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"Significant reduction" in humanitarian access to eastern towns, UN official says

Country Map - DRC (Bukavu) IRIN
"The journalist was detained because he deviated from the scheduled programming of his station," Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, the RCD-Goma spokesman, told IRIN on Friday
    NAIROBI

    UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Carolyn McAskie has said renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the withdrawal of Rwandan troops had resulted in significant reductions in humanitarian access to certain towns, UN News reported on Wednesday.

    It quoted her as saying access was especially reduced in areas
    around Bukavu, Kindu and Uvira, "where relief organisations have had to suspend activities or evacuate completely".

    McAskie said tension had increased in the eastern town of Kindu and that this had "increased the number of displaced people to 11,000", UN News reported.

    In addition, she said that fighting in Ituri between the Hema and Lendu communities had made 60,000 people flee in the past two months; bringing to 500,000 the total number of displaced persons in the Bunia area, in northeastern Congo.

    McAskie has just ended a three-day mission to the country and is now in Burundi.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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