Major relief operation in DRC
2008-07-29 19:18
Geneva - Red Cross officials announced on Tuesday they had launched a major relief operation for 40 000 civilians forced to flee the violence in an eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Local people forced from their homes in Nord-Kivu into other parts of the region, or over the border into Uganda, now faced food shortages because of a poor harvest, said the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"Food supplies are rapidly dwindling and the number of malnourished children admitted to special feeding centres has more than doubled in three months," said Morena Bassan, a senior ICRC worker in Nord-Kivu.
Red Cross and government workers would distribute more than 2 000 tonnes of maize, beans, oil and salt to tide people over until the next harvest, said the statement.
They would also hand out farming tools and seeds to help the communities become self-sufficient in food.
Clashes
The operation, which will target the Rutshuru district of Nord-Kivu, is the largest the ICRC has undertaken in the country since 2006.
Since August 2007, Nord-Kivu has been the site of clashes between the army and insurgents allied to renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda who claims to be protecting Congolese ethnic Tutsis.
Many civilians who fled east into Uganda or south to the regional capital Goma began returning to their villages at the beginning of this year, said the ICRC.
But a report from Human Rights Watch last week said that both rebels and government troops were continuing to target the local civilians six months after a peace accord signed between most of the warring parties.
Last week MONUC, the UN mission in DRC, also appealed to all combatants to stop targeting civilians in the east of the country.