UN relief chief meets with civilians caught up in DR Congo conflict

The top United Nations relief official today urged all parties to the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to ensure the protection of civilians, as he met with authorities and displaced people in the volatile North Kivu province.

“All who have been involved in the conflict must do much more to demonstrate that they are taking their responsibilities to protect civilians seriously,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said, as he began a visit to the strife-torn nation.

Eastern DRC has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent months between the Congolese army and various rebel militia groups that has displaced some 250,000 civilians since August, on top of 800,000 uprooted in earlier outbreaks of violence.

While in the eastern North Kivu province, Mr. Holmes met with internally displaced families at the Kibati IDP camp near the regional capital Goma, who had been living on the frontlines of recent clashes between the national army and the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) rebel group.

Mr. Holmes was presented with a letter detailing the concerns of the IDPs relating to living conditions and insufficient food rations, and heard about the risks they faced if they were to return to their homes. He noted that IDPs will only go home “when they are sure that they and their families will be safe.”

Recent returns were “a sign for cautious optimism after the horrific violence of recent months, and indeed years but the risks to civilians still remain high, including from the current operations against the FDLR,” Mr. Holmes stated, referring to the joint Congolese/Rwandan military offensive against another rebel group, the Forces Democratiques de la Libération du Rwanda.

“Many more displaced people in North Kivu desperately want to return to their homes, but are understandably worried that their security cannot yet be assured. They also need help to re-establish their lives which we can help provide as soon as the conditions for return are there,” added Mr. Holmes, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

He will have a chance to meet some of the civilians uprooted by the joint Congolese/Rwandan operation when he travels to Masisi tomorrow.

He will then fly on to Bunia in the district of Ituri where he will meet humanitarian actors and representatives of the UN peacekeeping operation in DRC (MONUC) in preparation for his visit to the areas in Haut Uélé in Orientale province affected by the activities of the Ugandan rebel Lord''s Resistance Army (LRA).