Attacks from two rebel groups continue
to disrupt and delay humanitarian aid operations in the DRC. In
North Kivu Province, about 160 thousand people have been displaced since
January following attacks by the Hutu-based FDLR rebels. And in Orientale
Province in the northeast, attacks by Ugandan LRA rebels have displaced tens of
thousands.
World Food Program Jim
Farrell, in Goma, describes the situation in
North Kivu, saying, "The
Hutu militia – that's the FDLR, the people who've been entrenched here ever
since the 1994 Rwandan genocide -- have been beaten further back into the bush.
However, in retaliation from the push that they got from combined Rwandan and
Congolese troops, they've been raiding local villages, killing, looting and
creating a new surge of internally displaced people (IDPs)…so that WFP and the
other agencies have been sending evaluation teams up through there, figuring
out just how bad this new IDP situation is."
However,
the region is very isolated and has very poor roads, making it difficult to
travel and transport emergency supplies.
There
is some good news to report on North Kivu Province. North of Goma, up through
the Rutshuru and Lubero Districts, Farrell says, "The CNDP (rebel) militia
basically laid down their arms and offered to either collaborate with the
Congolese army or merge with the Congolese army, or a lot of the soldiers…are simply
being disarmed. So there's an increased amount of security up in those areas."
As
a result, more displaced Congolese are returning to their towns and villages in
those areas from Goma.
"It's
a challenge for the various aid agencies, including the WFP, because these
people are returning to devastated areas. They will be needing some of the
necessities of life: cooking pots, plastic sheeting for roofing,
mattresses…tools to till their fields…seeds. And until their first crops come
in, they are going to be needing food," he says.
As for northeastern DRC, the scene of
LRA attacks, Farrell says, "It still remains really pathetic. Raids on
scattered villages are continuing, a new village seemingly every second day or
repeat villages. However, several days ago, we did have a food convoy that
arrived up in the border area of Congo and Sudan. That was a food convoy that
had to start from Kampala, Uganda, go through the south fringe of Sudan and
then into that border area, because that border area is unreachable from the
southern regions. So, the food is starting to go in, but…it's going to be a
massive relief effort stretched over many months."