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Congo-Kinshasa: Goma - Monuc Launches Urgent Call to Armed Groups to Surrender And Enter Brassage
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United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
26 November 2007
Posted to the web 26 November 2007
Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg
Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and UN humanitarian coordinator in the DRC, Mr. Ross Mountain visited North Kivu on 24-25 November 2007, to review the security and humanitarian situation in the province. During the visit, Mr. Mountain had various discussions with provincial authorities, MONUC, UN agencies and the various humanitarian actors working in the province. He also visited the displaced persons camps of Mugunga I and Buhimba, near Goma on the Sake road.
During his visit, Mr. Mountain was pleased with the important agreement concluded recently between the Congolese and Rwandan governments in Nairobi, saying it was an "important step ahead towards peace in the area."
"This agreement does not aim - as some seem to have understood it - at only the FDLR - but at all the negative forces in eastern Congo, including the dissidents of ex General Laurent Nkunda," he added.
"Certainly, in accordance with the Nairobi agreement, the planning of military operations is in hand. But we continue to hope that before their implementation, the armed groups will understand the immense suffering which would be inflicted on their communities and all the population if they persist in their refusal to surrender, and as regards the Congolese armed groups, that they join the brassage process," he explained.
On Sunday 25 November, Mr. Mountain visited the displaced persons camps of Mugunga I and Buhimba. The camps currently accomodate some 45,000 displaced, the majority of which fled their homes following the engagements between the DRC army and Laurent Nkunda's rebels in Sake and its environs at the beginning of September 2007.
During the visit, Mr. Mountain observed that many civilians who had been obliged to flee the camps of Mugunga during the engagements between the FARDC and the forces of Laurent Nkunda, on November 13 last, near this site, had been able in full security to return to the camps.
The humanitarian community redoubled its efforts to stabilize the situation in the camps, which had been partly plundered following these confrontations. Mr. Mountain also greeted the efforts made by the Congolese authorities, the international humanitarian actors and their Congolese partners as well as MONUC in order to standardise the situation in the camps, and to ensure the protection of the displaced.
In addition, Mr. Mountain thanked the FARDC for having answered the urgent call launched by the humanitarians, the United Nations and other actors to move large military equipment which was located near Mugunga camp.
"I launch a call to everyone, as well as governmental forces and other involved forces so that they abstain from any actions that would put the civilian population in danger. Such acts are contrary to International Humanitarian law," Mr. Mountain explained.
Evoking the general humanitarian situation in the province, with some 400,000 newly displaced in North Kivu since December 2006, Mr. Mountain stressed that many displaced in the province continued to live under extremely precarious conditions, and, contrary to the camps of Mugunga and Buhimba, did not always profit from assistance.
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"With the Congolese authorities and our other partners of United Nations system and the governmental organizations, we will do all we can to try to address the needs of these people," Mr. Mountain said.
"Everyone must be conscious that if clashes intensify - and there already has been too much - civilians, in particular women and children, will be once more the main victims," he added.
"Our priority, today, is to seek ways and means of stabilizing this province durably, in order to allow these people, who have suffered so much, to return home and finally be able to profit from the riches of their country," he concluded.
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| Copyright © 2007 United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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