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GENEVA, April 13 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued an urgent appeal Tuesday for aid on behalf of some 900,000 displaced people facing famine and disease in camps in Rwanda.
The little central African state has been in a state of civil war since October 1990, and the inhabitants of the fertile north of the country have fled their homes and land to take shelter in the camps.
Having fled the fighting between the Rwandan army and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, the people are frightened to return despite a ceasefire that came into effect last month, ICRC officials said.
They said severe malnutrition was already apparent among the children. The ICRC distributed 2,300 tonnes of grain, beans and oil last week, but said twice that amount, or 13,000 tonnes a month, was necessary.
Rwanda has the densest population in the world after Bangladesh.
js/ma/gd AFP AFP SEQN-0413
