20 mt of food due to reach eastern town

A humanitarian convoy delivering 20 mt of food to vulnerable people in the eastern town of Kamituga, South Kivu Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is due to reach its destination on Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. OCHA said the consignment was part of a 40-mt donation by the UN World Food Programme to the Roman Catholic relief agency, CARITAS, in Mwenga, some 30 km east by road from the mining area of Kamituga. CARITAS is using the food for its nutrition programme aimed particularly at malnourished children, OCHA said. "The significance of the convoy is that although there has been some very limited road access for most of the past year, this has run the gauntlet of many dozens of roadblocks where commercial traffic has been taxed by Mayi-Mayi groups, the RCD [Rassemblement Congolais pour la democratie] and Rwandan armed elements," a humanitarian official told IRIN. This was the first humanitarian convoy since August 1998, when people alleged to be members of the RCD and the Rwandan army killed some 850 unarmed civilians at a Roman Catholic parish in Kasika and in the neighbouring areas of Kilungutwe, Kalama and Zokwe, in South Kivu. The official said the convoy was "only possible now" because of the rapprochement between the Mayi-Mayi and the RCD; and because of the negotiations with the Rwandan armed group, the Forces democratique de liberation du Rwanda. "In this sense it is hugely symbolic of the beginnings of a return to normality in South Kivu," the official said. "The opening up of commercial routes is a vital element in the reintegration of the province, and the restarting of economic links within the province and beyond." The consignment was being delivered under escort of South African UN ground troops and two combat helicopters, a clear sign that the UN Mission in the DRC was ready to use its now robust mandate to protect and support humanitarian intervention, the official said.