Some 40,000 displaced people are living in "catastrophic" conditions without food or medicine in the Walendu Bindi territory, around 40km south of Bunia (capital of Ituri, in the north-east Democratic Republic of Congo).
The warning was made by local officials to Radio Okapi after visiting the villages of Djeti, Tchekele, Aveba and Soke, which are hosting inhabitants of the nearby areas of Bukiringi, Baviba and Boloma, abandoned due to wide insecurity caused by armed groups.
According to the officials, there is serious concern for the situation of around a hundred children suffering from malnutrition.
Religious MISNA sources contacted in Bunia confirmed the threat represented by armed groups in the southern area around the provincial capital, who target both soldiers and civilians.
Episodes of violence occur also in the city, resulting recently in the death of a priest, Father Jean Gaston Buli, believed to have been killed by common criminals.
Ituri, torn by fighting during the war in the east that began in 1998, experienced a relatively calm period after the 2006 peace accords between the government and main rebel groups. [BO]
