Recognizing the Learning Attainments of Displaced and Refugee Students

Uninterrupted access to quality education is critical for children and youth displaced by natural and man-made disasters and is now increasingly recognized by humanitarian and development actors, including donors.

A critical challenge for education authorities and service providers is to ensure the recognition, validation and certification of their learning attainments. Learners need acceptable proof of their studies and results to continue their studies or to access labour opportunities. However, in situations of displacement, it may not be possible for students to sit the official examinations of either home or host system.

This study is one of the first critical, global analyses of certification issues for refugee and displaced students and is the result of a unique research partnership between IIEP-UNESCO, the University of Amsterdam, IRC and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It presents a broad conceptual framework in which to consider issues of certification, illustrated by in depth case studies from around the world.   

Thousands more displaced in DRC:UNHCR

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 24 March 2009, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Another 11,000 people have been uprooted in the latest Lords Resistance Army (LRA) attack around the village of Banda in north-eastern DRC in mid-March, bringing the total number of people displaced by the militia group’s repeated raids in the Haut Uele district of Oriental province to over 188,000 in the last six months.

Since September 2008, over 990 Congolese have been murdered by the LRA and 747 abducted, the vast majority of them children.

The displaced Congolese, whose homesteads were pillaged and burned by the LRA, now live with host families. Many of the internally displaced people (IDP) are scattered in Niangara, Bangadi, Ngilima, Mbengu, Ndedu and Dakwa in Haut-Uele district. An estimated 105,000 are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Between mid-December and mid -March, UNHCR has provided assistance to more than 15,000 IDPs in Dungu, Doruma, Mangilingili, Nadogoro, Nadamu, Ndedu Moke, Kaka and Ngilima. We have distributed blankets, sleeping mats, cooking utensils, soap and plastic sheeting to the most vulnerable IDPs.

Haut-Uele district is an extremely remote area and many of the displaced can only be reached by air. Insecurity and poor infrastructure have made it increasingly difficult to deliver assistance to large concentrations of IDPs in Doruma, Niangara, Ngilima and Faradje.

UNHCR is also providing protection and assistance to some 16,000 Congolese refugees who have crossed into Southern Sudan to escape the LRA attacks.

“Hungry people are desperate people”

(IRIN) – The recent upsurge in violence in Darfur could be linked to pressure on already stretched services after the expulsion or closure of 16 key aid agencies, sources said.

At least 26 people died in fighting between the Habaniya and Al-Falata ethnic groups in South Darfur on 14 March. Government officials said the fighting was sparked by cattle raiding.

Photo: Gabriel Galwak/IRIN

Disruptions in humanitarian aid may force Darfurians to move into Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal

The Sudanese Media Center reported that government forces had been deployed in the area and local leaders had been called to “discuss proposals for resolving the conflict”.

“We are increasingly concerned at the situation,” said one aid worker in Darfur, who requested anonymity. “There is a massive humanitarian gap left by the NGO expulsion. Hungry people are desperate people.”

Sudan expelled 13 international aid agencies and shut down three Sudanese NGOs shortly after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar el-Bashir on 4 March on war crimes charges.

Bashir denies all the charges.

Aid workers fear the crunch will come in a few weeks as supplies run low. At the same time, it is feared that waterborne infectious diseases, such as cholera, could increase in the coming rainy season. Many basic services, such as maintaining boreholes, were run by the expelled agencies.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has started a “one-off distribution of two months’ food rations to beneficiaries in areas formerly covered by the expelled NGOs”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

“This, however, is unsustainable in the long run due to limited capacity and the need for monitoring and accountability,” OCHA warned on 22 March.

Influx

The situation in some areas of Darfur, say aid workers, is deteriorating. Zam Zam camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in North Darfur, for example, faces an acute crisis if urgent measures are not taken, the US embassy in Khartoum warned in a statement.

The camp has received some 36,000 new arrivals fleeing fighting in South Darfur.

“There is a growing water shortage due to the demand created by recent IDP arrivals and the lack of available water resources at the camp,” an embassy spokesman said. “In addition, the influx of new IDPs has created a need for more land to accommodate the overflow.”

In the south, Western Bahr el Ghazal State is experiencing an influx of those displaced from neighbouring South Darfur, according to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

The Famine Early Warning System network (FEWS Net), in a March update, warned of the potential movement of 1.5 million displaced Darfurians into Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal, due to disruptions in humanitarian assistance. This, it added, would present a severe threat to food security in the two states.

