Northern Congo Civilians 'Need Urgent Aid'

Relief groups should increase their presence in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help civilians amid an upsurge of fighting between government troops and the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an aid agency said yesterday.

The UN estimates that 400,000 people in this remote region of the DRC have fled their homes as the LRA - once based in Uganda
- responded to attacks from Ugandan and Congolese troops by striking
out against civilians. Led by Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the
international criminal court, LRA fighters have looted towns and
villages, abducted hundreds of children, and raped and killed people.

"We
are talking about tactics of violence aimed at instilling fear in the
people," said Luis Encinas, the co-ordinator of Medecins sans
Frontieres (MSF) operations in central Africa. "Our patients have told
us the most brutal stories - about children who are forced to kill
their parents and people burnt alive inside their homes."

Civilians
increasingly have come under threat since September last year, when
Congolese and Ugandan forces moved to crush the last remnants of the
LRA after they were driven out of Uganda. The fighting has spilled over
into Sudan and the Central African Republic.
In response to the LRA's terror tactics, civilians have fled to the
main towns, where they are being helped by the local population as best
they can and by relief groups such as MSF and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Towns such as Gangala and
Banda have become enclaves for 20,000 displaced people each as outlying
fields and villages are deserted. The humanitarian crisis in the
Haut-Uele district, in north-eastern DRC bears some parallels with that
in eastern Congo,
where government forces are battling Hutu rebel groups who fled Rwanda
after the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered.

In
both regions, the violence against civilians has been a consequence of
military attempts to crush an elusive and ruthless rebel force. But the
situation in the north has received less media attention than eastern
Congo. MSF is making an urgent appeal to the UN and other relief
agencies to redeploy staff from the central town of Dungu to outlying
areas to stabilise the situation.

"We are saying to other groups:
just stay in the outlying areas beyond the main town of Dungu," said
Katharine Derderian, MSF humanitarian affairs adviser, who was in
northern Congo in July. "Even such a small step could make a huge
difference."

In several places, such as Dingila or Niangara, MSF is the only group present despite security concerns. This lack

of security and the absence of roads in some isolated areas means MSF has had to use planes to bring in supplies.

"Delivering
humanitarian aid to the people of this region is of course a
challenge," Encinas said, "but we believe much more can and must be
done to address the consequences of war on the population. Humanitarian
organisations should urgently address people's needs in areas that are
most affected by the fighting and have so far been neglected."