coupures 1er juin 07 (eng)

UN Rights Chief:Sexual Violence In Congo, Burundi 'Appalling'
UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The level of gender-based sexual violence has reached appalling levels in eastern Congo and Burundi and stronger efforts are needed to ostracize perpetrators of such crimes, the U.N. human rights chief said Thursday.
Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said corrupt justice systems and national governments that take part in the corruption are to blame for high sexual violence crimes in the region.
Many women who have been victims of sexual violence told Arbour that they go back to their communities and they are teased, often by the very people who harmed them and who continue to live in the community untroubled, she said.
"I think it's important to understand that gender-based violence in that context is not just an affront to dignity or a kind of form of indecency, it is a form of torture and absolute brutal physical and mental assault on the victims," she told a U.N. press briefing following her two-week trip to the Congo, Burundi and Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region.
These sex crimes and the injuries they inflict are often extreme, Arbour told reporters after a closed briefing the U.N. Security Council on her trip.
A common one is fistula, a hole in the birth canal "caused by brutal forms of rape, gang rape, insertion of objects" and also when poor women have no assistance at childbirth," she said.
Women with fistula experience chronic incontinence and often give birth to a stillborn baby. Untreated, fistula can also lead to chronic medical problems, including ulcerations, kidney disease, and nerve damage in the legs.
Arbour said she met many women who have lived with this condition untreated for more than 40 years.
"Doctors are looking at very complicated fistula surgery to repair rips between bladder systems, intestinal systems and reproductive organs," Arbour said.
She also saw pregnant 12-year-olds who had been raped and had to get Caesarean sections.
In Kisangani, a town Arbour visited deep in Congo's interior, 60% of the sexual violence victims brought to the hospitals were between the ages of 11 and 17, she said.
The exact number of rapes in Congo isn't known. Hospital officials report treating huge numbers of women who have been victims of sex crimes, particularly in eastern Congo where militia fighters and Congolese soldiers target civilians.
"The level of sexual violence and its intensity is surprising and appalling," Arbour said about the places she visited in eastern Congo and Burundi.
Despite the modest resources in the region, she said efforts to give medical aid to victims of sexual violence are excellent.
"But what is very severely lacking is the same kind of effort targeting perpetrators and ensuring that they are brought to account," she said.
Some non-governmental organizations try to lead the victims through legal processes, but they face a justice system that Arbour said "is very inadequate and in lots of cases up for sale."
"There's a lot of corruption and interfering by authorities, and this is described to me, not by the victims, but by a lot of the magistrates themselves, " she said.
Most often, victims have to pay to go to court, and in many cases out-of-court settlements are made by families so that no charges are brought to the police, she said. In some settlements, the perpetrator gives the victim's family a goat.
"In Burundi, there is also a lot of deficit in the capacity or willingness of the justice system to address these issues," Arbour said.
The U.N. missions to Congo and Burundi were called but said no one was available to comment on Arbour's findings.
Arbour proposed a dual strategy to deal with sex crimes: continue helping victims while ostracizing the perpetrators.
"First, the national authorities have to speak up, and with the limited means at their disposal, they have to conduct investigations, they have to agree not to be bound by these informal reparation initiatives and still pursue perpetrators," Arbour said.
After Thursday's meeting, the Security Council issued a statement urging Burundi's government to "step up its efforts to combat impunity and to promote and protect human rights, paying in this context particular attention to reducing the high level of gender-based violence and of violence against children."

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Sexual Violence in DRC/Burundi
Friday, 1 June 2007, 11:54 amPress Release: United Nations
UN Human Rights Chief Appalled By Sexual Violence In DR Congo, BurundiNew York, May 31 2007
The top United Nations human rights official today said that she was appalled by the level of sexual and gender-based violence she found in Africa’s Great Lakes region, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.
“I have to say the level of sexual violence and its intensity is pretty surprising and appalling,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told reporters in New York after briefing the Security Council on her recent 12-day visit to the region, where she toured the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.
“Gender-based violence is not just an affront to dignity; it is a form of torture and absolute brutal physical and mental assault on the victims,” she said.
In a hospital Ms. Arbour visited in Kisangani in the northern DRC, one of the many she stopped at during her mission, she said that 60 per cent of the cases involved victims between the ages of 11 and 17.