“The most likely movements would be from the southern parts of Darfur into Northern Bahr el Ghazal,” it noted. “Though the number of potential IDPs is unclear, even small inflows could have a severe impact on food security in localised areas.”

Already, 250,000 people in Northern and Western Bahr el Gazal were already moderately food-insecure; peak food shortages typically occur between April and August.

According to FEWS Net, the impact of the influx on host populations in Western Bahr el Gazal’s Raga County might not be evident within the first few months but it could be devastating over a longer period because the area was sparsely populated.

A large IDP population could quickly exhaust existing resources, while a significant inflow could make Northern and Western Bahr el Gazal highly or extremely food-insecure.

Tensions

Aid workers fear increased tensions could further complicate the situation in Darfur. Earlier this month, a joint UN-African Union peacekeeper was killed and three wounded in separate attacks.

Three foreign staff of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF-Belgium) were also held hostage for three days. According to specialists, communities could turn against each other as resources previously provided by NGOs disappear.

Rashid Khalikov, OCHA New York director, told the UN Security Council on 20 March there was an “atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing all aid organisations”.

The absence of health workers to carry out immunisations, he warned, would affect the prevention of the spread of meningitis in Jebel Mara and Kalma refugee camps.

NGO expulsion to hit Darfur’s displaced

(IRIN) – The decision by Sudan to expel or close down 16 relief organisations may trigger a severe humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged western Darfur region, aid workers warned.

Halting their operations would leave 1.1 million people without food, 1.5 million without healthcare and at least one million without drinking water, according to the UN, which describes the groups as “integral” to the world’s biggest humanitarian operation.

“If the life-saving assistance these agencies were providing is not restored shortly, it will have immediate, lasting and profound impacts on the wellbeing of millions of Sudanese citizens,” the UN warned in a statement.

“It is not possible, in any reasonable timeframe, to replace the capacity and expertise these agencies have provided over an extended period of time.”

Khartoum expelled 13 international NGOs and closed three Sudanese relief organizations after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar el-Bashir on war crimes charges on 4 March.

Bashir denies all the charges. Speaking at a rally in the North Darfur state capital El-Fasher on 8 March, he promised Sudan would cover the work of the expelled agencies.

“We will fill the gap left by the NGOs,” he said, without going into detail.

The Sudan Media Centre, a website close to government officials, said Khartoum was preparing an “alternative plan” to fill the gap, collaborating instead with “national and friendly foreign” NGOs.

“What had been provided by those organisations to people in Darfur could simply be provided by national organisations,” government spokesman Kamal Ibaid was quoted as saying.

So far, the National Health Corporation has said it will send 100 medics and 100T of medicines to camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur “to bridge any medical gap there”.

Filling the void

Mahdi Qutbi, a senior member of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), said more than 200 Sudanese organisations would fill the void, with some taking over the offices of expelled agencies, according to a report on the Sudan Tribune website.

He listed several Sudanese or Islamic relief agencies, including the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, that would now provide food, healthcare and water, the report added.

Analysts, however, warned Sudan would find it hard to bridge the gap in an aid operation costing more than US$2 billion annually.

In El-Fasher, Bashir threatened other NGOs, diplomats and even peacekeepers with expulsion if they did not follow Sudan’s laws.

“The situation is far worse than we imagined,” said one international aid worker, requesting anonymity. “We feared restrictions … but not this – not that all the biggest [agencies] should go at once.”

“Morale is very low: we suddenly we have lost dozens of colleagues overnight – people who were both friends and people we relied on in our work too,” said another. “More than that, however, many of the communities they served have lost their one focus of hope.”

IDPs in the sprawling Kalma camp in South Darfur expressed similar fears. “Without food or good water, what have we to stay in the camp for?” asked one resident in the camp of 89,000 people.

Oxfam GB, which provided potable water for the camp, and Médecins sans Frontières, which provided healthcare, were among those asked to leave.

A meningitis outbreak was reported in Kalma camp last week. “Without partners, the Ministry of Health and WHO [World Health Organization] will be hard-pressed to deliver the necessary vaccinations and treatment to arrest the spread of this highly contagious disease,” warned Catherine Bragg, UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

Rebel fears

“Tension and anxiety in IDP camps could erupt if life-sustaining services are indeed cut off,” added Bragg. “Rebel movements, reacting to the impact on the population, could also take hostile action.”

Last month, the government signed a deal with Darfur’s strongest rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. Since the warrant, the rebels have reneged on the deal.

