Humanitarian disaster looming in Kisangani

The humanitarian situation in the northeastern Congolese town of Kisangani is worsening day by day following the fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan forces there. Hundreds of people are reported dead and others wounded, according to news agencies and humanitarian sources. "Following an estimated 2,000 bomb shells falling on the town we expect more deaths than what is being reported," the head of Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) in the eastern Congolese of Goma told IRIN on Friday. "At the moment nobody knows the actual number of casualties due to the continued fighting, as MSF and ICRC staff remain indoors." The UN mission (MONUC) in Kisangani on Thursday slammed both Rwandan and Ugandan commanders on the ground for blocking all attempts aimed at reaching a ceasefire. "The commanders in the field are responsible for blocking the ceasefire, they are taking part in a genocide here because they are destroying the town and lots of civilians are dying," Lt.Colonel Danilo Paiva, an officer with MONUC in Kisangani, told the French news agency AFP. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the general hospital was not directly hit, but was not operational due to lack of water and electricity. The emergency needs, according to the sources, are surgical kits to treat the wounded and chemicals to bury the dead. "The priorities if a ceasefire takes effect are supporting the local medical infrastructures, water treatment chemicals, food distribution to the most-affected areas in town and plastic sheeting to temporarily replace roofs," one source said. Fierce fighting was still continuing in Kisangani on Friday, despite agreement by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni to a ceasefire, following a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday.