Humanitarian agencies slowly returning to eastern provinces

Humanitarian operations are gradually resuming in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, following the withdrawal on 8 June of dissident soldiers led by Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebutsi, a humanitarian worker told IRIN on Friday.

Claude Mululu, the liaison officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bukavu, said many of the humanitarian workers who had been withdrawn from the area were beginning to return.

He said an inter-agency evaluation of humanitarian needs in Bukavu was being conducted, and evaluations outside the town were due to begin next week.

Meanwhile, he said, OCHA had resumed coordinating supplies for Bukavu's medical facilities. He also said that the Kadutu central market in Bukavu had been looted during the occupation by the dissidents, and this had brought about serious food shortages. OCHA reported that the movement of consignments of supplies had been obstructed by the army's ongoing search for dissident soldiers. From the north, towards Kalehe, the supply route was blocked by Nkunda's troops, while supplies from the east were also blocked due to the closure of the Rwandan border, he added.

Earlier this week, government forces returned to the town of Kamanyola following the withdrawal of Mutebutsi's troops, thereby opening up an important supply route from the south.