28 01 14 DR Congo still needs humanitarian aid despite advances towards peace in east – UN

“We
are united by the goal of responding to the needs of the most vulnerable in the
DRC,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Deputy Executive Director Yoka Brandt said over
the weekend at the end of a high-level joint visit with the UN World Food
Programme (WFP)
and UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

“Significant
progress towards peace has been made. However, the situation is complex and
children and women continue to be displaced by violence. Increased international
support is necessary to cover their basic needs, such as access to safe and
clean water and nutrition assistance.”

The
DRC has been torn apart by civil wars and factional fighting since it became
independent from Belgium in 1960, but with the support of a series of UN
missions a measure of stability has been restored to much of the vast country
over the past decade.

Fighting
between the Government and a variety of rebel and sectarian groups, however, has
continued to devastate the eastern regions, particularly North and South Kivu
provinces. One major dissident group, the M23, was defeated by the national army
with UN support last month, but skirmishes with various groups continue, driving
yet more civilians from their homes.

According
to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
2.9 million people are currently displaced by conflict within DRC, more than 60
per cent of them in North and South Kivu.

The
UN officials visited South Irumu in Province Orientale, where fighting between
the Congolese army and militia groups has displaced an estimated 120,000 people
since August.

“Insecurity
has disrupted the livelihoods of these people, and we are committed to continue
supporting them, both in the areas where they seek refuge as well as back in
their communities once they feel that conditions are in place for them to
return,” WFP Assistant Executive Director, Ramiro Lopes da Silva said after
meeting displaced people and host communities in a makeshift site near Lagabo in
Ituri district.

“In
the meantime, we will continue to advocate on their behalf to donor governments
for adequate resources to be made available.”

The
three also visited programmes in the Mungunga III camp near Goma, North Kivu,
and met the DRC authorities, humanitarian partners and people affected by the
conflict.

“People
in some parts of the country continue to suffer and are being displaced because
of violence,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Janet Lim said.
“We need the support of the Congolese authorities, civil society, humanitarian
organizations, the development sector and donor countries to consolidate the
recent progress towards peace and stability throughout the country and to put a
total end to conflict and displacement.”

Insecurity
in the east of the vast country, including Katanga province, has sparked
repeated population displacements. It is estimated that about half of internally
displaced people (IDPs) are children. Equateur province, where peace is being
restored after inter-ethnic clashes in 2009 and 2010 forced 200,000 people to
flee their homes, now hosts more than 50,000 refugees from the war-torn Central
African Republic (CAR).