UN, aid agencies granted access to region around Uvira

The United Nations and international aid agencies are sending their first humanitarian evaluation mission to the region around Uvira, South Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting has displaced over 50,000 people.

Speaking on Wednesday to reporters in the nation's capital, Kinshasa, the UN Special Representative for the DRC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, said it was the first time since the beginning of hostilities in the region that permission had been given to enter the area, controlled by the Rwanda-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma).

"We have never been given a security guarantee for the zone," he said.

Humanitarian officials say health, education, literacy, nutrition, and water purification needs would be the principal foci of the assessment mission. The UN Children's Fund, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organisation, Save the Children, and other aid agencies are to take part.

Fighting has escalated in recent weeks in the Hauts Plateaux region, which overlooks Uvira, between the forces of Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) leader Patrick Masunzu, and RCD-Goma. Masunzu led a mutiny within RCD-Goma in early 2002, claiming that it was no longer protecting his community. The rebel group accuses Mayi-Mayi militias, Congolese government forces, and the Interahamwe of supporting the Banyamulenge uprising.

Truckloads of Rwandan reinforcements have been transported to the region to help RCD-Goma. There are also reports of helicopter gunships bombing local villages, according to the BBC.

Meanwhile, the head of RCD-Goma's Department of Justice and Human Rights, Moise Nyarugabo, has appealed to local residents to dissociate themselves from Masunzu, encouraging them to give the army and local authorities information about "the enemy".

However, regional analysts told IRIN that the RCD-Goma and its Rwandan allies were "extremely unpopular", whereas Masunzu had the support of a majority of the population.

Radio Television Nationale Congolaise, the RCD-Goma controlled broadcaster, reported on Thursday that RCD and Rwandan forces had captured an airstrip in the Lolimba area, and that a second in Kinembwe was under siege. The radio station described the Lombimba airstrip as one of three "strongholds" Kinshasa used to supply Masunzu's forces.