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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Thousands flee fighting in Bunia as fears of disease grow
NAIROBI, 16 May 2003 (IRIN) - Around 50,000 people were fleeing south on foot to escape the fighting in Bunia, in Ituri district of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the international NGO World Vision (WV) said on Thursday. UN officials have warned of a humanitarian disaster unless the international community steps in to stop the bloodshed caused by rival Hema and Lendu militias.
WV said that the people, mostly women and children, were walking along the Bunia-Beni road and were heading towards Eringeti, 143 km south of Bunia. Together with other NGOs in Eringeti, WV said it was already helping people displaced by earlier fighting in the region.
"International NGOs need to try their best, as soon as possible, to save thousands of lives that are at risk of starving in the Equatorial jungle," Dieudonne Kasonga, a water engineer for WV, said.
In Bunia, the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, said on Thursday that the humanitarian situation remained the greatest worry. MONUC said it was sheltering 12,000 people - 6,000 in its compound in Bunia and the rest in a refugee camp near the airport, which is under UN control. It said at least three cases of dysentery had been registered and aid workers feared that cholera could break out any day.
Since Monday, a team from MONUC, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), EC Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the NGOs COOPI and Oxfam-Great Britain have been in Bunia delivering medical aid and setting up water points in the camps.
Fred Eckhard, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said that OCHA had brought in a Congolese medical team from Goma, with three surgeons working out of a mobile clinic to support the UN medical team.
MONUC officials on Thursday tried to negotiate a ceasefire between the warring factions, Eckhard said. "The Deputy Force Commander of the UN Organisation Mission in the DRC, Brig-Gen Roberto Martinelli, met today with the leaders of the various warring sides to try and broker at least a 24-hour ceasefire in order to move internally displaced people to more secure locations," he said at the UN headquarters in New York.
Eckhard said it had emerged that five people were killed and 100 were injured in a mortar attack on the UN compound on Wednesday. He said there had been no further information about two UN military observers missing since Tuesday.
In the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar-es-Salaam, DRC President Joseph Kabila on Friday continued talks with representatives of the Bunia warring militias to try to secure a ceasefire, news agencies said. The talks began on Thursday.
The upsurge in fighting between Hema and Lendu militias in Bunia follows the withdrawal of about 6,000 Ugandan troops who had been occupying the town. On Monday, fighters from the Hema rebel group Union des patriotes congolais (UPC) took control of the town from Lendu fighters.
MONUC has confirmed that a "raft of atrocities" took place at the weekend, including massacres and arbitrary executions, which left "bodies lining many of Bunia's streets".
Themes: (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
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