NEW YORK: UN humanitarians said on Friday they are concerned by the escalation of hostilities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which displaced tens of thousands in North Kivu’s Masisi territory, reported Xinhua.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said local sources reported Thursday that people in several villages fled their homes near Mushaki, about 45 km from Goma city, due to fighting between the Congolese army and rebel armed groups.
OCHA said one of the villages involved was Bihambwe, where thousands of men, women and children had sought refuge from earlier violence. All the civilians fled, including 60,000 displaced people who had arrived only in the last month.
The office said access for its humanitarian partners is severely limited in the region, with the road linking Goma to the centre of Masisi cut off. Despite the difficulties, the partners stayed on to support communities impacted by the violence.
Between July and October, aid organisations provided support to 3 million of the more than 5 million people in urgent need of assistance in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, OCHA said.
“Lack of funding for the humanitarian response in the DRC remains a critical challenge. To date, the 2.25-billion-US-dollar appeal to reach 10 million people in the DRC is less than 40 per cent funded at 861 million dollars,“ the office said.–Bernama–Xinhua
