MSF urges DR Congo fighters not to attack hospitals, civilians

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres voiced shock on Saturday over an attack on a hospital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and urged warring factions to protect civilians and medical facilities.

Armed men attacked the town of Drodro in Ituri province during the night of March 6 to 7, killing an elderly patient in her bed, ransacking the general hospital and looting medical equipment, MSF said. The surge in violence in and around Drodro has triggered a mass exodus from the area.

Thousands of people have sought refuge about 10 kilometres (six miles) away at Rho camp for displaced people, which was designed to accommodate a maximum of 30,000 people but is now sheltering more than twice as many, MSF said.

MSF has temporarily evacuated its staff from Drodro, and while it continues to provide medical care to people at Rho camp, it says this is ‘not sustainable’ in the long term.

“What has happened here is nothing short of horrifying,” said Stephanie Giandonato, MSF’s programme manager for the DRC.

MSF’s project coordinator in Drodro, Boubacar Mballo, said there were no longer any functioning medical facilities in the town and the growing insecurity had effectively cut off the region, disrupting supplies of food and water to Rho camp.

Pilo Mulindro, head of the Bahema Nord district, where Drodro is located, blamed this week’s attack on an armed militia group called the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), which claims to defend the interests of the Lendu ethnic group.

According to an internal report by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC, the attack was revenge for the killing of a member of the Lendu community by the Zaire, an armed group affiliated with the Hema people.

MSF said that if violence worsened and supplies ran out, it would no longer be able to provide healthcare, water and sanitation to displaced people in Rho.

It urged all warring factions to protect civilians and medical facilities “under all circumstances”.