Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
7 July 2009
Kivu — The Catholic aid agency is appealing for USD12 million to provide for the basic needs for 400,000 people who have been driven from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"Protection from attack, rape, and looting is the most urgent need. The people also urgently need food, health care and security," says Caritas Congo National Director Dr Bruno Miteyo.
Caritas is particularly concerned about women and children. During the first quarter of the year there have been 1,330 cases of rape in South Kivu.
According to Caritas, child mortality in Congo remains too high and over 14 percent of children will die before their fifth birthday as there are 1.3 million children suffering from malnutrition.
An upsurge in fighting since the start of the year in eastern Congo has left over 1.3 million people without homes and in acute need of food, shelter, protection, medical help and counseling.
The Caritas Internationalis 2009 appeal on behalf of its 164 members will provide food rations, items such as cooking pots and cutlery, medical care and support for schools.
The violence is being caused by FDLR militias (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) in North and South Kivu, by Ugandan rebels called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Orientale Province (Eastern Province), and by a lack of discipline in the Congolese national army.
Caritas Congo National Director said, "The war is far from over in Congo and neither is the misery for the people. Hundreds of thousands more have been driven from their homes in fresh clashes between militias and the government. Their homes have been looted or burned.
Fighting broke out in eastern Congo between a rebel group and government troops at the end of August 2008 causing humanitarian crisis. Hope came at the end of the year with the arrest of the rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, returns of displaced people, and military operations between neighbouring countries that succeeded in driving militias from the towns.
However, that hope has evaporated since January with an upsurge in violence driving more people from their homes as the FDLR reorganised and continued their attacks in North and South Kivu, and from Ugandan rebel attacks in Orientale Province (Eastern Province).
Pockets of instability have left tens of thousands without access to humanitarian relief. Caritas says at least 3,500 displaced in Isiro town have no access to aid while Dingila town has seen its population nearly double by from 14,000 to 26,000 by June.
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MJPC blames the Congolese Government for the Deteriorating Situation in East Congo(DRC) "There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in a lawless eastern Congo for six months" Following the deteriorating situation in east Congo, the MJPC called today for the Congolese Government to urgently pay the salaries to thousands of soldiers who have not been paid for over six months in eastern Congo, take swift action to enforce the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant against Bosco Ntaganda and to hold accountable perpetrators of sexual violence against women for their acts.
"Failing to hold accountable individuals who commit war crimes and crimes against humunity continues to be the leading cause of widespread and systematic sexual violence acts against girls and women in the easten Congo" said Makuba Sekombo, Community Affairs Director of the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the DR Congo (MJPC). Mr. Sekombo again criticized the government of Congo for not only the continuing failure to protect women and young girls from sexual violence, but also for "encouraging conditions that create opportunities for sexual violence to occur". "There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in a lawless eastern Congo for six months" said Sekombo.
The MJPC has also renewed its call for the Congolese government to take urgent needed action to end human rights abuses in east Congo, hold perpetrators accountable and ensure reparation for the victims of sexual violence. The MJPC has been urging the Congolese government to compensate the victims of sexual violence in order to also help combat impunity in eastern part of Congo where sexual violence against women and children has been widely used as weapon of war for more than decade. The MJPC online petition calling for for help to put pressure on Congolese Government to compensate victims of sexual siolence in Eastern DRC can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html About MJPC MJPC works to add a voice in advocating for justice and peace in the DRC particulary in the east of DRC where thousands innocent civilian including children and women continue to suffer massive human rights violations while armed groups responsible for these crimes go unpunished For more information about the MJPC and its activities, visit http://www.mjpcongo.org. or call Makuba Sekombo @ 1-408-8063-644 or e-mail: info@mjpcongo.org. The online petition calling on the Congolese Government to put urgently in place a comprehensive program of compensation for the victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html