DRC aid outstripped by conflict, says UN
INTER-COMMUNAL violence in the south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, a top UN aid official in the country has said, warning that the current response is being outstripped by the needs.
“Unless peaceful coexistence is fully restored between the two communities, humanitarian needs will continue to spiral out of control,” said the Humanitarian co-ordinator in the DRC, Mamadou Diallo, at the end of a three-day visit to the region.
Some 370 000 people have fled the cascading violence in the last nine months across all six territories that make up the province, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) estimated.
The insecurity has disrupted aid operations resulting in what Diallo called “among the most urgent humanitarian hotspots in a country experiencing a worsening humanitarian situation”.
The UN Humanitarian co-ordinator led a group that included representatives from UN agencies, donors and non-governmental organisations to Tanganyika’s Kalemie and Manono territories.
In Kalemie, the delegation visited the Kalunga site, home to some 17 000 people, where UN partners are providing emergency water and health care services amid ongoing shelter concerns.
“Speaking to the delegation, a displaced woman pleaded for education projects for the thousands of children living in the site, to avoid their further marginalisation,” Ocha said.
As of mid-January, 50 000 people who had fled the inter-community conflict in Tanganyika had arrived in Moba and in the outskirts of Kalemie where they were now living in extremely precarious conditions.
On behalf of the international humanitarian community, the UN asked for $40 million (R50m) to cover all the humanitarian needs, including $20m for the most urgent, life-threatening needs for the displaced families.
The DRC Common Humanitarian Fund and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund recently allocated $5m each for the response, with the Humanitarian Fund planning an additional allocation of $2m.
The humanitarian concerns came as the secretary-general’s special representative for DRC, Maman Sidikou, briefed the UN Security Council about the deteriorating security situation and the need to implement the December 31 agreement on the electoral process.
Under the agreement, President Joseph Kabila would stay in office until elections are held by the end of the year.
During this period, a “National Council for Overseeing the Electoral Agreement and Process (CNSAP)” would be set up, and a new prime minister named from opposition ranks. – ANA