Assessment mission visits Baraka, South Kivu

A United Nations humanitarian assessment mission has succeeded in reaching Baraka, on the northern shore of Lake Tanganyika, South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The delegation, which arrived in Baraka on Thursday, met local authorities, traditional leaders, representatives of NGOs and civil society, as well as the local population, the spokesman for the UN mission in the DRC (known as MONUC), Hamadoun Toure, told IRIN on Friday. The security situation in the town was reported to be "calm", while the humanitarian situation remained "a source of concern", Toure said. A large number of people had died of malnutrition, and "a shortage of food is not to be ruled out for the near future", he said. Rural activities, and agriculture in particular, needed to be boosted, he added. Local sources said almost 11,000 displaced families (about 54,000 people) had been accommodated by local families and in abandoned houses in Baraka town, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. Most had come from other towns in the region, OCHA said, notably Fizi, Ubwari, Mukera, Lulenge and Itombwe. The delegation was welcomed by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma)administrator of Fizi, who apologised for an incident - citing communication difficulties - on 3 August when a previous assessment mission to Baraka had been surrounded by unidentified armed forces and told to leave the area immediately. The UN is planning a further mission to Fizi, South Kivu, which remained inaccessible on Thursday for security reasons. A full report on Baraka is expected next week. In a separate development, Bunia town in Ituri Province, northeastern DRC, was reported to be "very tense" on Friday due to ongoing fighting between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups, OCHA reported. Estimates of recent deaths ranged from 37 to 100, and were principally of civilians. Representatives from both OCHA and MONUC had approached the Ugandan army, which nominally controls the area, to ask it to intervene by patrolling the town's tensest areas, but as of Friday morning this request had not been complied with, OCHA said.