Aid agencies suspend work in Uvira

The International Medical Corps, a non-profit organisation, has suspended its programme in the DRC following an attack near Uvira on Sunday that left a local health centre supervisor dead and injured two IMC staff. According to an IMC statement, the attack - near a checkpoint some 15 km north of Uvira - was the latest in a series of attacks against relief workers in eastern DRC. The two IMC staff members suffered multiple gunshot wounds, along with a number of local vaccinators who were completing the third day of a polio vaccination campaign. The identity of the attackers - who opened fire at point blank range - is unknown.



Another NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF) has also suspended its operations in the Ruzizi plains area near Uvira following the attack. An ACF vehicle was ambushed last month, nurses were beaten and equipment looted. “ACF strongly urges all warring factions to respect the civilian population as well as the humanitarian organisations trying to assist them,” an ACF statement said.