Several factions from the splintered rebel Sudan Liberation Army have also criticised the expulsion of aid agencies.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was deeply concerned that aid restrictions could cause new movements of people, putting extra pressure on areas already stretched to their limit.

“With some 4.7 million Sudanese – including 2.7 million internally displaced – already receiving assistance in Darfur, we are very concerned over the prospect of new population movements in the region should the fragile aid lifeline inside Sudan be disrupted,” it said.

Civilians returning home amid growing violence

(IRIN) – Civilians are slowly returning to their homes in the North Kivu region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite continuing violence and displacement due to militia activities, sources said.

“While we are seeing tentative returns in some areas, we are also seeing new displacement due to ongoing rape, killings and looting,” Bob Kitchen, country director for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said in Goma.

The IRC said it had recently registered more than 14,000 returnees from Uganda in Ishasha and Nyakakoma towns. Many of the returnees, however, found their homes looted and empty, spokeswoman Emily Meehan said.

The returnees were also experiencing congestion in camps and among relatives who had temporarily housed them. “One household assisted by the IRC had 11 people living in a 3 sqm room,” Meehan added.

Photo: Nicholai Lidow/IRIN

Women walk along the high mountain passes of Masisi territory, North Kivu (file photo): Civilians are slowly returning to their homes despite rebel FDLR militia retaking former positions in places like Kalembe in Masis

A 35-day operation by the DRC and Rwandan armies to dislodge Hutu militias in the area ended on 25 February, with the Rwandan troops returning home.

“The Hutu Rwandan groups have not been completely destroyed but their preparedness has been significantly reduced,” joint operations commander Lt Gen John Numbi said. The DRC army, he added, was continuing to pursue the militias.

At least one million people are estimated to have fled their homes in North Kivu as violence, mainly perpetrated by the Forces démocratique pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), escalated in 2008.

“We constantly monitor the movement of fleeing civilians in North Kivu, in order to respond to their unfolding needs,” Kitchen said. “Civilians in [the] province continue to endure chaos, displacement and suffering.”

Tens of thousands of those uprooted from their homes were living without adequate food, shelter, water or sanitation.

Officials at the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) said the FDLR had regained control of some villages in the region.

“The FDLR have regrouped in Nyabiondo, Kibua and Kashebere, reoccupying some of their former positions like Kalembe in Masisi territory as some towns in Walikale and Lubero,” said MONUC’s spokesman, John Paul Dietrich. Kalembe is 12km north of Nyabiondo in Masisi.

The militias have recently launched attacks against DRC government positions. “On the morning of 2 March, the FARDC [DRC national army] were attacked in Kagheri, 30km south of Lubero,” Dietrich said.

They have also continued to commit atrocities against civilians, especially in Pinga area. A recent assessment mission from the IRC in Rutshuru territory found villages, homes and schools pillaged.

“As is the case throughout North Kivu, different armed groups have controlled the area at various points in the past four months,” Meehan said. “Sporadic eruptions of violence have spurred waves of displacement.”

Thousands Somalis return to Mogadishu despite renewed fighting

UNHCR – More than 40,000 internally displaced people have returned to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in the last six weeks despite heavy fighting that has caused many civilian casualties.

The majority of the returnees are from Hiraan, Mudug, Galgaduud and Lower and Middle Shabelle in Somalia’s southern and central regions, which are experiencing a combination of renewed conflict and severe drought, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva.

Many IDPs are returning as complete families but others are heads of households who have left their relatives behind in settlements for the internally displaced while they check the conditions of their properties.

They are returning to Hodan, Wardhiigleey, Yaaqshiid and Heliwaa neighbourhoods in north Mogadishu that were devastated by two years of war and left virtually empty. “The displaced have lost everything and are returning to ruined homes and livelihoods,” Redmond said.

The latest returns are taking place at time when Mogadishu is experiencing some of the heaviest fighting in recent months, resulting in many civilian causalities and renewed displacement.

“We are in the process of assessing the scale and magnitude of the latest displacement,” Redmond said. “UNHCR is not encouraging returns to Mogadishu at this juncture, as the security situation is volatile and the conditions are certainly not conducive,” he added.

Access to basic services in Mogadishu is limited, with very few international agencies present on the ground because of insecurity. Nevertheless, the UN refugee agency is preparing to help returnees or those who wish to return in the near future, in the hope that the security situation will improve.

The total number of Somalis displaced within their own country is a staggering 1.3 million. Last year alone, some 100,000 Somalis sought refuge in the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen. The number of Somali refugees in asylum countries now stands at 438,000.

