TWO planes landed emergency humanitarian aid in the northern Zairean city of Kisanganr yesterday as UN agencies stepped up efforts to help tens of thousands of stranded and desperate refugees.
While food was being flown in, the UN refugee agency was preparing to airlift the refugees out to Rwanda in what is likely to be one of the biggest operations of its kind. The rebel leader, Laurent Desire Kabila, gave permission for the repatriation only at the weekend.
The immediate priority is food and medical aid for the bewildered refugees. A Hercules C-130 plane flew in from Entebbe in Uganda with 20 tonnes of a special high protein mixture of maize and soya for the worst malnutrition cases.
But the aid will arrive too late for some. Humanitarian agencies said 200 people had died of malnutrition and diarrhoea in the past two days in two camps housing 80,000 refugees south of Kisangani.
Paul Cullen adds: Goal, the Third World relief organisation, has accused the Irish and other Western governments of being more concerned with giving aid to Rwanda than with organising a rescue mission to save the refugees trapped in eastern Zaire.
"The international community has known since last October that hundreds of thousands of refugees are trapped in appalling conditions. Yet only now, a full six months later, has action been taken," said Goal's director, Mr John O'Shea. He described the proposed airlift as "too little, too late".