UN to distribute relief supplies to displaced in eastern DR of Congo

United Nations agencies have sent representatives to the high plains of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to distribute 90 tons of food and basic supplies being airlifted there for some 1,200 internally displaced families who fled another area in the region that is experiencing protracted unrest.

The internally displaced persons (IDPs) ran empty-handed from the environs of the town of Bukavu because armed rebels threatened them, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update today.

They settled in the hill towns of Numbi and Shanje, exhausting the host community's food and finding temporary shelter in school buildings where they have been sleeping on the ground without blankets or extra clothing. Many cases of gastro-enteritis and malaria have been reported, but medicines are lacking, OCHA said.

UN World Food Programme (WFP) trucks would move the supplies from the heliports of the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) to food depots for distribution. The IDPs would receive basic supplies, as well as flour, oil, beans and salt, OCHA said.