UN team reaches towns attacked by LRA

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – – at the press briefing, on 6 January 2009, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

A UNHCR team and other UN colleagues carried out a mission over the weekend to the towns of Tadu and Faradje in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Oriental Province.The area has been the scene of bloody attacks over the past few weeks by the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Faradje, some 100 kms west of the border between the DRC, Sudan and Uganda, was attacked on 25-26 December. Another village, Nagero, 24 kms north-west of Faradje, came under attack on Saturday.

According to initial estimates, up to 500 Congolese civilians were killed in various attacks in the region, which followed the launch of a joint operation of Congolese, Sudanese and Ugandan armed forces against the LRA on 14 December. The UN estimates more than 50,000 people have been displaced since mid-December, which is in addition to the 50,000 displaced by an earlier escalation of violence between September and November last year.

This morning, we received a sketchy report of another attack yesterday on the village of Napopo in which up to eight people were killed and houses set ablaze. An unknown number of people were reportedly kidnapped. Reports say the attack would have generated even more displacement in the region.

The LRA’s Christmas attack on Faradje and its surroundings left more than 70 dead and an estimated 37,000 displaced. Most of them are still hiding in the bush. Some of the displaced moved towards Tadu, a town 37 kms south of Faradje where more than a 1,000 displaced people have already been registered, mostly women and children.

According to the displaced from Faradje and the local NGOs, 225 people, including 160 children, have been kidnapped by the LRA and more than 80 women raped. In the subsequent attack on Nagero this weekend, at least eight people were killed and another 3,500 displaced. Since Sunday, they have been seeking shelter in Faradje. The mission reported that people in the district are shocked and traumatized by the brutality of the attacks. Our mission found Faradje pillaged and destroyed by fire. More than 800 houses, three schools, government buildings and medical facilities were burned. Most of Faradje’s households lost their annual harvest in the fire.

Our team met with local NGOs and the registration of the newly displaced population is presently ongoing in Tadu, Faradje and the neighbouring villages. The population is in dire need of food, shelter, medicines, clothes and other aid items. However, the area remains highly volatile and insecurity is a key obstacle for access by us and other agencies. We are working with the local authorities and other agencies on finding ways of managing assistance in these inaccessible areas.

The land is fertile yet food is scarce

(IRIN) – Southern Kordofan state used to produce surplus food and cash crops, but poor infrastructure, limited access to markets, conflict and landmines have left large numbers of residents without enough to eat or sell.

Following the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the North-South civil war, displaced civilians flocked back to the state in huge numbers.

Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN

Cattle become a source of conflict during the dry season in

Now, according to locals, they face food insecurity.

“Most of the returnees rely on traditional farming methods which do not yield much,” said Adam Hawaja, a resident. “Even if we produce a lot of food, we have nowhere to take it.”

During the rainy season, villages barely 40km from Kadugli, the state capital, are cut off for months.According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 39 percent of Southern Kordofan’s population is food insecure – despite most of the land being fertile.

“The use of poor seeds, lack of technology as well as poor land preparation results in reduced yields,” said Sungval Tunsiri, head of the WFP Kadugli sub-office. “The irrigation system is also not well-developed.”

Due to the poor infrastructure, WFP pre-positions food aid three months in advance for distribution by local partners in areas that are inaccessible for months each year.
Road transport is, however, difficult even during the dry season, while some needy areas are difficult to reach due to conflicts between local communities.

“There is a need for technological support and good seeds,” Tunsiri said. “[And] for more joint effort between the government and UN and other aid agencies as well as capacity building for the ministry of agriculture.”

The protracted implementation of the CPA coupled with regional disparities had also contributed to the fragile state of food security, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

In addition, last year Southern Kordofan experienced below-average rains after flooding in 2007 that destroyed a lot of crops.

The toll of conflict

Conflict, which often peaks during the dry season when the herds migrate, was also a factor. “In areas near Lagawa [west of the state], people flee and cannot work on their land during [inter-communal] conflict between farmers and pastoralists.”

Emily Henderson, head of project for the NGO German Agro Action in Southern Kordofan and Unity States, said internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) subsistence mechanisms had been weakened by conflict and migration. It was also more difficult for them to access land in host communities.

A new state created by the CPA, Southern Kordofan lies between North and South, a zone of ethnic interaction between Arab (mainly Misseriya and Hawazma) and indigenous African (mainly Nuba) communities.

In a recent report, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that the CPA was at risk in Southern Kordofan. Many of the same ingredients that produced the Darfur conflict existed, it said.

