From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


UMCOR Assessment Team


From owner-umethnews@ecunet.org
Date 13 Nov 1996 18:41:59

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3284 notes).

Note 3283 by UMNS on Nov. 12, 1996 at 16:22 Eastern (2260 characters).

SEARCH: Zaire, United Methodist Committee on Relief, refugees,
relief
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                      579(10-21-31-71B){3283}
          New York (212)870-3803                     Nov. 12, 1996

UMCOR joins team assessing
refugee plight in eastern Zaire

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Two United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR) representatives are part of a relief assessment team
traveling to eastern Zaire.
     Dellaphine B. Rauch-Houekpon, UMCOR's head of mission for
eastern Zaire, and Kinge Namanga, coordinator of UMCOR's firewood
project in Bukavu, are joining a team organized by Action by
Churches Together (ACT), a worldwide relief network of churches.
     F. Lloyd Rollins, UMCOR's assistant general secretary for
emergency response, said the pair were in Kigali, Rwanda, on Nov.
12 and would try to make their way into Goma and Bukavu. "We're
not sure anyone can get into Uvira right now," he added.
     Uvira was the first city in eastern Zaire to fall when a
local Tutsi group, resisting a Zairian government order to leave
the country, began fighting the Zairian Army. Subsequent fighting
in Bukavu and Goma led to the evacuation of relief workers
assisting about a million Hutu refugees from Rwanda and Burundi in
the region.
     Since then, the international relief community, the United
Nations and others have warned of mass starvation unless urgent
action is taken to help the refugees.
     UMCOR was one of 18 U.S. relief agencies calling upon the
U.S. government to take such action in a statement released Nov.
8.
     The "real issue" for the assessment team, according to
Rollins, will be whether the refugees become settled enough so
that a system for distribution of emergency food, water and other
supplies can be established.
     "We're working with the entire relief community in efforts to
get relief supplies [into the region]," he added.
     Although UMCOR has not yet worked in Rwanda, Rollins said the
agency would set up operations there if the refugees returned
home.
                              #  #  #

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