Looting paralyzes food distribution in DR of Congo – UN

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for an end to the looting that has forced it to suspend food distribution across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“We have just been through the worst situation, with our staff and offices coming under attack in Kinshasa, Kalemie, Lubumbashi and Kisangani,” said Felix Bamezon, WFP Representative and Country Director for the DRC. “We need security to continue our life-saving work.”

WFP has been providing 150,000 people in South Kivu province with 3,500 tonnes of food a month through nutritional centres and hospitals, as well as to food-for-work and other programmes.

Thousands of Congolese attacked UN offices and peacekeeping bases yesterday, angry that fewer than 1,000 UN peacekeepers were unable to prevent 2,000 to 4,000 rebels from seizing Bukavu, South Kivu’s provincial capital, on Wednesday. The DRC’s military in Bukavu unexpectedly collapsed, the chief of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations said.

Fifteen DRC nationals working for WFP remained in the city, most of them hiding with their families for a second day.

The last two WFP international staff members in Bukavu were taken yesterday by a helicopter owned by the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) to the north-eastern city of Goma.

Before his evacuation to Goma, the head of WFP's office in Bukavu, Ndeley Agbaw, said civilians looted two barges loaded with 270 tonnes of food aid on Wednesday. The homes of WFP staff were also ransacked.

In an indication of the confusion surrounding events, he said he had visited a nearby WFP warehouse which, contrary to an earlier report, had not been looted.

In the eastern town of Kalemie, a WFP warehouse containing 1,000 tonnes of food was looted, as was the WFP office. One WFP international staff member there was placed under MONUC protection and was later relocated to the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi.

In Lubumbashi, stone-throwing protesters smashed the windows of an office used by WFP and other UN agencies, Mr. Bamezon said.

He added that in the north-eastern city of Kisangani, WFP staff members were told to stay at home for their safety. There a mob burned down the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office and smashed shop windows.

Earlier this week the UN Security Council condemned "the incitement of hatred, especially against members of the local community, in particular those aimed at the Banyamulenge," or Congolese Tutsis.

More than 2,000 Banyamulenge from the Bukavu area fled into neighbouring Rwanda over the past couple of weeks, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has been taking care of them.