NGO appeals for aid of thousands of IDPs in central Katanga

A local NGO has launched "a desperate appeal" for thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) forced to flee fighting between rival Mayi-Mayi militias in Malemba Nkulu region of central Katanga Province of southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), warning of an "imminent humanitarian catastrophe".

In a statement issued on Monday from its office in Lubumbashi, capital city of Katanga, the Commission for the Popularisation of Human Rights and for Development (CVDHO - La Commission de Vulgarisation des Droits de l'Homme et de Developpement) said it was "profoundly disturbed" by the degree to which the living conditions of IDPs from Kayumba commune, now seeking refuge in and around the commune of Museka, had deteriorated since fighting erupted in May 2003.

A local source told IRIN that the fighting involved two rival militias, and that police forces sent to stop the hostilities now risked becoming embroiled themselves.

"Following an assessment mission in the region, we must report with horror the near-bestial living, clothing and nutritional conditions of an estimated 25,000 men, women and children in the villages of Mukubu and Kyolo, in Museka commune," CVDHO reported. "Deprived of even the most basic means for human life, these people are living in straw huts with hardly any clothing left on their bodies."

The NGO said that an average of seven children died in the IDP camps each day from diarrhoea, while nearly one-half of the children suffered from severe malnutrition.

International relief NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres was reported to be the only major aid organisation present in the region, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and several UN agencies.