NGO suspends work in parts of South Kivu

The NGO Action Against Hunger (USA) stated on Tuesday that it has suspended its activities south of Uvira city and around Ndolera in the Ruzizi plain in South Kivu, eastern DRC, after the latest in a long series of security incidents. On Tuesday 23 May, the agency said, a team of one expatriate nurse, one local nurse and a driver were stopped by a group of armed men in Kadekezi, held at gunpoint and beaten while the car and their personal belongings were looted. They were forcibly brought to a village and finally released the same day without further injury after they clearly stated that they were nurses and “in charge of treatment and care of patients”.

Action Against Hunger-USA has been working in South Kivu since early 1997 and was one of very few international relief agencies operational in southern parts of it. The agency has been working to strengthen agriculture and fishing activities, as well as operating therapeutic and supplementary feeding, in order to address “the appalling humanitarian situation” in the province, but the distribution of medical supplies had to be interrupted because of a lack of access, it said. Meanwhile, AAH intended to start a new intervention program in Moba, northern Katanga province, which had attracted little or no humanitarian assistance in the current phase of the DRC conflict, its statement added.