“There were dozens of dead bodies left lying at the roadside, many of them civilians. It was a distressing sight,” said Max Hadorn, Head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Kinshasa.

Today, the ICRC organized an assistance operation to bring relief to the wounded. A plane carrying a surgeon and 1200 kg of surgical and medical supplies landed at Kinshasa’s N’Djili international airport this afternoon. This morning, the ICRC delivered dressings, medicaments, vaccines and X-ray film (medical imaging supplies) to the Kinshasa general hospital for the treatment of the 70 wounded currently being treated there.

With the support of the ICRC and the Ministry of Health, the Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RCDRC) has deployed 25 volunteers to recover the many bodies lying in the streets of Kinshasa. Twice that number of volunteers will be mobilized tomorrow, Sunday. The ICRC has supplied the RCDRC with a hundred or so body bags, chlorine and gloves. Five vehicles have been placed at the disposal of the RCDRC by the Ministry of Health and two by the ICRC, which has also supplied petrol.

The ICRC has made initial contacts with a view to taking steps for the protection of the individuals arrested in connection with the violence of the past two days.

The ICRC has been carrying out humanitarian operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1978. It currently has 543 staff in the country including 49 expatriate delegates.