Cholera threatens DRC refugees
2008-11-09 18:25
Kibati - Doctors struggled on Sunday to contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling refugee camp just outside the Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, amid fears that renewed fighting could scatter infected patients and launch an epidemic.
At the Kibati camp and in Goma, thousands packed church services on Sunday to pray for peace after rebels and pro-government militiamen executed civilians in two waves of terror that the top UN envoy to Congo has called war crimes.
The killings highlighted the inability of undermanned UN peacekeepers to protect civilians or halt a 10-week-old rebel offensive that has convulsed eastern Congo and forced more than 250 000 people from their homes.
'Really dangerous' outbreak
About 50 000 people are crowded at Kibati, some taken into log cabins by villagers, others living in tents or hastily built beehive-shaped huts.
Thousands who sleep out in the open huddled under pieces of plastic sheeting on Sunday as curtains of rain pounded down.
Doctors Without Borders said it treated 13 new cases of cholera in Kibati on Sunday and have seen 45 cases since Friday.
The agency's Dr Rafaela Gentilini said shortages of water and latrines were making the outbreak "really dangerous".
In a tented clinic, nurses put patients on IV drips. With treatment, patients can recover from cholera quickly.
But Gentilini said they were transporting seriously ill patients to Goma Hospital each night because fighting has left them unable to treat people at the camp at night.
Dozens of people have died of cholera in recent weeks elsewhere in eastern Congo.
Doctors also fear an epidemic north of Goma behind rebel lines, where access has been limited by fighting and rebels have driven tens of thousands of people from camps where outbreaks had been contained.
Infected patients can spread the contagious disease, caused by unsanitary conditions, just with a handshake.
Tens of thousands of refugees already have fled from Kibati twice in the past 11 days, trying to avoid fighting between Congo's army and rebels led by a renegade general.
Catch 22
At Kibati's Roman Catholic Church, where candles burned in supplication, people prayed that a fragile cease-fire between rebels and government forces would hold.
Down the road, both sides faced off just 800 meters apart, but there was no fighting.
UN officials, meanwhile, say they are investigating alleged war crimes in the last few days at Kiwanja, 80km north of Goma.
They say residents first were terrorised by Mai Mai militia who killed people accused of supporting the rebels - then the rebels won control and killed those they claimed had supported the militia.
The rebels also looted and burned homes and a hotel, witnesses said.
Many victims were killed execution-style, with bullets to the head, residents told The Associated Press.
Some residents said the rebels dressed the dead, most of them young men, in military uniforms.
UN investigators said at least 26 people were killed. But New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was trying to confirm reports of more than 50 dead, and blamed both sides for atrocities.
- AP