Democratic Republic of the Congo: 85 children reunited with their families
11-11-2004 News Release 04/135
On 29 October, the ICRC completed a series of flights that returned 85 unaccompanied children to their families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Most of the children had been separated from their families by the fighting that started in 1996. The ICRC registered them, located their families and enabled them to get back in touch via the Red Cross message network.
Children are only reunited with their families if both child and family agree. In addition, the ICRC has to contact many different agencies and conduct extensive research before reunification can take place. Efforts to bring families back together are under way throughout the country, with volunteers from the Red Cross Society of the Democratic Republic of the Congo playing an important role.
For further information, please contact:
Patrick Mégévend, ICRC Kinshasa, tel.: ++243 081 70 06 060
Marco Jiménez Rodríguez, ICRC Geneva, tel.: ++41 22 730 22 71