“Inadequate implementation of the CPA’s special protocol relating to the region has led to insecurity and growing dissatisfaction,” the ICG stated in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan Problem: The Next Darfur?.

“There has been some limited recent progress, but much more is urgently needed,” it added. Ethnic and communal reconciliation to foster peaceful coexistence was a daunting but essential task. “More is at stake than the prevention of a local conflict.”

Landmines

According to the UN Mine Action Office (UNMAO), Southern Kordofan is one of 19 of 25 states in Sudan at risk of landmines or explosive remnants of war.

“The mines, which litter the countryside, pose a danger to the community that depends on agriculture and livestock,” said Suleiman Nyamwaya, operations officer UNMAO Kadugli.

The worst-affected areas in the state include Kauda, the Western Jebels in Dilling and the southeast, including the locality of Kadugli, where the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement used to operate.

A Landmine Impact Survey is due to be completed in January 2009.

“The mines are not many but since the war was not conventional, the contaminated areas were neither marked nor recorded properly to facilitate future clearance operations,” said Nyamwaya.

“When we arrived, we could not find vital records necessary for the planning of our demining operations and a lot of effort was spent in identifying the areas and sources of information.”

As of 30 November, over 43 million sqm of land had been cleared across Sudan, of which 11.7 million sqm was in Southern Kordofan. UNMAO and partners are also clearing roads because the fear of mined roads has impeded delivery of humanitarian aid and hindered socio-economic development.

“It is difficult knowing where the mines were laid – it is like looking for a snake in the dark in a 10-roomed house,” Nyamwaya added. “The redeployment of military forces after the signing of the CPA compounded the problem as most of the engineers responsible for laying the mines were out of our reach.”

Changing lifestyles

One returnee, Halima Kurikwa, said: “Here there is no land to cultivate but at least my children can go to school.”

A mother of four, Kurikwa told IRIN: “Before, I wanted to be sure that everything in El Ehamais [her home village in the outskirts of Kadugli] was safe. Now I have decided not to return to my farm since my husband has found a job in the town as a watchman.”

Concerns at Kibati camp as transfers continue

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 12 December 2008, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

We remain extremely concerned for the safety of the displaced Congolese population in Kibati as the civilian character of these two UNHCR-run camps north of Goma is continually violated.

In another incident early this morning, two young girls were shot. A 5-year-old died and a 7-year-old girl is fighting for her life in a local hospital. Our staff also reported this morning that another woman was raped by armed men in the vicinity of Kibati camp yesterday evening.

We are carrying out voluntary transfers of displaced Congolese civilians from the Kibati camps – and away from the confrontation line – to a new camp at Mugunga III, just west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. There are some 65,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) potentially at risk in Kibati as warring parties maintain their positions close to the camps. Mugunga III is the fifth UNHCR-run site west of Goma (other camps are Mugunga I and II, Bulengo and Buhimba).

The decision on voluntary relocation of IDPs temporarily sheltered at Kibati was reached by a consensus between the government and aid agencies as the situation there remains precarious and the site basically became a frontline between the Congolese army and rebel forces.

We have so far moved 616 families, or 1,780 IDPs, to sites in the Mugunga area. The number of persons at Kibati willing to relocate to the new Mugunga III site appears to be increasing as the first two convoys scheduled for this morning will take over 400 displaced persons. Most of the IDPs at Kibati originate from villages north of Goma and the former makeshift Kibumba site which used to shelter some 25,000 people. With the relative calm and despite the risks, many IDPs want to stay as close as possible to their areas of origin.

On arrival at Mugunga III, the families are handed their luggage, plastic sheeting, sticks for constructing huts and are allocated a plot on which to erect their shelters. Displaced families that are unable to finish constructing their huts spend their first night in communal shelters where they are assisted with firewood for cooking meals.

The transfers so far have taken families in urgent need of shelter assistance who are presently accommodated in Kibati in congested portable warehouses. There are six of these warehouses in Kibati – each accommodating at least 1,500 persons.

Transfers to Mugunga III follow completion of some of the critical works at the site, which was enlarged from 65 to 105 hectares and can now accommodate some 60,000 people. The terrain – hardened lava rock – presents a major logistical challenge in setting up the site.

