From 19 May to 10 June 1978, Mr. Jean-Pierre Hocké, Director of ICRC's Operations Department, visited several African countries, including Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Ethiopia. The purpose of his mission was to study and define, with the ICRC delegations on the spot, the nature and scope of the forthcoming protection and assistance programmes to be carried out by the ICRC. In all the places he visited, Mr. Hocké also met the customary interlocutors, the authorities and National Societies, with whom the ICRC is in contact.