Providing medical assistance – such as major fistula surgery – to assist victims is key, Ms. Arbour said, but she observed that “what is required is so out of reach,” both in terms of resources and of manpower.
She stressed that efforts targeting perpetrators and bring them to justice are also crucial.
While women who have been victims of violence have been ostracized and stigmatized, those behind the crimes operate with impunity, she said. In some instances, women are teased by the very same people who attacked them.
Deficits in the justice systems in the DRC and Burundi must be addressed to ensure that perpetrators of such crimes are prosecuted, she said. The system in the DRC is “so deficient,” she said, with informal settlements often taking place so those responsible are not charged. Meanwhile in Burundi, she said that magistrates themselves have commented on the corruption and interference thwarting the prosecution of cases.
In the DRC, the High Commissioner said that she travelled to such areas as Kisangani as well as Bunia and Goma in the east, “where armed groups are still continuing their predatory practices.”
One of the unfortunate effects in the DRC of the reintegration of militia leaders into the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) is that “they have been emboldened, further empowered and seem to be continuing exactly the same pattern of predatory practices against civilians in the region,” she noted, calling for a major reform of the security sector.
ENDS



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Uganda: Prosecute Congo Looters - Muhwezi

The Monitor (Kampala)
31 May 2007Posted to the web 31 May 2007
Steven Kibuuka, Richard Wanambwa & Lydia MukisaLuzira Prison
FORMER Health minister Jim Muhwezi on remand at Luzira wants the alleged looters of DR Congo's natural resources prosecuted.
Speaking to MPs who were among sympathisers who visited him yesterday at Luzira Prison, the Rujumbura MP said he wants the government to act on all corruption-related investigation reports.
Maj. Gen. Muhwezi is on remand for alleged embezzlement of a 2004 Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) Fund reward among other charges.
"I want the government to take action on all those named in various reports of corruption in the country," Gen. Muhwezi said. "If really our government says it has arrested us to show its determination to fight corruption in the country, then let all those people named in those reports like that on Congo be prosecuted. This will even redeem the name of NRM which has been viewed as corrupt by many people."
The International Court of Justice found the Uganda government guilty of looting the Congo and said the $10 billion dollars Kinshasa wants to be paid by Kampala as compensation is an appropriate figure.
A UN report attributes the plunder to several Ugandan officers, some of whom subsequently had a travel ban slapped on them by some western countries.
MP Margaret Muhanga (Kabarole Woman), gave Gen. Muhwezi a book as a gift, John Grisham's Innocent Man, the fictitious story of an innocent man who gets convicted.
Gen. Muhwezi was indicted by the IGG report into the mismanagement of the vaccines grant. Along with his juniors at the Health Ministry, Alex Kamugisha and Mike Mukula, Gen. Muhwezi will be tried for charges that relate to theft, abuse of office and embezzlement of a 2004 Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) Fund reward of $4.3m (Shs7.6b) to Uganda for surpassing the targeted national immunisation coverage in 2002.
Dr Kamugisha and Capt. Mukula are out on bail, as is Alice Kaboyo, a former State House aide who also stands trial on similar charges.
Gen. Muhwezi says all the suspects named in shelved reports, especially the Justice David Porter report into the plunder of DR Congo's resources, should be prosecuted. The Justice Porter commission, appointed by President Museveni in 2001 to investigate allegations by the UN that army officers had pillaged the Congo during the UPDF's mission there in the late 1990s, found no evidence against some of the suspected top officers.
In its 2003 report, the Porter Commission exonerated the Uganda government but reported that high-ranking officers of the UPDF had been involved in corrupt activities during their stay in the DRC.
The report named former army commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini, but exonerated Gen. Salim Saleh, President Museveni's brother, of all wrongdoing excpt failing to carry out orders from the President to prevent soldiers from exploiting their presence in the DRC.
Gen. Muhwezi thanked MPs who had come to visit him. Ms Alice Kaboyo, a co-accused, who walked out of jail on Tuesday was among Gen. Muhwezi's visitors. She said: "With me, now I am free. I also know you [Muhwezi] will be out, but be strong and we shall win."
