"The people have fled from the villages and there is not chance to cultivate the fields" said monsignor Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, bishop of the dioceses of Bokungu-Ikela and president of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Episcopal Conference, speaking about the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) raids. The bishop said that the violence in the regions of North and South Kivu often take attention away from the suffering of the Congolese citizens leaving further north, in a wide region between the borders with Uganda, Sudan and the Central African Republic. Speaking to Vatican Radio, also noted the situation in Dungu, not far from the Sudanese border. "We don't know how it will go there this year - said Besungu - because in this season nothing has been planted. How will we eat? We fear hunger and, consequently, disease". The UN has estimated that, in an area stretching from northeastern Congo to Southern Sudan and the southeastern Central African Republic, LRA raids, between December 2008 to December 2009, have killed over 1300 civilians. Between last December an January, meanwhile, the LRA has killed 100 civilians killed alone in DR Congo. [AB]
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