ATTACKS AGAINST CIVILIANS CAUSE NEW DISPLACEMENTS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

NEW YORK, 7 June (OCHA) -- Random, vicious attacks against civilians have led to new displacements from at least three localities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in the past week, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported today.  In Sonsa, a particularly virulent rampage by Mayi-Mayi elements active in the area prompted the flight of some 100 individuals to the town of Manono.  During the attack, 15 females -- including 8 girls -- were raped and forced to flee naked, able to move only at night due to their lack of clothing.  Eleven of the village’s 30 houses were burnt, and whole neighbourhoods looted.  The displaced arrived in Manono on 31 May; the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has sent a team of human rights investigators.

In the same region, more than 1,600 individuals fled their homes in the villages of Kyungu and Nkumbu to seek shelter in Mpiana, another town in the Manono region, for fear of attack by Mayi-Mayi active in the area.  Although the group managed to bring some basic household goods with them, they no longer have any food.  Reports also indicate that four villages were burnt after the internally displaced persons left the area.

Elsewhere in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a 23 May attack on civilians in Nindja, South Kivu, led to the death of 19 civilians and prompted an estimated 6,000 individuals to flee towards the security of Ihembe, near Walungu.  Among the wounded were those who had had their limbs hacked off by machetes.  Up to 50 more villagers had been carried off by armed men; kidnapping of civilians for ransom remains common in the area.

The non-governmental organization, International Rescue Committee, which serves as the Rapid Response focal point for South Kivu, has sent a team to the area, and non-food items supplied by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as high-protein biscuits known as BP5, have been distributed to internally displaced persons in Ihembe.  Humanitarians have also travelled north to Kalonge to assess the condition of the displaced from Nindja who fled in that direction.

Farther north, Ituri’s latest internally displaced persons crisis is entering its sixth month.  The displaced persons remain concentrated mainly in six overcrowded camps in the areas of Djugu and Irumu, and it seems unlikely that they will be able to return home in the near future.  Should the security situation deteriorate further, the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to these camps could become problematic.  A suspension in aid could leave more than 100,000 individuals, mostly women and children, without water, health care and food.  It is also likely that a new outbreak of cholera would occur; a previous outbreak claimed nearly 50 lives and affected more than 1,600 people in April, before being brought under control in early May.

This most recent wave of displacements in Ituri began late in December 2004, due to fighting in the Nyamamba area.  By mid-February 2005, some 56,000 individuals were receiving humanitarian assistance, primarily at six concentration points.  Following the ambush and murder of nine MONUC peacekeepers at the end of February, aid was temporarily suspended to three of the camps.  During that period, 10 people were dying each day in the camps, most of them children.  Ongoing violence in Ituri throughout the six-month period had, by the end of May, forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHANY, tel.:  917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.:  41 22 917 2653, mobile:  41(0) 79 473 4570.

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