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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
DRC: Humanitarian action plan launched
NAIROBI, 13 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - The United Nations and the European Commission are seeking US $681 million to meet the needs of 30 million vulnerable people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday.
In a statement marking the launch of the DRC's 2006 Humanitarian Action Plan in Brussels, Belgium, OCHA described the scale of the crisis as immense, and said it had "in some way affected virtually all of the country's 60 million inhabitants".
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs an Egeland was quoted as saying each day more than 1,200 people in DRC die from the lingering effects of civil war: malnutrition, disease, and displacement.
"We must end this tyranny of silence," he said. "We can - we must - do more to alleviate such extreme suffering. Now is the time to act," he said.
On the occasion of the official launch of the DRC Action Plan, the UN and the EC have convened a ministerial conference, hosted by the Belgian government, to bring together the all of the actors who can help alleviate suffering in the Congo.
"Congo has enormous potential that can be developed and boosted," Louis Michel, the EU commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, said. "There are few places on earth where the gap between humanitarian needs and available resources is as large as in Congo, but there are also few places in the world where peace and stability can so dramatically reverse this situation."
OCHA reported that at least four million Congolese had died as a result of years of continuing conflict. It said the DRC had been called the most deadly humanitarian catastrophe in 60 years.
OCHA said more than 1.6 million remain displaced, 200,000 are newly displaced in Katanga and North Kivu [provinces], and just under 1.7 million of recent returnees only now are starting to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. It added that life expectancy had dropped by 10 years since the beginning of the war in 1997.
"In the troubled eastern provinces killings, abductions, and sexual violence continue. Humanitarian access in some areas remains a major challenge," OCHA said.
According to OCHA, the 2006 Action Plan is the result of intensive work of the entire humanitarian community in the DRC, including field-based donors, UN Agencies and the NGO community. It seeks to meet the needs for food security, health, reintegration, protection, HIV/AIDS, coordination, education, water and sanitation, shelter, mine action and gender. It includes more than 330 projects that cost $681 million.
OCHA said the plan presented a strategy that met both urgent life-saving needs and reduced vulnerability, and looked beyond a one-year time frame, presenting a select number of highly-focused targeted programmes that would help to accelerate recovery and poverty reduction in hard-hit areas in the country after the elections.
"We strongly believe the 2006 DRC Action Plan presents a clear and realistic plan to address the continuing humanitarian catastrophe in the DRC," Ross Mountain, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said.
Meanwhile, international NGO Oxfam said in a statement on Monday that donor governments "must rise to the challenge of meeting real needs" across the DRC, which is at a critical point of both humanitarian crisis and democratic transition.
"In the rush to support democratic elections donor governments must not forget the thousands of deaths weekly cause by the horrific conflict raging in the east of the country," Gordon Kihuguru, the DRC's country programme manager, said. "People will continue to pay with their lives until donor governments come up with vital funds for food, water and healthcare to reach the millions in need."
He added: "The democratic process is vital in the long-term but providing millions of people with enough food and water to survive each day and working to bring peace has to be the immediate priority as dead people cannot vote."
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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