DR of Congo: Battalion of UN mission sets up and supervises new clinics

The Indian battalion of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is channelling supplies from UN agencies to medical camps in the eastern region for people displaced by the conflict which rebel groups resumed and abandoned early last month.

The battalion, IndBatt-1, set up the camps along the critical Kiwanja-Ishasha-Nyakakoma axis in North Kivu as part of its "Operation Dove Flight" two weeks ago, before non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies moved into the area.

The Nyakakoma medical camp alone treated 216 men, women and children on the day it opened. IndBatt-1’s Major Sanjay Ghodmare said the majority of his patients in Nyakakoma were suffering from malaria, scabies and diarrhoea because of the unhygienic conditions in the bush where they hid.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Mission in the DRC’s (MONUC) IndBatt-1 continuously assess the amount of aid required for some 5,000 internally displaced people (IDPs), the mission said.

In the flare-up, several villages were captured by rebel Mayi-Mayi militia members, fighting alongside the Hutu-dominated rebel Interahamwe of Rwanda, but the areas were recaptured by the Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC) and IndBatt-1, the mission said.