New wave of displaced people in eastern Congo

Hundreds of people are again arriving in North Kivu Province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following fierce fighting between two rebel armies for control of Bafwasende and Niania in the neighbouring Orientale Province, World Vision reported on Tuesday. The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML) of Mbusa Nyamwisi seized Bafwasende and Niania from Roger Lumbala's RCD-National forces; triggering a mass exodus to Luna, Eringeti and Beni, the main town in northern Nord Kivu Province and Nyamwisi's base. "The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) has swollen by hundreds. We had registered about 33,000 two weeks ago," said Richard Mugambi, acting manager of the Beni Project of World Vision Eastern DRC in Goma. The IDPs were registered within a 50-km stretch of road in the urban centres of Eringeti, Oicha, Mbau, Ngadi, Mavivi, Mutwanga and Beni, World Vision reported. "Hundreds of displaced people are scattered in villages along the roads without food, shelter, housing, clothing and other basic needs," said Kangala, one of the displaced people who walked to Beni. Between August and October, World Vision said, the first wave of IDPs fled decades old conflicts over land between the Hema and Lendu people and communities akin to each side. The fighting between rebel forces, originally battling to oust the government of Congolese President Joseph Kabila, has fuelled the ethnic conflicts and displacement, World Vision said. In August, the Congolese Patriotic Union of Thomas Lubanga, supported by Hema militias, dislodged Nyamwisi's forces and those of his allies from Bunia, the main town in Ituri District. RCD-K-ML then set up base in Beni, and took revenge on Jean-Pierre Bemba by grabbing the town of Mambasa from his Mouvement de liberation du Congo, in late October, World Vision reported. "Rival tribes have always taken advantage of rebel rivalries to stage revenge massacres and rebel armies too have used ethnic conflicts to advance their motives. The situation in northeastern DRC remains volatile and people are likely to be displaced from time to time," World Vision said. Congolese politicians, representatives of RCD-Goma, Memba's movement as well as those of the government in Kinshasa, are in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South African, to work out a deal for a transitional government in the DRC.