Fighting for peace in DRC’s Kivu region

(IRIN) – A year ago, Goma town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was temporarily home to tens of thousands displaced by fighting between government forces and various armed groups. Now, many have returned to their villages.

“It does not mean peace has come to Kivu region,” a military observer in Goma, capital of North Kivu Province, said. “Some villagers are relatively safer, but the general situation is still very volatile.”

Goma hosted about 140,000 displaced people (IDPs) in camps at the height of violence in North Kivu in 2008 and 2009, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. In early 2009, some started voluntarily leaving the camps and now 77,000 have left.

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Militias ausing increased havoc in Northeast DRC

IRIN – Eight months after the end of joint military operations by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, many parts of Orientale Province, in northeastern DRC, are still in turmoil, says the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Attacks on civilians by Ugandan rebels and local militias have left 340,000 people displaced, and 30,000 refugees have fled to Sudan.

“Following attacks by the LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army] in December, there has been a 9 percent rise in the number of displaced in Haut Uélé [near the border with Sudan], and an 11 percent increase in Bas Uélé [near the border with the Central African Republic] compared to earlier months,” said Jean Charles Dupin, head of OCHA in Orientale Province.

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Children Kept at Home Amid Security fears in DRC

IRIN – Schools in Dongo, Equateur Province, in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the scene of inter-ethnic clashes from October to December 2009, are still closed because parents are worried about security, despite a call for their reopening by the provincial government.

“We asked if the schools could be reopened, but parents are reluctant as long as the militia are still at large,” said provincial education minister Richard Baengeto.

“Some parents and their children are still in the forest and refusing to go back to their villages, fearing for their safety,” Baengeto told IRIN.

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Security Beefed up for North Kivu IDPs

IRIN – Internally displaced people (IDPs) are still being abducted by armed groups for forced labour in several territories in North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) even as authorities beef up security in IDP camps, officials said.

“Men often spend the day away from the [IDP] sites for fear of being abducted, but most abductions occur during the night,” states a 5 February update issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Rutshuru Territory, which has about 129,000 IDPs, is among the most affected.

In southern Walikale Territory, Rwandan Hutu Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) militia on 28 January attacked civilians in the village of Isuka and abducted seven people, who have yet to be released, to transport looted goods, added OCHA.

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DRC: IDPs Hiding in North Kivu Forests

IRIN – Insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has displaced thousands of civilians, forcing many to hide in forests or seek shelter with other families, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“While those who have reached safety in camps have access to food and non-food assistance, as well as medical help, the majority that are still in the forest or [living] with host families are not enjoying similar support,” David Nthengwe, UNHCR spokesman in the provincial capital Goma, said.

Since December, 15,508 newly displaced people have been registered at dozens of camps, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 47 UNHCR-run sites in the region to 116,000.

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Concern for Refugees in DRC and Congo-Brazzaville

IRIN – John Kanilamba sits under the porch of a half-finished house on the outskirts of Dongou – his home, despite its lack of doors and windows - since early November. His four children play idly at his feet, all refugees from inter-communal clashes in Equateur province in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“We were all caught in violent fighting; no one was safe,” the 39-year-old said, recounting the harrowing journey along roads littered with corpses, across the Ubangi river, to this town some 850km north of Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo.

“Friends offered me a ride in their canoe across the river; I don’t even know how to paddle,” Kanilamba said. “I can’t see myself going back, even if the [Kinshasa] authorities say it is safe.”

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Annuarite Tagenge: “I Spent a Year Fleeing the LRA”

IRIN – Annuarite Tagenge, 17, arrived in Bunia, the main town in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) region of Ituri on 8 January after spending almost a year walking through the forest to reach the town to search for her siblings.

Tagenge and her family fled the territory of Dungu in the northeast in December 2008, after attacks by Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and a consequent joint Congolese and Ugandan government army offensive to oust the rebels. The LRA killed at least 865 civilians and abducted more than 160 children in the region over the period, according to human rights organizations.

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DRC Refugees not Ready to Return

IRIN – Assurances from authorities in Kinshasa that peace had been restored to their home areas in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo carry little weight with thousands of refugees across the Ubangi River in the Central African Republic (CAR): they are in no hurry to return home.

“We fled because we had seen soldiers wounded, houses burned, women raped,” says Charles Banganya, a refugee waiting for a World Food Programme (WFP) aid distribution in Zinga. “We have been through all this before in earlier wars and we had no intention of living through the same experience. You do not wait for death. A wise man can tell the danger from afar. That is why we are in exile now.”

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