February 21, 2003
U.N. aid officials expressed concern on Friday that armed groups outside Congo's peace pact continue to rape and kill with impunity in the eastern areas of former Zaire. Guillermo Bettocchi, who led a United Nations mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, said 2.7 million people remained internally displaced.
They included 500,000 people uprooted in the last six months, many out of reach in remote forest areas. Some 5,000 women had reportedly been raped in the Uvira area since October, an average of 40 a day, often in cruel conditions witnessed by their families, he told a news briefing.
"What shocked us was that armed elements are basically targeting the civilian population," Bettocchi said, blaming "uncontrolled armed groups" including MaiMai, Interhamwe and Burundi Hutu groups FDD and FNEL. "A total environment of impunity prevails." Congo's warring parties signed a deal in mid-December to share power and reunite the country that has been sliced apart since war broke out in August 1998, sucking in six foreign armies.
But hopes that the pact will stop violence have been dampened by fighting and fresh movements of populations. Claude Jibidar, of the World Food Programme (WFP), said: "There might be a perception that the peace process is on and the situation is largely improving. "It is improving in some areas, but in others the situation is being aggravated," he said.
"Four years of war raging in the east has destroyed or prevented maintenance on all infrastructure. Roads are non-existent." WFP, a Rome-based U.N. agency, is trying to feed around 1.5 million displaced people in the country but says insecurity has prevented its aid workers from reaching more of the hungry.
Its most recent airlift, begun this week, is to Kindu, capital city of Maniema. Financed by the U.S. government, it aims to bring 200 tonnes of food aid to 6,750 people.
Despite massive needs, donor countries have failed to contribute any funds to a U.N. appeal for $268 million for 2003 and financed less than half of $202 million sought last year.
"With respect to the DRC, there is donor fatigue. Donors are tired of supporting humanitarian programmes and not seeing any significant progress," Bettocchi conceded. "The DRC may have fallen into the category of forgotten crises."
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