel from human rights organizations and MONUC protection officers;
- issued five press releases to the local media.
Cooperation with the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
During the last quarter, the ICRC provided financial support and technical assistance in the following areas:
Implementation of statutes
- Eight extraordinary provincial meetings to elect officers.
- Eight training workshops for 160 newly-elected committee members.
Restoring family links
- To ensure the smooth running of the National Society's tracing service, the ICRC provided financial support for 3 national coordinators, 16 provincial coordinators and 319 volunteer messengers.
- Provincial coordinators made 48 field trips to supervise 195 Red Cross message offices.
- A workshop was held for provincial coordinators.
Emergency preparedness and response
- 160 casualty evacuation team leaders underwent training in 4 provinces.
- 63 community-based first-aid trainers underwent training, again in 4 provinces.
Dissemination/communication
- 22 trainers underwent training.
- 23 dissemination sessions for outside participants received support These sessions covered all 11 provinces.
Other
The ICRC:
- financed six micro-projects of the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
- provided financial and logistical support for the South Kivu provincial committee of the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from March to May, during an anti-cholera operation.
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