Relief group, U.N. call for cease-fire in Congo

June 11, 2000
Web posted at: 3:19 a.m. EDT (0719 GMT)

In this story: Team members want to perform needed surgery Official: Thousands fleeing Kisangani RELATED STORIES, SITES

KISANGANI, Congo (CNN) -- A medical relief group pleaded for a six-hour Sunday cease-fire between Ugandan and Rwandan troops in Kisangani so they can take care of the wounded.

United Nations observers in the region also called for a break in the fighting to help with the humanitarian effort.

MESSAGE BOARD Congo peace

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) enter war and disaster zones to offer medical help to all sides. But fierce fighting has forced the six-member team to hunker down inside a shelter since Monday, said spokeswoman Christine Torjeson.

Torjeson called for the cease-fire to begin at noon Sunday in Kisangani. There was no immediate response from either side. Several previous cease-fires have been called then broken.

Team members want to perform needed surgery

She said the team hopes to use the time to get to their supply warehouse in Kisangani to recover medical supplies, and to visit houses in the city to find people who are injured.

Team members also want to use a local hospital to perform whatever procedures are necessary.

Amid the fighting, Kisangani has been stricken with a water shortage since Monday.

A U.N. official with the agency's humanitarian affairs office in Kinshasa told CNN in a telephone interview their group was hoping for a cease-fire over the next two days, so it could begin a major humanitarian operation Monday.

Official: Thousands fleeing Kisangani

"Yesterday it (an announced cease-fire) failed, and the result was even worse than had there been no cease-fire at all," said the U.N. official. "People got caught in the crossfire when the fighting resumed."

The official said thousands of residents of Kisangani are fleeing the city.

Rwanda and Uganda, once allies in a rebel insurgency against the Congolese government of President Laurent Kabila, split last year when two rebel chiefs disputed the leadership of one of the factions. Rwanda supported one man, and Uganda backed the other.

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