wfn.org | Zaire Services Shut Down

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3262 notes).

Note 3259 by UMNS on Oct. 29, 1996 at 16:37 Eastern (3963 characters).

SEARCH: Zaire, Board of Global Ministries, Rwanda, relief, refugee
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                         545(10-21-71B){3259}
          New York (212)870-3803                     Oct. 29, 1996

Mission agency ceases
relief operations in Zaire

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Escalating conflicts in the eastern region
of Zaire have shut down nearly all refugee and relief services
being provided by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
there.
     As of Oct. 28, it was believed the United Methodist
Children's Village for orphaned refugee children in Goma was still
operating, but Deborah Bass, a board staff executive, acknowledged
the situation could change.
     Bass, who visited the area for a few days in mid-October,
said staff at the village -- that currently houses 22 children --
were committed to keeping it open as long as safely possible.
Otherwise, the children will be dispersed to local families.
     The fact that a group of Zairian soldiers had set up camp
adjacent to the Children's Village was a concern, she added.
     New tensions ignited in the region -- that had become home to
many refugees fleeing ethnic violence in Rwanda and Burundi --when
the Zairian government decided to disarm the Banyamulenge, a Tutsi
group that has lived in the South Kivu province for generations.
On Oct. 8, a Zairian official ordered all Banyamulenge to leave
the country or face an all-out war.
     Since then, fighting has broken out on the streets in Uvira
and near Bukavu, sporadic violence has occurred around Goma,
international relief agencies tending the refugee camps have
evacuated their personnel and hundreds of thousands of refugees
have fled to other areas.
     According to Reuters News Service, when the last aid workers
flew out of Bukavu on Oct. 28, the United Nations food warehouses
were looted immediately.
     Evacuation of United Methodist missionaries and volunteers
began at the end of September. Removed were a five-member
"Volunteers for Africa" team; missionary couples Niels and
Birgitte French, and Lydia and Joseph Templeton and, on Oct. 25,
Kinge Namanga, coordinator of the United Methodist Committee on
Relief (UMCOR) firewood project in Bukavu.
     The Rev. John McCullough, the board's associate general
secretary for mission personnel, reported that other project staff
-- United Methodists from Zaire and Uganda -- have requested
assistance so that they can leave the area.
     The Board of Global Ministries has implemented major mission
work in the region since September 1994. More than 200 volunteers
have provided health care for refugees; assisted in the
distribution of resources; built the Jerusalem Church and United
Methodist Guest House in Uvira; renovated health clinics in Uvira
and Bukavu; provided primary services to Camps Kimbumba, Biriba
and Panzi; established a primary school in Uvira; and created the
Children's Village in Goma. A United Methodist Church in Goma has
been under construction, primarily by volunteers from First United
Methodist Church in Jefferson City, Mo.
     "The spreading conflict has jeopardized all of these
initiatives," McCullough wrote in an Oct. 28 Volunteers for Africa
letter. "We are bracing for the real possibility that when the
violence subsides much of our efforts will have to begin anew."
     He stressed that the board, in partnership with the United
Methodist Church in Zaire, "has every intention of returning to
the Eastern Corridor."
     McCullough noted that supplies for work in Zaire will be
collected and held at the UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, La., until the
projects resume.
     The board is posting updates on the situation in Zaire in the
"Global Watch" section of its web site, http://gbgm-umc.org.
                             #  #  # 

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