Fighting lessens in DR Congo but humanitarian situation remains worrying – UN

Fighting appears to have abated in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) but tension continues and the humanitarian situation remains very worrying, with 250,000 newly displaced people in urgent need of aid, United Nations officials said today.

The UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) reported that several parts of North Kivu province, the scene of a recent upsurge in the conflict between Government forces (FARDC) and a rebel militia (CNDP) led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, were being hit by cholera, whooping cough and measles epidemics.

It cited Government data that eight people had died out of more than 150 reported cases in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps near Goma, the provincial capital. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported seven new cases of measles.

The number of both IDPs and camps has been on the rise since the start in August of current hostilities, people continue to flee their homes, and the overall humanitarian situation remains extremely precarious, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told a news conference.

The UN refugee agency remains deeply concerned over the security of 65,000 IDPs at two camps in Kibaki due to its proximity to the front lines.

OCHA said new and large-scale looting by Government soldiers had erupted during the night of 10 November at Kanyabayonga, Kirumba and Kayna, putting the civilian population to flight.

“All populations affected by this crisis have the right to be assisted. And for that to happen, the parties to the conflict must ensure that humanitarian organizations have unconditional access to and [can] assist these vulnerable populations,” OCHA said, reminding all sides to the conflict of their obligation to preserve and respect civilian infrastructure and property.

“Given the high levels of militarization in the region, the numerous lootings and death threats, it has become so difficult for humanitarian organisations to access vulnerable people, that some of these agencies have been obliged to withdraw from these areas preventively and temporarily.”

Relief supplies continue to reach Goma, including 36 tons of goods delivered on Monday.

Hostilities have continued in eastern DRC despite stabilization in much of the rest of the vast country, which was torn by years of civil war that cost 4 million lives in fighting and attendant hunger and disease – widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II – before it ended earlier this decade.

Since then, the UN has helped to reinforce a return to relative calm – except in the east - resulting in the largest and most complex elections it has ever helped to run, with presidential, national and provincial polls two years ago.