Latest wave of violence in DR Congo uproots 56,000 people – UN agency

The United Nations refugee agency said today that an estimated 56,000 people have been uprooted by the latest wave of violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“Thousands have fled their homes to escape the on-going government military campaign against the Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and their local allies in the South Kivu province,” Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Many villages in the Moyens Plateaux in Uvira territory are reported to have been deserted as residents fled to the nearby forests and other safe areas in the wake of the fighting that began on 12 July.

Mr. Mahecic said the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are concentrated in the hills west of Luvungi and Bwegera and to the south in the towns of Lumera and Mulenge in the Moyens Plateaux.

Large numbers of IDPs have fled to villages along the Kamanyola-Luberizi road in the Ruzizi plain, near the DRC-Burundi border, he added.

UNHCR and other aid agencies are planning to assist some 20,000 IDPs in the Ruzizi plain. “We are providing aid kits consisting of blankets, sleeping mats, utensils, jerry cans and soap,” said Mr. Mahecic, adding that insecurity and poor road conditions are hampering efforts to reach many of the displaced.

He noted that some people have tried to return to their villages but have had to flee again, and sporadic attacks against civilians by FDLR rebels continue.

There are now some 536,000 people displaced by violence in South Kivu, according to UNHCR. More than 1.8 million people are displaced in DRC, most of them in the country’s east.