Democratic Republic of the Congo: Massive displacement and deteriorating humanitarian conditions

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^{31 December 2008}

It was estimated in December 2008 that almost 1.4 million people were displaced by the various conflicts which have killed several million people and continue to affect the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The situation was dynamic with at least 400,000 returning home and at least 400,000 being newly displaced by armed conflict, generalised violence and widespread human rights violations during the year. The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator described the situation in North Kivu Province in November 2008: “Congolese civilians found themselves in the worst of all worlds: subject to attacks, displacement, sexual violence and forced recruitment perpetrated by advancing rebel forces; and to acts of violence, rape and looting carried out by members of the official Congolese armed forces and Mai Mai and other militias.”

The majority of the new displacements were in North Kivu, followed by Ituri and Haut-Uélé Districts (Orientale Province) and South Kivu. People there have been displaced several times since the mid-1990s; the latest wave followed fighting between government forces and militia of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), and between the CNDP and the Hutu Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) and local Mai Mai militia groups. The violence and displacement in North Kivu between government and CNDP forces peaked between the end of August and the end of November. In Haut-Uélé, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attacks led to the displacement of tens of thousands of villagers at the end of 2008, and DRC’s armed forces worked alongside those of Uganda and Southern Sudan to root the LRA out.

All these groups, including government soldiers, have frequently attacked civilians to seize food and belongings, or punish people for perceived or real allegiance to other groups. Armed non-state actors have also abducted children to fight. The government’s troops are ill-equipped, poorly trained, and barely paid. All of them prey on the population, and aim both to defeat historic enemies and secure territory in order to benefit from the extraction of natural resources.

Most IDPs live with host communities. In North Kivu, they have sought shelter in camps, with hosts in areas out of the immediate firing line, or in forests. The majority are supporting themselves or relying entirely on the limited resources of their hosts, as humanitarian access has been severely limited by the fighting.

Thus eastern DRC’s IDPs face a range of severe threats. IDP sites have come under attack. They have been victims of widespread killings, rapes, and the destruction and looting of their homes and camps. The vast majority of IDPs and returnees lack access to basic infrastructure such as health centres, schools and roads, clean water, food, seeds, tools, clothes and straw to build houses. In North Kivu, the conflict in 2008 led them to lose access to their fields and so miss the planting season, and caused the disruption of education for many children. There were many reports of separated families in 2008, and few IDPs in North Kivu had the identity documents needed to help them to be reunited.

IDPs at particular risk include children, and particularly those separated from their family, and female-headed households and pregnant women. Women and children are at great risk of sexual violence, and children risk being recruited in armed groups. People from ethnic groups which are in the minority in their displacement area are also particularly vulnerable.

The government has tasked the Ministry for Solidarity and Humanitarian Affairs to address the situation of IDPs, but it has had no impact and there has been no legislation to support their protection. Some national NGOs have distributed food and other items, provided counselling for rape victims, and training and education; they have also worked with international NGOs and UN agencies to register and monitor IDPs.

International responsibility for IDP protection has fallen in the first instance to MONUC. The UN peacekeeping mission has had some successes, but was overwhelmed during the second half of 2008 due to a lack of manpower and clear rules of engagement to protect civilians. The cluster approach was introduced in 2006 and did lead to a better-coordinated response. UN agencies and international NGOs have provided assistance to IDPs in zones they could access, and have made efforts to reach IDPs in host communities despite the access difficulties.

Where peace has returned to their areas of origin, people have been able to return home and restart their lives with very little external help.

22 October 2009: UN-supported military operations and FDLR reprisals lead to violations, abuses and displacement

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions has described military operations against the rebel FDLR militia as "catastrophic" from a human rights perspective. Since Operation Kimia II started March in North and South Kivu Provinces, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, thousands have been raped, hundreds of villages burnt to the ground, and at least 1,000 civilians killed. There are currently an estimated 980,000 IDPs in North Kivu Province alone. In October, over 80 Congolese and international NGOs denounced the humanitarian cost of operations against the FDLR and its reprisals against the population.

Meanwhile, the UN reported that in South Kivu Province, over 5,000 cases of rape against women had been reported in the first six months of 2009, 90 per cent of them allegedly committed by armed militias or by the Congolese army. Attacks against humanitarian workers have also increased in recent weeks in North Kivu, hampering access to IDPs and other vulnerable people. Between January and October, over 100 attacks were recorded in the province, involving murders, abductions, and thefts of assets. Fewer than ten per cent of attacks on humanitarians reported in 2008 have been formally investigated by police.

Fighting between militia groups and Congolese armed forces supported by the UN, as well as attacks and violence against civilians, caused the displacement of some 800,000 people in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the first six months of 2009. As a result of these and earlier episodes, an estimated two million people were displaced in North and South Kivu and Orientale Province as of the end of July 2009. Many internally displaced people (IDPs) have not received assistance from international agencies, whose access has been blocked by the insecurity. Tens of thousands have sought shelter in camps and spontaneous settlements, as the resident population’s capacity to host IDPs has declined.

Since the mid-1990s, millions of Congolese have fled their homes to escape fighting between rebel groups and the government, in a complex conflict which has also involved neighbouring states. The International Rescue Committee estimated in January 2008 that some 5.4 million had died as a result of the conflict. Displacement peaked in 2003, with an estimated 3.4 million people forced from their homes, most of them in eastern DRC. (...)

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^{12 August 2009}