Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

DR Congo

DR Congo / BENI: INSECURITY AND THREATS, THOUSANDS FLEEING

Entire families displaced by fighting and prevailing insecurity in North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, even arrived at the doors of parishes in Beni, a main city of the province, seeking help and shelter. "Thousands of people are along the northern Beni-Eningiti road, staying with families or abandoned to their own fate, but many are also here in the city", said to MISNA a local Congolese priest, who asked to remain anonymous. Based on recent estimates, confirmed by both the UN and Congolese civil society, some 70,000 people have fled the fighting in the past days. The security situation deteriorated in the area since the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) deployed to combat Ugandan and Congolese rebels of the ADF-NALU, active for years in North Kivu, in Operation "Ruwenzori". "The ADF are not however the only problem: we are also threatened by a new group insurgents, apparently farmers protesting the inclusion of their land in the patrimony of the national parks. They have already forcedly recruited some youths, and are threatening to kidnap our health officials to take them into the forest", explained the religious source to MISNA. Tension and connivance between traffickers and rebels in the region are fomented mainly by interests in lumber trade.

[BO]