Gen. Muhwezi's wife Suzan stood by as he chatted up his eight visitors, who included his mother. Dressed in blue jeans, a kitengi shirt and casual shoes, Gen Muhwezi seemed relaxed as he hugged all his guests.
His application for bail is set to be heard today. The High Court yesterday issued a production warrant directing prisons authorities to produce Gen. Muhwezi in court today.
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Congo-Kinshasa: Weekend Attack Prompts Villagers to Flee in Northeast

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
31 May 2007Posted to the web 31 May 2007
Kinshasa
Days after armed men, suspected to be Rwandan rebels, attacked villages in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), killing scores of people, civilians have fled their villages, aid workers said.
An assessment mission involving various United Nations agencies observed the movement of people from Kanyola towards Budodo and Walungu centre, said Kemal Saiki, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC).
"The displaced families spent the night in the Catholic parish of Kanyola, in the general hospital at Kanyola and in the neighbourhood [Lwashunga, Cisaza, Cizi, Cinduli, Nabishaka, Nakajaga]," he added. "They are with foster families and most of them would be in transit."
Aid agencies started providing some assistance to the affected civilians, especially children, who had been admitted to hospital.
Saiki, however, said the local population had blocked a MONUC team from reaching the villages where the attack took place. "They wanted to express their dissatisfaction but, even if this reaction is understandable, it is regrettable that the mission could not accomplish its work," he said.
Eighteen villagers died in the brutal attack, blamed on the Rwandan Front démocratique pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a group accused of involvement in the genocide that killed at least 800,000 Rwandans in 1994, and has since been active in the forests of eastern DRC.
In Kinshasa, MONUC condemned the massacres and appealed to the Congolese government to pursue and bring to justice those responsible for the atrocities.
"All the victims were killed in their sleep. These attacks were carried out in the greatest silence, with machetes, bayonets, knives and axes in order to avoid the use of firearms that would have revealed their presence," Saiki said.
The deputy special representative for the UN Secretary-General and humanitarian co-coordinator in the DRC, Ross Mountain, said the attack had created fear among civilians. "Since Sunday, terrified [civilians] go to the hills to cultivate or into the villages to get some of their belongings but rush into urban centres to spend the night with families or in community shelters," he said.
All the victims were killed in their sleep. These attacks were carried out in the greatest silence, with machetes, bayonets, knives and axes in order to avoid the use of firearms
Clashes between the FDLR and DRC army have occurred in South Kivu, displacing 260,000 people in the past six months. As a result, the humanitarian situation in North Kivu province, in particular, is deteriorating, according to aid agencies.
Eighty-five percent of MONUC's 17,000 peacekeepers and military observers are deployed in this volatile region.
Protest over violence
Meanwhile, members of the DRC national assembly from North and South Kivu announced a boycott of the House to protest against government's failure to contain the violence in the region.
"We cannot understand why the government proposes as the solution a round-table for the area while our people are being massacred," said a member from Uvira territory, Kanyegere Wa Boshi.
The boycott of North and South Kivu deputies took place when Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga was defending the 2007 annual budget.
There are 80 national deputies elected in these two provinces within the national assembly and about 50 of them have signed the petition to boycott the House.
"The government made porous our borders with Rwanda by opting to mix the integrated brigades with elements loyal to Gen Laurent Nkunda, under the pretext of securing these two provinces," said Justin Bitakwira, another South Kivu deputy. "The executive has abandoned these provinces to Nkunda, the Rwandan FDLR, Interahamwe and Rasta rebels."
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Congo-Kinshasa: Church Outraged by Killings, Asks Government for Solutions

Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
31 May 2007Posted to the web 31 May 2007
Bakavu
The Catholic Church has asked for troops to be sent to the eastern region of DR Congo, following the slaying of 18 people in Kaniola last weekend.
According to a report by the Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop François-Xavier Maroy of Bukavu appealed to the government to "treat the security problem in the east of the country as a priority and stop trying to distract public opinion with proposed plans for negotiations, dialogue and a roundtable which leads to nothing."
Saturday night and Sunday morning, two villages were attacked in the region of South-Kivu. Besides the 18 killed in their sleep, another 27 were wounded and 18 others kidnapped.
"The massacre in Kaniola was carried out almost in the presence of the major of the regular army," the archbishop said. "The cries of the people clearly did not disturb his sleep, even though the massacre took place not far from the place where he is stationed."
