Véronique Saro was born in Aru, Ituri Province, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on 21 June 1968. She went to primary school in Yekia (1974–1981) and secondary school in Aungba (1981–1986). The following year she moved to the city of Bukavu where she studied at the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales, graduating in 1991.
In 1992 Véronique began work at Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, north of the city of Bunia, where she was appointed director of nursing. In May 1995 she moved to the capital Kinshasa where she worked as a nurse in the Ngbakama Polyclinic. However, the outbreak of war in the east of the country saw her flee Kinshasa with her two young daughters in early 1997, first to Cameroon, then to Kenya and finally to Uganda, all in the space of a few months.
She returned to the DRC in August 1997 and took charge of primary health care at the SEIPI Association, a non-governmental organization, in Bunia. At the same time, she headed Ituri Province’s epidemiological surveillance team.
Two and a half years later – in February 2000 – Véronique joined the ICRC’s Bunia subdelegation as a health field officer. Calmness personified, she was responsible for monitoring and supervising the work of ICRC-supported health facilities in Ituri Province, in places such as Bunia, Drodro, Fataki, Tchomia, Nyakunde and Rethy. She also managed medical supplies moving in and out of the subdelegation.
For a while, the unstable security situation prevented the subdelegation’s medical programme from operating at full capacity because access to ICRC-supported health facilities was limited. But Véronique was not one to be discouraged, and she succeeded in ensuring that other elements of the programme still went ahead. Once activities on the ground were able to resume, she relaunched the entire programme as planned.
On 26 April Véronique and five other ICRC colleagues set off from Bunia in two vehicles marked with the red cross emblem. They were heading for Fataki to assess the needs of health centres and displaced people, and to distribute Red Cross messages. Later that afternoon, all six were found murdered near the town of Djugu. Alongside 32-year-old Véronique were three other Congolese nationals – Unen Ufoy-Rwoth, 28, a relief field officer; Aduwe Boboli, 39, and Jean Molokabonge, 56, both drivers – together with Rita Fox-Stucki, 36, a Swiss nurse from Bern; and Julio Delgado, 54, a relief delegate from Colombia.
Speaking at their memorial ceremony, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said the loss of the six staff members was a “crushing blow” for the institution: “They reflect the image of the ICRC as a place where individuals of different nationalities, culture and background come together to follow the ideal of helping their fellows. In many countries we encounter people who express great affection for these men and women who ‘come from afar’ to bring assistance and protection. Some do indeed come from afar, while others belong to the area or country where they work. It is from their combined energies and their mutual trust that we derive our strength. Today we pay tribute to four Congolese, a Swiss and a Colombian who embodied these common values.”
Having fled conflict in her country, Véronique courageously returned to help others in the place she knew best: Ituri Province. It was where she grew up and where she had made a home for her family. Her experience and knowledge of the health needs in the region were often crucial in enabling the ICRC to make the right choices in a difficult environment.
