A mother displaced by fighting takes shelter from the rain in a makeshift tent
Aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo fear the country is plunging into another civil war that threatens the lives of millions.
Fighting in eastern DRC has already displaced 1.6 million people, said the World Health Organization, as ceasefires have been broken and hundreds of civilians have been slain or wounded.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said some aid agencies have suspended operations because of fighting in North Kivu province.
“The strong militarization of the area, the looting of houses and the threats of armed men prevent humanitarian workers from working in a safe environment,” a UN report said.
It described a “precarious security situation” in which an unfocused campaign of killing, raping and pillaging has sent thousands of refugees flooding into the provincial capital, Goma.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, said on Tuesday up to 100,000 of them may be cut off by fighting and in urgent need of help.
“Because of the ongoing fighting, these people have received virtually no assistance. Their situation has grown increasingly desperate,” he said.
In the meantime, fears are growing that a cholera outbreak in the sprawling refugee camps could spread, threatening refugees with an epidemic of disease. There have been at least 90 diagnosed cases of cholera in Goma and the refugee centre of Kibati.
Over the weekend, rebel forces led by Laurent Nkunda fought DRC government troops and their local militia allies to the north and southwest of Goma.
“Information is still patchy outside of Goma town’s limits, but there are reports of looting, rapes and burning of temporary camps,” said John Lapointe, a Canadian aid worker in Goma with CARE Canada.
“There are reports of considerable numbers of firefights erupting here and there. It is a firefly effect, you know, it’s unverifiable, but you hear the Mai Mai are attacking here; a para corps is attacking somewhere else and the CNDP [Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People] is attacking someone else.”
“People are coming from as far away as 80 kilometres from Goma,” added Mr. Lapointe, 65, of Gatineau, Que. “These people don’t flee on a whim. They are fleeing for good reason. The situation is very tense.”
The area exploded in a new round of violence on Aug. 28, when Mr. Nkunda’s rebels launched a new offensive against government troops.
As he consolidated his grip on large areas of the provinces of North and South Kivu, close to the border with Rwanda and Uganda, Mr. Nkunda has threatened to capture Goma on the shores of Lake Kivu.
Over the last two weeks, retreating DRC troops sent locals fleeing for their lives and Mr. Nkunda’s CNDP declared a unilateral ceasefire, which has repeatedly been broken by sporadic clashes.
The conflict is fueled by ethnic hatreds unleashed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by Hutu extremists.
Rwandan Hutu rebels responsible for the genocide fled to eastern DRC, destabilizing the country, which rapidly collapsed into a prolonged civil war. That war eventually drew in six African armies and killed up to 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation.
“Africa’s World War” did not end until July, 2003, when the UN dispatched its largest peacekeeping operation in history.
But even the presence of the 17,000 peacekeepers has failed to curb fighting that feeds on ethnic hatreds and is fueled with eastern DRC’s vast mineral wealth of gold, tin, coltan and other precious metals.
Mr. Nkunda, a gaunt 40-year old former psychology student, fought with the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, the Tutsi-dominated army that seized control of Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. During DRC’s civil war, he was a commander in the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy, which controlled most of eastern DRC. Now, he is threatening to topple the government of Joseph Kabila and says he is fighting to protect minority Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutus who carried out the 1994 genocide.
The DRC borders nine nations and its continued instability threatens all central Africa.
But, so far, the African Union has failed to respond to UN pleas for 3,000 more peacekeepers to restore calm to the region.
An emergency international conference in Kenya on the weekend resulted in little more than a plea for all sides to observe a ceasefire and UN calls for opening a humanitarian corridor to gain access to refugees.
The South African Development Community (SADC), which includes South Africa, and Zimbabwe and Angola (two countries involved in the civil war), also announced Sunday it would send military advisors to help the DRC government.
That commitment could be followed by a new contingent of African peacekeepers, “if and when necessary,” said Tomaz Salamao, SADC executive secretary.
There are widespread reports Angolan military units are already fighting alongside DRC government troops, a move that may pull Rwanda into the conflict to support the CNDP and attack Hutu extremists in DRC.
“The conflict is becoming more complex,” said Alexander Buhler, an aid worker with Caritas in Goma.
“There is a danger the war will attract further international participation and that the whole central Africa region could explode in conflict.”
On Monday, the European Union ignored the calls of international aid agencies to prevent a humanitarian crisis from deteriorating further by sending 1,500 troops.
France, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, was pushing for peacekeepers to bolster the UN operation, but Britain and Germany want to see the AU do more militarily, while promoting a political solution.
Europe’s reluctance to get involved has infuriated aid workers on the ground.
“Europe has a proven history and expertise in peacekeeping,” said Juliette Prodhan, local head of Oxfam. “It has created special standby battalions precisely to respond rapidly to crises like this. What more needs to happen for Europe to provide Congo with the help it so urgently needs?”
“My personal feeling is that I have an obscure sense of déjà-vu, except that the situation is many, many more times complicated because there are so many armed factions,” said Mr. Lapointe, who was in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and the DRC during the civil war.
