UN troops move to secure Fataki, displaced in urgent need of aid

Troops of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUC, launched an operation on Thursday to secure the northeastern town of Fataki, Ituri District, as an NGO there reported that some 5,000 displaced residents were in need of urgent aid. "All we have been able to provide them is medicine, plastic sheeting and some utensils, they need food and blankets as they are sleeping in the open," Etienne Ndeykos, director of the Roman Catholic NGO Caritas in Bunia, told IRIN on Wednesday. He said that the displaced, who had fled to Bule, a centre about 5 km from Fataki, were living in deplorable conditions in an enclosure, under the coordination of two Caritas priests. He said Fataki was deserted as roving gangs had looted and burnt houses. He added that a Caritas team would leave Bunia, the main town of Ituri, for Bule to make another needs assessment tour of the displaced. The acting commander of the Ituri Brigade, Brig-Gen Jan Isberg, said on Wednesday at a news conference in Bunia that the Fataki operation would entail ground and air units to rid the town of militiamen and return it to its residents. Combat helicopters would drop soldiers into the town, he said. Isberg said MONUC would also consider providing security to humanitarian organisations dealing with the displaced in Fataki. At the same time, he said Bunia remained calm three days after the French-led multinational peace-enforcement force handed over to the now-strengthened MONUC force. He dismissed claims that there had been violence in Bunia since the UN force took over, adding that it had 1,600 soldiers on the ground to ensure the situation remained calm. "We are launching operations in and out of Bunia," he said. "We have conducted operations to recover arms in the town, acting on tips we have received from the residents. We have recovered AK-47s, hand grenades and other ammunition, and we will continue with these operations until we make Bunia a weapon-free zone." Regarding operations outside Bunia, he said MONUC expected to control the proliferation of arms by ensuring that militia leaders controlled their men wherever they were based. "We will use force on those gangs that will be found to be under no control of any political grouping and we will recover arms from them," he said.