AS CONFLICT WORSENS IN EAST DRC, CIVILIANS PAY A HEAVY PRICE: UN

Sat 11 March 2023:

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where violence between government forces and armed groups has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee, the United Nations agency for refugees (UNHCR) has issued a warning about a developing humanitarian crisis.

UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said on Friday the violence had prompted nearly 300,000 people to flee across the Rutshuru and Masisi territories of the DRC’s North Kivu province in February.

“Civilians continue to pay the heavy and bloody price of conflict, including women and children who barely escaped the violence and are now sleeping out in the open air in spontaneous or organized sites, exhausted and traumatized,”

Expressing “great alarm”, Saltmarsh said the UNHCR and its partners were stepping up humanitarian assistance but that difficulties remain in accessing displaced people in some parts of North Kivu because of the violence.

The UN agency for humanitarian affairs, OCHA, said in mid-January that 12 aid organizations had been forced to scale back their operations in some areas of the Ituri province due to an uptick in attacks.

Many armed factions, many of which are left over from two regional wars that broke out at the end of the 20th century, roam the vast, mineral-rich eastern DRC.

In an effort to address the security situation, the government declared a state of siege in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri in 2021, placing them under military authority. Nonetheless, the bloodshed has continued.

On Thursday, an overnight attack on the village of Mukondi, 30km (19 miles) south of the city of Beni in North Kivu province, killed at least 36 people. A local official and the head of a civil society group said the assailants were believed to be members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a Ugandan armed group based in eastern DRC that has pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS) and wages frequent deadly raids on villages.

Additionally, according to sources , fighting between the M23 armed group and government forces broke out once more on Friday close to Goma, the nation of North Kivu’s capital.

The early morning fighting took place near the village of Murambi, fewer than 30km (18 miles) west of Goma, local officials said.

Fighting was also reported further north, about 70km (43 miles) from Goma, an official there said.

“The population is starting to panic again,” said Leopold Busanga, a spokesman for civil society groups in Sake.

Goma has been under threat since the M23 launched an offensive last year after reviving from dormancy in 2021. The DRC accuses its neighbour Rwanda of supporting the group, something that Kigali denies, and regional countries have deployed a joint force aimed at stabilising the region. Several attempts at a ceasefire have failed to stop the violence.

The reports of the fighting came hours before a relief mission—the first in an airlift the European Union launched on Saturday to assist the beleaguered city—was anticipated to arrive in Goma.

On the shore of Lake Kivu is the trading center of more than a million people, which has also experienced an influx of thousands of displaced people.

The majority of the land roads to Goma have now been blocked, making air travel the only dependable supply route. The EU plane is transporting hygiene kits, medicine, and emergency shelters.

A UN Security Council delegation arrived in DRC late on Thursday on a three-day visit to assess the situation in Goma. The team will meet President Felix Tshisekedi and fly to the city on Saturday.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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