 | ICRC Activities in the Congo (Brazzaville): 1994 - 20 April 2000 (International Committee of the Red Cross , 56 p.) |
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Annual Report 1998: Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
Devastated by two conflicts in recent years, in 1993-4 and again in 1997, the Republic of the Congo began the year in a state of precarious stability. In January the government initiated a process of national reconciliation, and a three-year period was set for the country’s transition to democracy. A law to prosecute those accused of genocide and crimes against humanity was adopted by the parliament at the end of August. Throughout the year, Angolan forces, which had intervened during the conflict in 1997, maintained a presence in the country’s main towns of Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and Dolisie.
Efforts made by the authorities to disarm the militias had little effect on the endemic insecurity in the capital and other parts of the country. In the south-west and the southern outskirts of Brazzaville, strongholds of exiled opposition leaders Pascal Lissouba and Bernard Kolelas, armed groups refused to surrender their weapons and there were sporadic outbreaks of violence. In April, in the southern region of Bouenza, armed elements took control of the country’s main hydroelectric dam for six weeks, disrupting the power supply to densely populated southern areas, including Pointe-Noire, the country’s economic hub, and severing rail links with Brazzaville, before a negotiated settlement was reached.
Deteriorating security situation
The security situation in the southern Pool prefecture deteriorated considerably in the last few months of the year. Attacks by Ninja militias on Congolese security forces in the larger towns of Kindamba, Goma Tsetse and Kinkala and in surrounding villages forced thousands to flee into the bush, to Brazzaville or to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dozens of civilians lost their lives, while others were subjected to brutal treatment by both sides.
In mid-December, the troubles spread to southern districts of Brazzaville (Makelekele and Bacongo), inhabited mainly by civilians originating from the south-western regions, and to the Bouenza prefecture. The resulting large-scale military operations in the affected districts of the capital caused more than 200,000 persons to flee, mostly to the Pool prefecture and to a lesser extent to northern Brazzaville, where they found shelter in public buildings, schools, churches and private houses. According to official sources, more than 400 people were killed in the violence, and the general insecurity in Makelekele and Bacongo prevented displaced civilians from returning home. Private houses and public installations were looted or destroyed in the areas affected by the fighting. State employees (including health personnel) fled their places of work, and public life came to a total standstill in the rest of Brazzaville.
The food situation in the capital became increasingly critical and prices of basic commodities and fuel doubled over the last three months of the year. The supply of goods from Pointe-Noire was disrupted, and the border with Kinshasa remained closed most of the time as of the beginning of August.
Coordinated approach by the Movement
At the beginning of February, the ICRC delegation in Brazzaville became independent from the former ICRC regional delegation in Kinshasa. Owing to the conflict, the ICRC remained the lead agency for organizing the Movement’s coordinated response to needs, while the Federation continued to assume its lead role in relation to the institutional development of the Congolese Red Cross.
Reorientation of activities
Humanitarian needs declined steadily in the early part of the year and the ICRC was able to phase out some of its emergency programmes, such as supplying food, material and medical assistance to health facilities. Although other aid agencies began to withdraw their staff as of April, the ICRC stayed on in order to develop water-supply and sanitation projects, agricultural rehabilitation, protection of and visits to detainees, promotion of humanitarian law and cooperation with the Congolese Red Cross.
At the end of March, as the overall health situation had returned to its pre-conflict status, the ICRC handed back management of 15 of the 19 integrated health centres (CSI*) in Brazzaville to UNICEF and Gesellschaft fhnische Zusammenarbeit, which were responsible for running the centres before the conflict. Support for the remaining CSI was to be provided by Brazzaville’s Central Pharmacy. Repairs on four other badly damaged health centres was completed in July.
* CSI: Centre de santntI>
Emergency material assistance to the worst-affected quarters of Brazzaville also ended in March. In its stead, the ICRC launched a new programme for the most vulnerable groups in the capital, in close cooperation with the Congolese Red Cross. It also continued to assist workers and their families through food-for-work programmes, and to provide support for social welfare institutions.
With the Congolese postal services functioning once again, the Red Cross message service between Brazzaville and other countries was suspended at the beginning of May. Nevertheless, Congolese abroad were still able to use Red Cross messages to trace family members in Brazzaville with whom they had lost contact since the conflict.
Driven before the ADFL* advance on Kinshasa in May 1997, some 12,000 Rwandan refugees had crossed over into the Republic of the Congo, settling in camps along the border. In the process they lost all means of communication with their relatives and some children were separated from their families. In mid-July 1998 the Red Cross message service was extended to the entire Rwandan refugee community, enabling them to contact family members with whom they had lost touch.