"How are we to interpret the silence of the institutions of the republic, of the head of state, the parliament, the central government and the military, in the face of these repeated massacres in Kaniola?" Archbishop Maroy wondered." In other countries, the taking of a hostage, even if it is only a single person, immediately prompts state apparatus to react.
"So far as the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is concerned, all they can offer us, in the face of the threat of a new war and while massacres are being perpetrated against the civilian population, is an 'inter-communicative' round-table discussion, instead of tackling the real problems, which involve the restoration of military order and security. Is this complicity or ignorance?"
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Rebels in east Congo abduct at least six villagers
31 May 2007 17:51:48 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, May 31 (Reuters) - Suspected Rwandan rebels kidnapped at least six people on Thursday in Congo's eastern South Kivu province where 18 villagers were killed in a raid a few days ago, United Nations and army officials said.
The kidnappers, believed to be members of the Hutu-dominated Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), entered a village in Kabere district, 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the provincial capital, Bukavu, around 1 a.m. local time.
"They abducted five women and one man and stole some food and domestic animals," Major Gabriel de Brosses, military spokesman for the 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, told Reuters.
A Congo army spokesman put the number kidnapped at seven.
Attacks by rebels and renegade militias in eastern Congo have persisted despite the presence of the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission and historic elections last year which crowned a peace process ending a 1998-2003 war.
Fighters known as "Rastas", an FDLR faction, slaughtered 18 sleeping villagers in nearby Kanyola district over the weekend, wounding another 22 and kidnapping around a dozen more. It was the worst such massacre in South Kivu in nearly two years.
The rebel raids were apparently in reprisal for U.N.-backed Congolese army operations against the FDLR a month before.
"We spoke to the villagers who saw the attackers (on Thursday). They were FDLR. They said it was a revenge against our efforts to eradicate them," said Lieutenant Ambroise Kasanda wa Kasanda, the Congolese army spokesman in South Kivu.
"They vanished into the forest. Our forces are on their trail," he added.
The FDLR has operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which Hutu militants slaughtered around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus before being defeated by Tutsis, who now lead the Rwandan government.
The U.N. Security Council voted this month to keep its 17,000 peacekeepers in Congo at least until the end of the year.
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DRC: Demobilisation of ex-militias slowly taking root in northeast
BUNIA, 28 May 2007 (IRIN) - The integration of militias into the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) national army may be proceeding slowly but to local civilians in the volatile region, it is a pointer to more peaceful days ahead. "I have seen these militia members terrorising [civilians]," Bienvenue Issaya said in Bubba village, 120km north of Bunia town, where former militias of Peter Karim's Front des Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes (FNI) group are erecting roadblocks to secure the area. "It is a source of hope for the population to see them being integrated into the FARDC [Forces armées de la République Démocratique du Congo]," he added. A local trader in Kpandroma, a previously FNI-controlled village 135km from Bunia, agreed, saying it was good that the militias were being disbanded. "We are relieved - both sides were attacking us when they were fighting," he said, requesting anonymity. "Karim forced us to finance his troops and the FARDC were accusing us of supporting the militias." The trader was among three people arrested by the national army in January for allegedly supporting the militia. Improved access At a centre in Kisangani, 741 ex-militias from Ituri were going through the integration paces at the same time as a dozen officers were being moved to the Kinshasa Superior Military Centre so they could be allocated appropriate army ranks. "This constitutes a major advance in the disarmament process and in the pacification of Ituri," officials of the United Nations Mission in DRC (MONUC), said. According to some aid workers, access has improved because of the ongoing integration and disarmament. "We crossed an area under the control of Peter Karim on the night of 16 May without a problem" said Pastor Koli Lopa, a lawyer workingfor the international NGO, Caritas, in Bunia.
