MSF aims for demonstrable neutrality in Ituri district

In response to the worrying humanitarian situation in the Ituri district of eastern DRC, where sporadic conflict between the predominantly pastoralist Hema and agriculturalist Lendu ethnic groups have displaced some 180,000 people, the health relief agency MSF has dispatched an extra team to the region north of Bunia, an MSF statement said on Thursday. “Scores of adults and children with machete wounds are being treated at the various hospitals in the region, and the violence is not likely to come to an end soon,” MSF said. In response to accusations that it and other organisations had not been neutral in the conflict, MSF would base one team in Bunia, which has a predominantly Hema population, and another in either Rethy or Mahagi, which have a predominantly Lendu population, the statement added.