DR Congo: aid needed for thousands fleeing or returning in east, UN agencies say

United Nations agencies called today for more humanitarian aid for the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as thousands either flee their homes or return to decimated villages due to persistent violence in the run-up to historic national elections.

“These are the largest displacements that we’ve had to deal with in this region for at least two years, when the last heavy fighting occurred here,” said Felix Bamezon, DRC Country Director for the UN World Food Programme (WFP). “The historic elections are attracting the world’s attention but whatever the outcome, the need for food assistance will remain.”

Such mass displacement is particularly worrying in Gety, in Ituri Province, the WFP said, where some 38,000 people have taken refuge in the wake of recent fighting between recalcitrant militias and Government troops, and where stocks of food aid are running dangerously low.

At the same time, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in the eastern Katanga Province about 2,200 families, or 80 per cent of those who fled recent clashes between Government and militia forces, have recently returned to the Sampwe area.

The returnees, according to a UN inter-agency assessment mission, found their houses destroyed and the harvest either ruined or looted by militia groups. They are in urgent need of shelter, basic household items, clothing, food rations, seeds and tools, which must be received before the rainy season.

UNHCR said it plans to distribute return packages and shelter construction kits to returns, with other agencies helping with assistance for other needs, but it warns that the risk of destabilization in such areas of Katanga remains high.

Meanwhile, in Gety, WFP said it distributed a two-week ration to 30,000 people on 14 July from its warehouses in Bunia, the main town of Ituri, but its stocks have almost run out in the area and more resources are urgently needed.

The food aid agency says it aims to feed 1.7 people in the DRC, but has received only 58 per cent of the $253 million required for its relief and recovery operation in the country from January 2004 to June 2007, leaving a shortfall of $106 million.