Concluding a five-day visit to the region, UNICEF Deputy Director Ted Chaiban noted that fighting has reached new heights and created the worst humanitarian crisis there since 2003. He highlighted growing concerns for safeguarding children’s rights and protection of civilians as the situation worsens. Grave violations mount “Children are being killed, maimed, abducted, and recruited…
The UN Mission, MONUSCO, also called on the group to respect the Luanda roadmap, an agreement signed in 2022 by Angola, DRC and Rwanda that strives for peace in the conflict-affected eastern part of the country. MONUSCO is carrying out a three-phase process of withdrawal from the country following a UN Security Council resolution adopted in December…
Fresh fighting since last week in the region has displaced an estimated 135,000 people from the town of Sake – on the northern banks of Lake Kivu – who are moving towards the provincial capital, Goma, about 25 kilometres away, according to UNHCR. The agency further said that it received reports of bombs falling on…
Holland’s outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag will facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify aid consignments to the embittered enclave, in line with a recent Security Council resolution. She will also establish a mechanism to accelerate humanitarian relief shipments through States that are not party to the conflict. She is expected to take up the assignment…
Violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have displaced more than 450,000 people in the last six weeks in Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu province. People arriving in the town of Sake, located near the provincial capital Goma, spoke of having to make harrowing choices, with men risking death to feed…
The situation is particularly alarming in the east, where malnutrition has taken hold among 4.4 million people, exacerbated by compromised health services, lack of clean water, and an uptick in gender-based violence, highlighted Peter Musoko, WFP Country Director, during a press briefing in Geneva. “In my conversations with those displaced in eastern DRC, I was…
Speaking from Kinshasa, Dr. Jorge Castilla, WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer, told journalists at the regular briefing in Geneva there had been a major increase in displacement due to ongoing violence fuelled by armed groups, leaving around 7.4 million in need of health assistance. Disease and displacement Since March 2022, almost three million people have been…
“So far, the ceasefire between the M23 and the FARDC has held up relatively well and has contributed to some security gains”, said UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee. “The relative calm in Rutshuru territory, for example, allowed more than 45,000 people from the Bishusha group to return home”, she said. She noted, however, that…
Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) against girls and women there have increased by 37 per cent during the first three months of the year, compared to the same period a year ago, according to the GBV coordination group for North Kivu. More than 38,000 cases of GBV were reported for all of 2022 in North…
The region is plagued by violence emanating largely from multiple armed groups, including the rebel M23 force, which has been fighting a major campaign against Government troops, who are backed by the UN mission there known by its French acronym, MONUSCO, as part if its vital protection-of-civilians mandate. Hundreds of civilians have been killed at…