Three months ago, these areas witnessed violent clashes between the FARDC and the FNI, leaving hundreds dead on both sides. The clashes died down after the 28-year-old Karim was made a colonel in the national army. Karim's integration was facilitated by MONUC, which arranged talks between the two parties, provided security and ensured logistics and transport. Since December, according to MONUC, 1,217 militia members have been disarmed in Ituri, of whom 783 were from the FNI. Challenges to disarmament Other groups, however, remain reluctant to either disarm or be integrated into the army. According to sources, the Mouvement Revolutionnaire Congolais (MRC) and the Front de Résistance Patriotique de l’Ituri (FRPI) have so far only allowed 288 and 146 men, respectively, to leave their ranks. "It raises doubts regarding their real willingness to integrate," an official source in Ituri said. "Cobra Matata [FRPI leader] has refused to continue the disarmament of his people. According to him, the government has not stuck to [previous] agreements." The agreements were signed in November between the government and armed groups in Ituri, outlining plans to disarm about 5,000 militia members with MONUC assistance. In exchange, the government proposed an amnesty for the signatories and agreed to recognise officers from the groups.
But even with the FNI, say officials, the process has not been easy. "Karim militia members are scattered and hard to find," said Capt Olivier Mputu, FARDC spokesman in Ituri. "Other leaders of other militias have overestimated their numbers. That is the case with Col Ngujolo of the MRC [Mouvement révolutionnaires Congolais] who talked of 600-700 men while they were 100 or so." According to the spokesman, reluctance could lead to forced disarmament. "We will carry on with sensitisation of these groups for them to disarm. We don’t have the intention to attack. However, any option remains open: disarming peacefully or militarily," explained Mputu. Once disarmed, the former fighters spend three days in the transit site for re-education before choosing to return to civil life or integration into the regular army. Those integrated into the army are taken through various preliminary procedures in the Rwampara centre, before going to an integration centre for a six- to nine-month military programme. Benefits so far According to aid workers, disarmament of militia fighters in the region would enable an estimated 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return home.
"The exact numbers of militia members and of arms are not known," said the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in Ituri, Jean Charles Dupin, noting that this uncertainty had forced many IDPs to put off returning to their villages. "They fear [that] military action could provoke displacements. The locality of Maskini, for example, approximately 100km north of Bunia, in Djugu territory, remains empty," said Dupin. However, about 50,000 IDPs have returned to Djugu territory, where Karim had been fighting the FARDC, once he joined the army. According to aid workers, once the militias are integrated and peace returns, the humanitarian needs of the population would include rebuilding destroyed infrastructures (hospitals, schools, water fountains, etc) and farming inputs. "It is important that the state authorities be there in the field, in order to facilitate their comeback," said Dupin. So far, more than 22,000 men from various armed groups in Ituri have benefited from disarmament. MONUC and FARDC have collected more than 11,000 arms (Kalashnikovs and others), 1,500 bombs, 1,000 mines, 4,300 magazines, 715,000 munitions and a significant quantity of military material.
But according to other sources, former Rwandan soldiers among those disarmed and demobilised, including children, have been recruited back into militia ranks. "Rwandan military men demobilised by MONUC said they have been recruited and trained in Masisi hills [bordering Rwanda] and been forced into military activities," MONUC’s spokeswoman in Goma, Sylvie van Wildenberg, said. The conflict in Ituri between government troops and various militias started in 1999.
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DRC’s Kabila to visit SA 31 May 2007By Donwald Pressly
Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila will visit South Africa next month and will address Parliament on June 14, the South African cabinet reported.
Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko noted that Congo was "a country whose emergence from decades of civil war has highlighted the advances being made on the continent". Kabila, installed in power after the death of his father, was elected president - beating Jean-Pierre Bemba - late last year.
South Africa played a key role in bringing militant groups together to negotiate a settlement which led to multi-party presidential and parliamentary elections in the DRC.
Meanwhile, the cabinet noted that it had taken cognizance that in the coming weeks - and on the eve of the summit of African heads of State in Accra in July - "a series of nodal events will put the spotlight on the African continent".
These events would include the G8 summit from June 6 to 8 which would be attended by President Thabo Mbeki, the visit of British Prime Minister Tony Blair - who arrives in South Africa today - and the launch of the CNBC Africa channel tomorrow (Friday).
A cabinet statement noted that the African chapter of the World Economic Forum - being held in mid-June in Cape Town - "will also provide a platform for African political and business leaders to share their views on the socio- economic challenges facing our continent".
I-Net Bridge
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Central Africa: DRC Writes to Rwanda Over FDLR

New Times (Kigali)
31 May 2007Posted to the web 31 May 2007
Ignatius Ssuuna
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has written to the Rwandan government requesting for a meeting between the two aimed at finding a lasting solution to the activities of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels. State Minister for Cooperation Rosemary Museminari confirmed the development this week.
