The ICRC Tracing Service in the Congo

Extract

As soon as the ICRC had set up a delegation in Leopoldville (July 1960), it was seen that a Tracing Service similar to the Central Agency in Geneva was urgently required. The disturbances had led to an abrupt exodus, and it was impossible to keep check of whole families leaving to seek asylum in the former French Congo, Angola, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika or the newly formed Central African Republic. These unexpected events, for which the host countries were not prepared (especially as far as a systematic registration of the refugees was concerned), and the disruption or complete break-down of means of communication, transport and postal services, had resulted in great and in many cases justifiable anxiety on the part of those obliged to leave, and their relatives.