This is a preliminary flash appeal. No one can estimate what the needshe told reporters in Nairobi after leading a
are but they are immense,
A public health disaster waiting to happen in Kigali,said Hansen.
There is literally nothing by way of medication, no water, noIn Kigali, there are decomposing bodies being eaten by dogs, rats,
sanitation facilities, no materials to build latrines.
a bad old-fashioned plague
Hansen said medical experts feared
ofa truly horrible situation
diseases, especially cholera.
He said an estimated 11,000 Rwandans were sheltering at the national
Amahoro stadium in Kigali and thousands of others across the capital
were living in
.They are strewn across concrete floors, bringing whatever little
he told a news conference.
He said some 40,000 Rwandans were scattered along a battle zone across
Kigali and the immediate U.N. priority was to find a way to remove them
from amid the violence to a place of safety.
Four U.N. humanitarian experts remained in Rwanda to assess needs and
would be escorted by U.N. peacekeepers, Hansen said.
He said there were not enough U.N. peacekeepers in Kigali to make the
capital secure but their mandate changed after fighting erupted on
April 6 to supporting a U.N. humanitarian mission.
The U.N. Security Council last week cut the strength of U.N. forces in
Rwanda from 2,500 to 270.
Hansen said almost 1.3 million Rwandans were either displaced within
Rwanda or had fled to neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire.
Up to 300,000 Rwandans were camped in the south were more violence was
reported.
They fled during renewed civil war and massacres after President
Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira
died in a rocket attack on their plane.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
fgtquery v.1.9, 9 février 2024