DRC: Humanitarian access difficult, need great in Walikale territory

New York: 24 November 2003 - A recent humanitarian assessment mission to Walikale territory of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), some 100 km from the border with Rwanda, found great humanitarian needs among the population there. Though roughly ten thousand civilians had returned to their largely destroyed villages since fighting subsided in March, many still live in fear of numerous armed groups who continue to pillage their crops. Civilians also continue to suffer from shortages of basic services like health care and education. Further, thousands of civilians remain cut off from aid due to the presence of numerous armed groups, the poor quality of roads and the absence of an airstrip.
The mission was conducted while the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Jan Egeland visited eastern DRC earlier this month. The assessment team comprised five UN agencies (UN Children's Fund, World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) as well as two NGOs (AVSI and Caritas). Its objective was to establish the general humanitarian situation; following heavy fighting in March 2003 when forces of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma, a former rebel group that is now party to the DRC's two-year transitional government) ended a six-month occupation of Walikale town by Mayi-Mayi militia forces.

Some 10,000 of Walikale town's estimated population of 15,000 have returned since March, after having sought refuge in surrounding bush for several months. As populations continued to return, demands for food continued to increase as availability of food supplies continued to decrease. The mission found that populations were reluctant to resume agricultural activity, as armed groups helped themselves to food cultivated by others. Mr. Egeland had raised this issue with transitional authorities during his mission, imploring them to bring an end to armed groups taking supplies from civilians. The mission found that residents depended primarily on food items that therefore less likely to be pillaged such as palm oil, rice and soybeans. In the town of Mubi, food supplies were plentiful, but all the town's 20,000 residents had to rely on one unmonitored water spring.

The mission found that only one the area's of 24 health centres was found to be fully accessible. The one non-governmental organization that is operational in the area, Medecins Sans Frontiers, is working to rehabilitate the facility. The mission also found serious problems in obtaining medical supplies, given poor roads and insecurity; a very low level of vaccination coverage - less than 21 percent; and "very weak" epidemiological monitoring and reporting. Anti-polio vaccinations had not taken place in the past two years - despite the fact that the region had experienced a major outbreak of polio as recently as 1998.

The territory's education system was devastated. All schools had been seriously damaged, while many had been completely pillaged and destroyed during recent years of occupation both by various armed groups as well as by waves of IDPs and refugees. An estimated 40 percent of school-age children did not attend school at all, with girls constituting a majority of absentees. Of eight schools visited, none had a source of running water, and only two were equipped with latrines, making the risk of disease "enormous", according to the mission.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA NY, 917 367 5126, mobile 917 892 1679; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, 41 22 917 2653, mobile 41 (0) 79 472 4570.