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Humanitarian Situation in the Great Lakes Region

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Democratic Republic of Congo

• There are approximately 3.5 million internally displaced people inside the country
  
• After eight years of conflict, the degradation of the social services, in particular in the sector of health, lead to a recrudescence of the endemic and epidemic diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and to the highest death rates ever reached
  
• Large pockets of acute malnutrition remain in the areas of conflict
  
• The access to the victims is difficult because of the insecurity in the east of the country (presence of active armed militia) and of the catastrophic state of the road infrastructures
  
• Return of some 500.000 refugees of Congo (Brazzaville), of Tanzania and Zambia is awaited.

ECHO is present in the DRC since 1997 (three offices in Kinshasa, Goma and Bukavu as well as an antenna in Bunia). The annual amounts allocated with the DRC have been growing to reach 45M€ in 2004 and these five last years ECHO allocated nearly 180M€. It is the first supplier of humanitarian aid in the country and its interventions cover the areas where the needs are most important, in particular:

• Zones still in conflict (or in process os stabilisation) and where the situation remains unstable, namely Ituri and Grand Kivu
  
• Zones cut by the old frontline of Lusaka, which was the theatre of intense fighting between 1998 and 2001. From the North-West to South-East, it acts of the following regions: Ecuador, Kasaï and Katanga.

Volume of the financed assistance:

• 1997 : 1.5 M€ - 2000 : 20 M€ - 2003 : 39 M€
  
• 1998 : 11.6 M€ - 2001 : 35 M€ - 2004 : 45 M€
  
• 1999 : 13.3 M€ - 2002 : 38.10 M€ - 2005 : 38 M€ (foreseen)

Rwanda

ECHO does not have a program in Rwanda since 1999-2000 because the evaluations did not show any major humanitarian crisis or humanitarian needs for which were not covered by the Government or other agencies.

Rwanda anyway has a considerable impact on the humanitarian situation in the KIVUS.

Burundi

• Chronic and complex crisis resulting of ten years of conflict between various armed factions
  
• The implementation of the agreement of cease-fire allowed to accelerate the return of the refugees and internally displaced people
  
• According to the UN High Commissionner for Refugees (UNHCR), 84.176 people who found refuge in Tanzania returned to Burundi between January and September 2004. In spite of that, some 700.000 Burundian refugees always live in Tanzania and are supposed to come back. In addition, the violent fighting held since June 2004 in the south Kivu in DRC caused a massive arrival of Congolese refugees in certain
  
• zones of Burundi
  
• Currently there are approximately 140.000 internally displaced people n the country
  
• Following the lack of rain in certain provinces and a virulent form of a disease of the manioc in the provinces of north, the needs for food aid increased during the last quarter of 2004
  
• The number of doctors is 1 per 100.000 people
  
• 85 to 90% of the Burundians live with less than 1 USD per week
  
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the rate of infection by HIV/AIDS reaches 20% in the urban zones and 7,5% in rural areas.

These five last years ECHO allocated 86,49M€ in Burundi. It is the first supplier of humanitarian aid in the country.

Figures of the financed assistance:

• 2000 : 20 M€ - 2002 : 15 M€
  
• 2001 : 17,5 M€ - 2003 : 15M€
  
• 2004 : 18,99M€ (+ 17 M€ in the pipeline for the Global Plan 2005)

Uganda

• The forgotten but ongoing conflict in the north of the country , affecting over 1.6 million people, is now causing some of the highest mortality rates ever seen. Armed groups are killing civilians, torching and pillaging villages and kidnapping children to be used as porters, fighters or sex slaves.
  
• Due to the high volatility on the ground, humanitarian access is sporadic and varies from one camp to another (188 official camps in the north)
  
• Access to water is less than a third of what it should be according to internationally agreed humanitarian standards.

The European Commission has adopted [WHEN?] a decision worth €6.62 and an earmarked humanitarian plan worth €14 million to relieve vulnerable population groups affected by insecurity and climatic hazards in Uganda. ECHO's funding will then reach its highest level so far: a total of €32,62 million since the beginning of 2004 . This makes the Commission the largest humanitarian donor to the crisis in Northern Uganda.

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