Some 15 communal plastic sheds have been completed, each designed to take up to 25 families, or 100 persons, while UNHCR is making available another two portable warehousing structures that can accommodate 200 families each or a thousand persons. Two 24-hour operational water reservoirs have been completed to meet the water needs for initial 6,000 persons at the site. Construction of the water system is continuing to increase capacity for subsequent populations. A total of 250 latrines have also been completed, while 750 more will have been completed by the end of this week. A health centre for treating the ill and a police post for the security of the displaced and property on the site have been set up.

Meanwhile, we continue to bring in additional aid for the displaced population of North Kivu province. Some 2,500 kitchen sets, 23,100 blankets and 1,364 rolls of plastic sheeting arrived from the UNHCR emergency stockpile in Ngara, Tanzania, this week.

Fighting in North Kivu intensified at the end of 2006. By January 2008, it had brought the total number of IDPs in the region to more than 800,000. Since the fighting resumed in August, some 250,000 civilians have fled, many of them already displaced.

Agencies cannot reach IDPs trapped by fighting

Tens of thousands of civilians forced from their homes by fresh fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are still beyond the reach of international aid, two weeks after the launch of a rebel offensive.

Swathes of countryside previously safe for humanitarian operations are now under the control of renegade general, Laurent Nkunda, head of the rebel Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP). Despite his promises to open relief corridors for aid convoys, few agencies have judged it safe enough to truck widespread help into the worst-affected areas.

This has left tens of thousands of people trapped where they fled with little food, shelter or medical help. It is still too early to calculate how many need assistance.

“We are still too afraid to go to the fields to find food but now the small amounts which were on sale in the market are running out and are very expensive,” Louis Kakule, a 52-year-old farmer, told IRIN by telephone from Kiwanja.

The town lies in the heart of the territory captured by the CNDP from retreating government soldiers, 85km north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and headquarters of the international aid operation for eastern Congo.

“Since the rebels came, we have seen no help from outsiders and now the situation is becoming very bad,” he said.

Kakule, his wife and nine children, fled to a UN military outpost as rebels battled Mai Mai militia last week. However, they have not received any outside assistance.

“We are working as hard as we can to get immediate help to all of the people who need it,” said Marcus Prior, spokesman in Goma for the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

“But we have to be very careful about how we move food about, for any number of reasons, not least of which is the number of armed groups who might choose to target a slow-moving convoy of food. We also do not yet have a clear picture of who has gone where after the latest surge in fighting.”

Simply “dumping food off the back of a truck” was not an option, Prior added, because it could cause even greater problems as desperate people stampede for rations and the most vulnerable – women, children and the sick – end up with the least.

There have been well-organised and substantial hand-outs in established camps around Goma and at Kibati, a village 11km north of the city, which was swamped with 65,000 people who fled the advance of Nkunda’s forces southwards.

On 10 November, WFP completed the distribution of 10 days’ worth of food rations to 135,000 people in six camps close to Goma. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spent four days handing out beans, maize, oil and salt to a further 65,000 around Kibati.

However, the challenge for aid workers attempting to respond to the crisis was laid bare as sustained gun and mortar clashes broke out on 7 November at the frontline less than 2km north of where thousands of displaced had settled and food was being distributed. As Congo’s army, the FARDC, fought Nkunda’s CNDP, almost half of Kibati’s newly arrived population fled again, south into Goma.

“There is nowhere we can feel safe,” said Danzira Maniriho, 20, as she lifted her six-month-old son Samuel on to her back and set off south as the fighting flared.

“I have run from Rugare to Kibumba, then from Kibumba to Kibati, then to Goma and back here again, and now I am going back to Goma. All the time, until today, we have had no food, only bananas that we have stolen from the fields,” she told IRIN.

Armed escort controversy

The need for food deliveries and distributions to be protected from fighting has prompted calls for aid convoys to drive under armed escort, provided by the UN Mission in Congo, MONUC. But such proposals were questioned by Médecins Sans Frontières. “Armed aid convoys may aim to improve access for humanitarian aid groups, but they actually risk reducing access to the populations,” said Anne Taylor, MSF head of mission in Goma.

“There is a risk of aid being manipulated by political or military actors and of humanitarian actors being seen as parties to the conflict.”

WFP registration of those who most need assistance was due to be carried out on 12 November around Rutshuru district and food deliveries were expected by the end of the week, Prior said. Emergency aid in seven aircraft sent by Britain and the US arrived in Goma by Wednesday, carrying plastic sheeting, buckets and blankets.

“These supplies will help contain the spread of cholera and diarrhoea, both extremely contagious diseases on the rise in nearly all internally displaced person settlements in North Kivu,” said Pierrette Vu Thi, Congo representative for the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF. – IRIN

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