15,000 displaced by ethnic and political fighting

Humanitarian agencies in Bunia, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), estimate that more than 15,000 people have been displaced in the surrounding region in the past few weeks by ethnic conflict among the Lendu, Hema and Alur tribes and among political factions of several rebel groups, the UN special representative to the DRC, Amos Ngongi, said on Thursday.

Ngongi called on neighbouring Uganda to protect civilians in the Ituri Province of eastern DRC. "The security of the population in the territory is the job of the local authority... or of the occupying force, Uganda," Ngongi said on Wednesday. "The Ugandans have troops on the ground, and they have a responsibility to provide security for civilians," he added.

Ngongi said he intended to pursue his contacts with the rebel movements, as well as with the Ugandan and Rwandan governments, to stop the "war within the war" immediately. "The civilian population must no longer be held hostage by political ambitions which they do not share," he said. "Currently, the old conflict between Hema and Lendu seems to be instigated and supported by political leaders."

Three different rebel movements - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML), the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), and the lesser-known RCD-Nationale - are vying for control of the region.

Ngongi arrived by helicopter on Wednesday in Bunia, the main town in Ituri, where he saw a column of exhausted villagers, "women in rags and unaccompanied children carrying bundles on their heads - fleeing senseless killings".

Following an upsurge in violence in December, at least 15 attacks in January had resulted in 120 casualties, and the clashes had continued ever since, said a spokesman for the Hema tribe, Felix Kabwizi, on Tuesday.

"The current clashes are hindering the UN in its mandate," he said, "at a time when the inter-Congolese dialogue seems almost within reach, and all efforts must be concentrated on this decisive rendezvous with history".