* ADFL: Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire
Rehabilitation of water installations
In the first half of the year, the ICRC continued to help the SNDE* bring installations damaged during the 1997 conflict back into operation through maintenance and logistic assistance to the SNDE in Brazzaville and the north of the country. Once the worst of the conflict-related problems had been resolved, the ICRC discontinued its assistance but remained on hand in case of emergency. In mid-September the ICRC signed an agreement with the SNDE to rehabilitate its central maintenance workshop, which had been damaged and looted during the 1997 conflict. Work was completed by the end of the year.
* SNDE: Soci Nationale de Distribution d’Eau, the national water board
In May and June respectively, the ICRC and the SNDE signed agreements with the authorities of the Plateaux and Cuvette regions, for rehabilitation of the water-treatment plants in the regional capitals, Owando and Djambala. The Owando plant became operational at the end of August.
The ICRC continued to supply water by truck to the Kintele camp for Rwandan refugees until the end of the year, when the task was handed over to UNHCR.
Efforts to gain access to detainees
A number of people were arrested in connection with the 1997 conflict or for security reasons. Following the events, the ICRC made representations at the highest level with a view to visiting places of detention. A formal proposal, drafted in cooperation with government consultants, was submitted to the government in mid-May. Although the ICRC received positive signals with regard to this proposal, the signing of the document was postponed because of the outbreak of hostilities in December.
Dissemination for the armed forces
The ICRC concentrated its efforts on resuming its dissemination programme for the armed forces, on hold since May 1996. In September, an offer of technical support for the incorporation of humanitarian law in instruction programmes for the armed forces at all levels, including new recruits, was formally accepted. From October, sessions began throughout the country to familiarize young recruits (former militiamen) with the ICRC’s mandate, Red Cross activities and the basic rules of behaviour during armed conflict. Two seminars were also held under the agreement before the end of the year, one for members of the Chief of Staffs office and the other for instructors. The ICRC also established contacts with the gendarmerie and the police force with a view to initiating a dissemination programme for these units. As regards civil society, the delegation approached the Faculty of Law of the Marien Ngouabi National University and the Universitibre du Congo in order to encourage the introduction of a course in humanitarian law, and donated a standard set of reference books to both universities.
Emergency response to end-of-year crisis
As disturbances spread throughout the Pool region from the end of September, the ICRC provided support for local health facilities caring for the sick and wounded. After negotiating with the relevant authorities, delegates gained access to more than 10,000 displaced people stranded in two sites (Kinsoundi and Kingouari) in the troubled Makelekele area of Brazzaville. Food, material assistance and medical supplies were dispensed to displaced people in the capital’s northern neighbourhoods. On 21 December, the ICRC flew in two loads of urgently needed medical supplies to treat the wounded who were arriving in Brazzaville’s hospitals. Congolese Red Cross volunteers, working with the Federation’s support, dispensed first aid and transported the wounded to hospital. Following a survey by an ICRC team to determine protection and assistance priorities, daily convoys were set up to supply displaced people with water and medicines, as well as to provide them with a degree of protection.
IN 1998, THE ICRC:
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- kept up its efforts to obtain access to all detainees falling within its mandate; |
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- established a network to collect allegations of excesses perpetrated by armed elements against the civilian population in Brazzaville, with a view to discussing the problems identified with the relevant authorities on a confidential basis; |
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- exchanged 4,763 Red Cross messages between Brazzaville and
various destinations, some of which were from and for Rwandan refugees; |
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- distributed 284.2 tonnes of food (rice, beans, vegetable oil
and salt) to 70,000 beneficiaries, including families taking part in
food-for-work programmes, institutions for the disabled, unaccompanied children,
street children and social welfare cases; |
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- up to the end of March, provided regular medical assistance to
14 health centres and ad hoc supplies to a further 5; |
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- supplied tools, machinery protection equipment and other
materials to rehabilitate and support the two key water-treatment plants in
Brazzaville (Djiri and Djou which produced 70,000,000 litres a day for 80% of
the city’s population; |
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- in April, together with the Federation, financed and took part
in a meeting of 40 members of the Congolese Red Cross Central Committee, during
which a programme of National Society activities in 1998 was approved; |
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- in May, organized an information conference on humanitarian
law for 50 high-ranking officers from the Ministry of Defence and the military
academy; |
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