Congolese disaster looms, UN warns
Escalation of violence and mass displacement worries refugee agency
An upsurge of violence in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to cause a “humanitarian disaster of extraordinary proportions”, UN refugee agency UNHCR warns.
A sharp escalation of violence had taken place in the DRC’s Tanganyika province since late 2017, with new armed groups forming and an increase in attacks and the use of firearms, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said in Geneva.
“We are warning today that a humanitarian disaster of extraordinary proportions is about to hit the southeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the province of Tanganyika plunges further into violence, triggering spiralling displacement and human rights abuses,” Mahecic said.
Clashes between militias representing the Luba people and Twa pygmies, have been going on for more than four years, driven by inequalities between Luba villagers and the Twa, who are a hunting and gathering people historically excluded from access to land and basic services.
Mahecic said the intercommunal violence had led to atrocities and mass displacement. There had also been clashes between the DRC’s armed forces and militia groups since the end of January.
UNHCR partner agencies had documented about 800 “protection incidents” including killings, abductions and rape, in the first two weeks of February. Much of the violence was going on in areas that were impossible for aid workers to reach.
Most abuses concerned extortion and illegal taxation, mostly carried out by DRC armed forces at roadblocks.
The conflict is part of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the DRC. Militia violence has risen since President Joseph Kabila’s refused to step down when his constitutional mandate expired in 2016.
The military has largely stamped out an insurrection that displaced 1.5-million people in central DRC in 2016-17 but militias are increasingly active along the eastern borders with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Tanganyika province has a population of about 3-million, of whom 630,000 have been displaced by the fighting, a number that has doubled in a year. “Given the circumstances, we are only observing an upward trend in displacement right now,” Mahecic said. “How high it could go is anyone’s guess, but it is a major concern.”
In 2017, the UNHCR received less than $1 per person to support more than 4.4-million people displaced in the DRC, he said. /Reuters