Food crisis threatens Ituri displaced

Sporadic bouts of inter-tribal fighting over land rights between the Hema and Lendu tribes in Ituri province has caused an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people to flee their homes, the ICRC reported on Thursday. There were some 85,000 registered internally-displaced people (IDPs) in the area between Bunia and Djugu as a result of the fighting, a figure that could be revised upwards as greater accessibility allows additional assessment missions, it said. "Concerned by the threat of a major food security crisis" and as the only humanitarian organisation active in and around Bunia, the ICRC is planning a large-scale assistance programme to 50,000 people until the end of the year in centres including Bunia, Katoto, Pimbo and Djugu, the report stated. The agency also reported "substantial
medical needs" among large numbers of IDPs in Kamina and Kabongo, in northeastern Katanga province.

Security constraints in the field were still one of the main obstacles to the conduct of humanitarian operations, and there was difficulty securing access to affected populations in parts of Kasai Oriental province, Haut-Katanga and Tanganyika districts of Katanga province, as well as in the Masisi and Ruthsuru regions of North Kivu and throughout the whole of South Kivu, the ICRC reported.