Medical NGO decries lack of protection, access to civilians

International medical NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) appealed on Friday to the UN Security Council and the international community to ensure the protection of and access by humanitarian agencies to civilian populations in Ituri, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Launching a new report in Nairobi, Kenya, on the embattled Ituri District, MSF expressed concern over the level of humanitarian aid reaching civilians in Bunia, the main town in the district, and surrounding areas, where inter-militia fighting in recent months has displaced thousands of civilians. The report, "Ituri: Unkept Promises? A Pretense of Protection and Inadequate Assistance", is based on testimonies gathered in May and June by MSF staff in Bunia and Beni, to which thousands of displaced people had fled. Beni is 150 km south of Bunia. The Geneva-based MSF director of communication, Michel Clerc, said the NGO was launching the report ahead of a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for next week to decide on the future role of the UN Mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym, MONUC. Violence erupted in Bunia in May following the withdrawal of the Ugandan troops that had occupied the town. At least 350 people died between May and June during the inter-militia clashes. MSF put the number of people displaced by the fighting at 200,000. In June, a French-led peace enforcement multinational force began deploying to Bunia with a UN Security Council mandate to protect the town, its airport and its people until 1 September. MSF said that after the multinational force began deploying various media announced that the town was secure. However, Clerc said: "Violence and insecurity continue to shape the reality of people in Bunia. Every measure till now has been insufficient." He added: "Only a small part of the town is secure, the north and the east of the town are not yet secure. Murders and intimidation continue in the night." MSF said some 15,000 people who returned in the past few weeks were living in two camps in the town, for fear of violence, harassment and intimidation from militias who, even if the multinational force had disarmed them, went to the homes of civilians at night and made threats. "Portraying Bunia as a secure town is not true," Clerc said. He added that this portrayal has had a detrimental effect on civilian populations as they continued to lack food aid, medical care and shelter. He said MSF had established a screening post about 5 km south of Bunia where staff directed people in need of medical attention to a hospital it had set up in a town warehouse. MSF had recently carried out 500 surgical operations on the wounded and the sick, he said. The MSF deputy head of mission in the eastern region of Goma, Hilary Bower, said that despite the political changes in the DRC (recent installation of a transitional government), the situation in and around Bunia continued to be reflected in other areas in the northeastern and eastern DRC. She said that violence and insecurity persisted even in areas that were considered peaceful. She added that armed men, ranging from bandits to militaries, continued to pillage civilian property, recruit children into their ranks, rape the girls and children and murder civilians. "This is a war against civilians. This is not a war with civilian casualties any more," she said. [The MSF report is available online at: www.msf.org]