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Date: November 12, 1996 
Two United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) representatives are part of a relief assessment team traveling to eastern Zaire. Dellaphine B. Rauch-Houekpon, UMCOR's head of mission for eastern Zaire, and Kinge Namanga, coordinator of UMCOR's firewood project in Bukavu, are joining a team organized by Action by Churches Together (ACT), a worldwide relief network of churches.
F. Lloyd Rollins, UMCOR's assistant general secretary for emergency response, said the pair were in Kigali, Rwanda, on Nov. 12 and would try to make their way into Goma and Bukavu. "We're not sure anyone can get into Uvira right now," he added.
Uvira was the first city in eastern Zaire to fall when a local Tutsi group, resisting a Zairian government order to leave the country, began fighting the Zairian Army. Subsequent fighting in Bukavu and Goma led to the evacuation of relief workers assisting about a million Hutu refugees from Rwanda and Burundi in the region.
Since then, the international relief community, the United Nations and others have warned of mass starvation unless urgent action is taken to help the refugees.
UMCOR was one of 18 U.S. relief agencies calling upon the U.S. government to take such action in a statement released Nov. 8.
The "real issue" for the assessment team, according to Rollins, will be whether the refugees become settled enough so that a system for distribution of emergency food, water and other supplies can be established.
"We're working with the entire relief community in efforts to get relief supplies [into the region]," he added.
Although UMCOR has not yet worked in Rwanda, Rollins said the agency would set up operations there if the refugees returned home.