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Last update :
August 7, 2025
August 7, 2025
Les soldats français ne peuvent faire face au problème humanitaire
Card Number 35272
Number
35272
Author
Leclerc, Gilles
Author
Peaster, Philippe
Date
10 juillet 1994
Ymd
19940710
Time
19:00:00
Time zone
CEST
Uptitle
Journal de 19 heures
Title
Les soldats français ne peuvent faire face au problème humanitaire
Subtitle
En moins d'une semaine, le nombre des réfugiés dans l'Ouest du Rwanda est passé de 800 000 à près d'1,5 million.
Size
20864 bytes
Pages nb.
2
Source
Type
Transcription d'une émission de télévision
Language
en
Abstract
- In Naples, the G7 welcomed France's action in Rwanda. France remains alone on the ground despite multiple appeals.
- And while several thousand refugees have managed to return to the capital, Kigali, elsewhere, particularly in the west of the country, the situation remains critical. French soldiers cannot cope with the humanitarian problem.
- Tomorrow [July 11], Edouard Balladur will visit the UN in New York to try to accelerate UN aid to France on the ground.
- The exodus, the debacle. There are hundreds of thousands of them, mostly Hutu. Women, children, the elderly, but also militiamen and lost soldiers of the old regime. Barefoot, carrying what little they have left, fear in their stomachs, they have been fleeing for days. They are fleeing the fighting and the RPF advance.
- We are in Rushashi, about forty kilometers west of Kigali, the Rwandan capital, which has been in the hands of what can no longer be called rebels for a week.
- An entire population is marching toward the humanitarian zone controlled by French troops. An area that is already overwhelmed: in less than a week, the number of refugees in western Rwanda has risen from 800,000 to nearly 1.5 million. French authorities, the ICRC, and the UN have been sounding the alarm for several days about the humanitarian catastrophe.
- Here, in the zone controlled by the French, near the Zairean border, the soldiers can only provide security and medical aid. A field hospital where civilians and soldiers are treated and operated on.
- But the enormous food problem remains. Estimated needs: more than 500 tons of food per day. This cannot be delivered at this time without greater mobilization of humanitarian organizations.
- And while several thousand refugees have managed to return to the capital, Kigali, elsewhere, particularly in the west of the country, the situation remains critical. French soldiers cannot cope with the humanitarian problem.
- Tomorrow [July 11], Edouard Balladur will visit the UN in New York to try to accelerate UN aid to France on the ground.
- The exodus, the debacle. There are hundreds of thousands of them, mostly Hutu. Women, children, the elderly, but also militiamen and lost soldiers of the old regime. Barefoot, carrying what little they have left, fear in their stomachs, they have been fleeing for days. They are fleeing the fighting and the RPF advance.
- We are in Rushashi, about forty kilometers west of Kigali, the Rwandan capital, which has been in the hands of what can no longer be called rebels for a week.
- An entire population is marching toward the humanitarian zone controlled by French troops. An area that is already overwhelmed: in less than a week, the number of refugees in western Rwanda has risen from 800,000 to nearly 1.5 million. French authorities, the ICRC, and the UN have been sounding the alarm for several days about the humanitarian catastrophe.
- Here, in the zone controlled by the French, near the Zairean border, the soldiers can only provide security and medical aid. A field hospital where civilians and soldiers are treated and operated on.
- But the enormous food problem remains. Estimated needs: more than 500 tons of food per day. This cannot be delivered at this time without greater mobilization of humanitarian organizations.