Need for aid grows as DRC violence continues
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 was being outstripped by demand.
“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 had fled the cascading violence across all six territories, that make up the province, in the last nine months, the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs 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 about 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,” the office said.
As of mid-January, 50 000 people who fled the inter-community conflict in Tanganyika have arrived in Moba and on the outskirts of Kalemie, where they are now living in extremely precarious conditions.
On behalf of the international humanitarian community, the UN asked for $40 million (R505m) to cover all its humanitarian needs, including $20m for the most urgent, life-threatening needs for the displaced families. – ANA