Aid work suspended in DRC

2005-03-01 21:43

Kinshasa - Aid agencies assisting about 54 000 displaced people in the northern part of Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri region suspended operations on Monday due to poor security conditions, the United Nations said.

The suspension, announced by the UN's office for the co-ordination of humanitarian aid (OCHA), follows the killing last week of nine UN peacekeepers by militia in Ituri where about 70 000 people have fled their homes due to new fighting.

"The deteriorating security situation in and around Kakwa, Tche and Gina no longer allows the distribution of food items or vital medical and water interventions for the (internally displaced people)," OCHA said.

Aid agencies no longer have access to three of six sites housing displaced people who have been forced from their homes by a surge in fighting in the region that began in mid-December, it said.

"OCHA is extremely concerned for the plight of the people in the camps", said Modibo Traore, the head of OCHA's office in the Ituri district seat of Bunia.

"The survival of these vulnerable people in terms of food, clean water and medical care depends entirely on continued humanitarian interventions by aid workers," he added.

- AFP