Citation
GENEVA, April 22 (Reuter) - A U.N. emergency team is due to fly from
Nairobi to Kigali on Friday to assess relief needs in the capital and
outlying areas, U.N. officials said.
Medicines and health kits are also to be airlifted into the Rwandan
capital aboard a separate C-130 Hercules aircraft provided by the Royal
Canadian Air Force to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Both flights are supposed to leave Nairobi today,
a UNICEF
spokeswoman told Reuters in Geneva.
They are on standby. Landing in Kigali appears to be the main
problem,
she added.
The assessment team is being led by the U.N. Department for
Humanitarian Affairs (DHA), which on Thursday warned in a statement:
The possibility of epidemics occuring in Kigali is increasing as
disposal of corpses becomes overwhelming.
The missions follow a unanimous decision by the Security Council to cut
down its peacekeeping force in Rwanda to 270 troops -- despite fears
that a withdrawal would only increase carnage in the central African
state.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it
would be a mistake for the U.N. forces to pull out, adding it had
rarely witnessed massacres on such a scale.
The ICRC has 30 delegates in Rwanda, but because of continued fighting
has been able to treat only 600 wounded.
Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on
Friday that 16,870 people had been killed in nine villlages around
Cyangugu, in southwestern Rwanda, during two weeks of inter-ethnic
fighting.
The massacres were indescribable. Most killed were men and children,
a UNHCR spokesman told Reuters.
UNHCR also said that 90,000 people had fled Rwanda for four
neighbouring countries, nearly doubling the number in just two days.
The agency said the new figure included 50,000 Burundis who have
returned to their homeland since the presidents of the two countries
were killed when their plane was shot down on April 6. In addition,
12,000 Rwandans have crossed over into Burundi.
About 150 Rwandan refugees have been treated for machete and gun shot
wounds in northern Burundi,
UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told the same
briefing in Geneva.
There are also 18,000 refugees registered in Tanzania, about 5,500 in
Uganda and 4,600 in Zaire, according to the UNHCR.
At least 27 refugees were killed trying to cross from Rwanda into
Zaire, according to the agency.
UNHCR also expressed its continuing concern for nearly 6,000 people
being held by police and militia in a stadium in Cyangugu. The
situation appears desperate, they have no food or water,
an agency
spokesman told Reuters.
About 150 of the people being held in the stadium in Cyangugu have
machete wounds. They have been attacked, obviously, in the stadium. We
have no other details.
On Tuesday, UNICEF flew three tonnes of emergency food supplies for
children into Kigali aboard a C-130 Hercules aircraft also provided by
Canada. The flight carried half a tonne of chlorine to purify water and
1.65 tonnes of oral rehydration salts to prevent outbreaks of
diarrhoea.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
