Fighting limits access to refugees in Liranga

The deteriorating situation in Equateur Province, northwestern DRC, where government forces and the rebel Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) are locked in ongoing clashes, has forced UNHCR to suspend all relief interventions on the Congo River and use much more difficult land routes to reach some 11,000 to 12,000 recently arrived refugees in the neighbouring Republic of Congo. The distribution of non-food items to those 11,000-12,000 refugees who crossed to the opposite riverbank to settle around Liranga and Njoundou were on Thursday switched to land routes, which were frequently bad jungle tracks, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a press briefing in Geneva. Many refugees who had been living along the river in Liranga and Njoundou were leaving for safer locations further north and inland in RoC, near Dongou. UNHCR was sending an emergency team to the area to look at the possibility of opening new camps away from the volatile river area opposite southern Equateur and ensure access to the refugees, Redmond said. “Access to this group of refugees is extremely important because of a reported outbreak of shigella, a highly-contagious disease with symptoms similar to cholera and requiring antibiotic treatment as well as rehydration salts and a good food ration with a high protein intake,” he said. Young children, the chronically ill and elderly people were most at risk, but an agency medical coordinator was on site and it was hoped the outbreak could be rapidly controlled.