UN dispatches relief flight to scene of recent fighting in DR of Congo

The United Nations today dispatched a relief flight to the town of Bunia, located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where fierce ethnic fighting has killed approximately 100 people.

The Antonov cargo plane, organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was stocked with 14 tons of aid materials including tents, plastic sheeting, jerry cans and clothes, as well food. The DRC Government has also supplied two tons of medical supplies to the area.

The UN estimates that up to 30,000 people may have been displaced by the clashes in Bunia, which has a population of roughly 300,000.

Located some 50 kilometres from the Ugandan border, the town remains "urgently in need of humanitarian aid," an OCHA spokesman in Geneva said today.