Red Cross cares for 25,000 after South African unrest

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — The Red Cross in South Africa said Saturday it was caring for 25,000 displaced people following nearly two weeks of anti-immigrant violence amid emerging evidence of a humanitarian crisis.

The new figures came as the army said it had shot dead a man in a Johannesburg township during joint operations with the police aimed at quelling the tide of unrest.

"The Red Cross is helping over 25,000 people spread around 21 locations, mainly in Johannesburg," Red Cross director for southern Africa, Francoise Le Goff, told AFP.

"The situation has deteriorated since now it (the violence) is starting in Durban and Cape Town."

Aid group Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also warned of the danger of illness among the...