People of Isiro in urgent need of aid, says OCHA

The lives of civilians in Isiro, the main town of Haut-Uele district in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are being held together by only a "desperate thread", and the town bears the traces of one of the most "ferocious rebellions" of the civil war, a recent humanitarian mission to the area reported. The mission said the local population complained of continued harrassment by the army and police, the levying of irregular taxes by the administration (the former rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National, RCD-N, which is now part of the national transitional government), and continued military recruitment, especially of children. The population suffered from a lack of clean water, the majority of households lacked access to a balanced, protein-rich diet, and more than 100,000 workers were without jobs due to a drastic decline in the area's agricultural industry, which used to comprise cotton, coffee and palm oil, the report said. It noted that experts from the Ministry of Health, MEDAIR, Medecins sans Frontieres and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had confirmed meningitis in the three health zones of Isiro, Faradje and Watsa, and that MEDAIR feared the number of vulnerable people would increase in the dry season, due to begin in January, especially owing to the large movement of displaced people. The joint mission, which visited Isiro from 26-28 November, included the UN Deputy Special Representative to the DRC, Lena Sundh, the German ambassador Loretta Loschelder, and representatives from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The report recommended that the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration section of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) pay particular attention to the collection of statistical data on RCD-N fighters to be demobilised, and that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), together with the International Rescue Committee, focus on child soldiers in the framework of a programme financed by the World Bank. The report also said a plan of action was needed to address the dire state of the road system to allow people to trade again; the implementing of a plan drawn up by the NGO ATLAS Logistique could alleviate the immediate water problem, and FAO should renew a programme aimed at helping people to achieve food security by distributing seeds for market garden produce. The mission called on aid agencies and humanitarian players to open offices in Isiro, where it said reduced offices of WHO and MEDAIR felt themselves to be working alone in the face of major humanitarian needs. Only by their presence, the report said, could "confidence return in Isiro". A separate report by OCHA raised concern over the situation of an estimated 6,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Watsa, northeast of Isiro. The IDPs are believed to be mainly from Mongbwalu in Ituri district, but further details were difficult to obtain because a lack of flights meant a joint humanitarian mission had not been able to visit the area.