Republic of the Congo.

The deteriorating health situation in the Republic of the Congo has worsened since last year's five-month civil war, which displaced many people from the capital, Brazzaville, to Pointe Noire.

On 16 January, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) began an emergency vaccination campaign in Brazzaville and its surroundings to contain a measles epidemic. The cost of the six-week programme, aimed at immunizing some 250,000 children against the disease, was $182,000.

On 4 February, UNICEF dispatched emergency medical supplies to cholera-stricken Pointe Noire, with additional supplies being sent from Brazzaville. As of 27 January, 445 cases of cholera and 83 deaths had been reported. UNICEF also organized sanitation and hygiene awareness activities aimed at the local population to prevent any further spread of the disease.

UNICEF said that the United Nations agencies' capacity to address the humanitarian needs in the war-affected areas of the country was severely hindered by the insufficient donor response to the United Nations inter-agency appeal. As of the end of January, UNICEF had received only 22 per cent of the funds it had requested.

On 6 February, an advance team of the Secretary-General's investigative team probing violations of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the campaign against former President Mobuto Seseko returned to Mbandaka to re-establish a camp dismantled there in December 1997. On 14 December, only days after the investigators took up their field work and despite assurances by President Laurent Kabila, security concerns about large demonstrations outside their camp had prompted the investigators' evacuation from Mbandaka and Wendji to Kinshasa.

The Secretary-General's mission to investigate allegations of massacres during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was originally to conclude its work by the end of February, but was hampered by a long series of delays. On 25 October, the Congolese Government had agreed to allow the mission to continue until it was completed. On 21 January, Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the increase in cooperation between the Government and the United Nations agencies active in the country. He expressed concern, however, that the human rights investigative team still did not have a clear ministerial contact person.

RELATED ARTICLE: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Rains, Cholera Affect 11,000 +

On 7 January, the World Food Programme sent 3 tonnes of food to flood victims in Province Orientale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Torrential rains in Kisangani and Isangi had raised the level of the Congo and Lomami rivers, and destroyed nearly 80 per cent of houses in the villages along the rivers, affecting over 10,000 inhabitants. There were also reports of an outbreak of cholera, affecting more than 1,000 people, with 211 deaths reported.