NurseWeek/HealthWeek | Children seized from hospital in Rwanda

Children seized from hospital in Zaire, dangers continue for refugees

posted 5-9-97

Events surrounding an attack last month on the Lwiro Pediatric Hospital near the Rwandan border, in which more than 60 patients and adults were seized, took a positive turn when representatives from Zaire’s rebel Alliance handed over the missing refugees a few days later.

Members of the Tutsi-dominated Alliance met with U.N. officials and relief workers at an airport in Bukavu to hand over the Rwandan Hutu refugees for repatriation into Rwanda. The refugees consisted mostly of ill and malnourished children who had been feared dead after being herded or thrown into trucks by about 20 armed men during an April 28 raid on the hospital. The attackers, assumed to be Alliance troops, also beat two nurses and a hospital aide with sticks and rifle butts. The three healthcare workers were later hospitalized with severe injuries.

Nurses are frequent targets of attack in Zaire, according to Penelope Lewis, a UNICEF spokesperson. “That’s definitely a trend in these humanitarian emergencies. It’s becoming dangerous to be a nurse or an aid worker of any sort,” Lewis said.

Although all the abducted children were returned alive, some are in weak condition, according to Lewis, and immediate repatriation to Rwanda left little time for treatment before the journey. “Many of the children were extremely weak, and some were unable to walk,” she said.

UNICEF and other relief organizations will follow up on the young refugees as they re-enter Rwanda. However, the safety of primarily Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire has become increasingly precarious. A recent string of attacks on refugee camps and hospitals left thousands maimed or dead from machete wounds and gunfire. Thousands more fled into the surrounding jungle. Some victims identified local villagers and Zairian rebel troops in the attack, although the rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, denied his troops took part.

Kabila barred relief workers and journalists from entering the area during the killings, and access to victims continues to be a problem for healthcare workers in the rebel-held territory of Eastern Zaire, Lewis said.