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 6. Z a i r e:EVACUATED RELIEF TEAM SET TO RETURN TO "FORGOTTEN" REFUGEESRELIEF WORKERS EVACUATED after their headquarters and stores were shelled by an army barrage hope to return this month to resume their efforts to help thousands of "forgotten" refugees.
The four-strong MEDAIR team were forced to leave Aru, in the north-east of the country, in late November after the area came under artillery fire from across the border in Uganda, where government troops were attacking rebel forces in and around the town.
Local staff have been able to keep the projects - including education, health care and agricultural aid - going during the team's absence, said MEDAIR desk officer David Sauter, but the work has been slowed without the administrative support.
The MEDAIR workers arrived in the remote part of the country six months ago, to bring help to some of the 400,000 refugees in the region who have fled fighting in neighboring Uganda and Sudan during the past four years.
Their plight has been largely overshadowed by the needs of the million-plus refugees who poured into Zaire from Rwanda to escape the violence that swept that country in 1994, leaving the longer-term displaced with little outside assistance.
Through a US $1 million program funded by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Swiss government and private MEDAIR supporters, the Christian crisis relief group - the only international non-governmental agency in the area - is helping the refugees settle in four camps around Aru.
"With some help, it's a good place for the refugees who are likely to be there for some time, as the situation in Sudan could continue for years. The land around Aru is fertile," said Sauter.
As well as overseeing farming and income-generation programs, the MEDAIR workers are coordinating the building and running of schools and clinics. MEDAIR was founded in 1988 as a partnership between Youth With A Mission, Mission Aviation Fellowship, and MEDAF, a French medical charity.
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