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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Bunia still "tense", UN says

NAIROBI, 22 May 2003 (IRIN) - The town of Bunia, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remains "tense" amidst concern for the safety of internally displaced people in camps, the UN said on Wednesday.

"There have been reports of militias attempting to infiltrate sites where internally displaced persons [IDPs] are currently located," Fred Eckhard, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said in New York.

As a result, Eckhard said, the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) was maintaining tighter surveillance at the campsites. He also described the humanitarian situation in Bunia as "critical", with 4,000 people camped at the MONUC base and another 9,000 at the tiny airport, which is under UN control. Eckhard said security constraints and landmines outside Bunia were seriously impeding humanitarian access to people in need.

The international NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported it was setting up a surgical theatre in a former Bunia supermarket. MSF said that it already had a physician, a nurse, an anaesthetist and a surgeon already working at another health facility in the centre of town.

MSF said it was difficult to work in Bunia's hospital now because the security of patients, national and international staff was not guaranteed. MSF had referred five patients from the hospital to the health facility in the centre of Bunia, where patients underwent surgery for machete and gunshot wounds.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday it was mobilising a protection specialist to help set up a transit centre to reunite lost children with their families. It said many children had lost their parents either to the fighting or in the general chaos.

UNICEF, and the Italian medical NGO COOPI, has established two emergency therapeutic feeding centres in Bunia to help malnourished children who were "all over the place in the camps and in the town".

Reports continued on Wednesday of people still fleeing Bunia and surrounding areas. Action by Churches Together (ACT) - a global alliance of churches and relief agencies operating in 50 countries - reported that 22,515 IDPs had been registered in Beni territory, south of Bunia. The number included 10,132 children, 7,494 women and 4,434 men mainly from Bunia, Mongbwalu and Drodro - in Ituri District.

ACT reported that the people were scattered between Beni and Eringeti, mainly in Kokola, Maimoja, Oicha, Mbau, Mavivi, Beni town and Eringeti. It said many were traumatised and were suffering from fatigue, swollen feet and dehydration.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported that at least 20,000 people, mainly from the Hema and Alur communities, had been registered since the beginning of May by authorities in villages in the two western Ugandan districts of Nebbi and Bundibugyo.

The agency reported on Wednesday that more were expected to arrive in the coming days, trailing the last Ugandan troops who completed their withdrawal from Bunia on Tuesday.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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