Abstract
- Bernard Kouchner, the former French Minister for Humanitarian Action, failed to convince the belligerents to let 360 civilians from Kigali leave.
- A capital where fighting has redoubled since this morning. A country from which thousands of men, women and children fled.
- Benaco, in the Ngara region in northwest Tanzania, is the largest refugee camp in the world: 250,000 people, a camp that stretches over three kilometres. Flat terrain, difficult to access. Far from Dar es Salaam the Tanzanian capital, far from everything.
- For 10 days now the Rwandan refugees have organized themselves. A camp life. Very few saw the war, but the information from Kigali, the rumours, put them on the road to exile. Some of them have been going from camp to camp since the start of the war in Rwanda in 1990.
- 150 tons of food needed per day: the Red Cross is calling for substantial aid from the international community. The health situation is indeed precarious; the region is freezing, 10 to 15 degrees in the morning. Children are victims of pneumonia, adults of malaria.
- All go through Rusumo, the border bridge between Tanzania and Rwanda. RPF forces took control of this strategic point on 1st May. The Blue Helmets were able to see this during a control visit last Saturday [May 7].
- Under everyone's eyes, the Kagera River continues to carry its daily load of corpses. The spectacle is unbearable, the smell indescribable. Horror has no name.
- Tanzania warned the two Rwandan belligerents this morning. Tanzania warns that any attempt to penetrate its soil or destroy the Rusumo Bridge by either side would be tantamount to a declaration of war.