She did not however specify when the letter was sent.
Museminari made the revelation after she was reached for a comment on the recent deadly attack by the rebels on a Congolese village.
On Saturday night last week, about 29 people were killed by a group believed to be members of FDLR, aid workers said.
The UN reports indicate the victims were reportedly slashed with machetes before being intercepted by Pakistani UN peacekeepers.
Museminari said Rwanda was very much concerned with the killings by continued hostile activities by FDLR fighters, many of whom fled to DRC after leading the 1994 Rwanda Genocide which claimed at least one million people.
"(DR) Congo has written to us over the matter. And when we go to Lubumbashi (for a regional security meeting from May 5-7) which is in the near future, the FDLR issue will be looked into seriously," Museminari said.
Aid workers discovered 17 bodies in three villages in the South Kivu province and another 12 found in the forest later, BBC reported on Monday.
The Congolese army and UN peacekeepers have been carrying out joint operations in the area against the fighters since January.
The UN Mission in DR Congo (Monuc) says it is investigating the reports of the attack.
Delegates from four Great Lakes countries will next month meet in DRC's city of Lumumbashi in their continued pursuit of a joint solution against marauding rebels across the region.
The delegates from Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda will be meeting under the auspices of the US-facilitated Joint Tripartite Plus Commission (JTPC).
FDLR which is largely composed of remnants of the Rwandan former army (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe militia (a Hutu militia blamed most of the Genocide crimes), has remained a major security threat and Rwanda has previously deployed in DRC twice to foil the group's attacks
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Congo-Kinshasa: Ban Ki-Moon Condemns Massacre of Civilians

UN News Service (New York)
30 May 2007Posted to the web 31 May 2007
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned in the strongest possible terms the recent massacre of civilians in the war-ravaged east in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling on those responsible to be brought to justice.
"This latest atrocity underscores once again the need to resolve the problem of armed Congolese and foreign militia operating in the territory of the DRC," Mr. Ban's spokesperson said in a statement.
He urged "the Government of the DRC and the international community to work together in creating professional security forces capable of defending the security and human rights of the people of the DRC."
According to the UN mission in the country, known as MONUC, during the night of 26-27 May, 19 civilians - including women and children - were killed when the villages of Nyabuluze and Muhungu were subject to unprovoked attacks. The massacre was reportedly perpetrated by machete-wielding members of the Rasta and Forces democratiques de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) militia.
Notes were left on the bodies of their victims, in which the attackers claimed that these atrocities were in reprisals to the operations led against them by the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC), MONUC said.
The mission also said that the perpetrators attempted to raid Chihamba, a third village in the same area, a patrol of UN Pakistani peacekeepers opened fire, forcing them to flee into the nearby forests and preventing further deaths.
Media reports that a dozen abductees have been killed remain unconfirmed, and the UN said that almost 30 people who were injured in the attacks are hospitalized in the towns of Kaniola and Walungu, where families close to the targeted villages have sought refuge.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Ross Mountain, also strongly condemned the brutal attacks, declaring that "the entire humanitarian community is appalled and outraged by these brutal murders and condemns all violence committed against civilians by armed groups."
On Monday, a rapid response team - comprising staff from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the non-governmental organization the International Rescue Committee - went to the town of Kaniola.
The team investigated the security situation and the magnitude of the population displacement caused by the recent violence, which the mission confirmed has sparked panic among the civilian population.
Not just people from the vicinity of the attacks, but also those far from the immediate area have fled their homes, the team noted.
"Since Sunday night, we are witnessing new population movements every day," Mr. Mountain said.
He added that 'night commuting' is on the rise. "Terrified civilians return to their villages or to their fields on the hills to check on their harvests. Before nightfall, they hurry back to urban centres and spend the night with host families or in community centres," he said.
Mr. Mountain underscored that it is the responsibility of the Government of the DRC to protect all of its citizens.
Humanitarian agencies in the region expect long-term displacements of people due to the massacre, and stressed the urgent need for medical supplies to help the injured, according to OCHA. More evaluation missions are required to identify the needs of those displaced.
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