UN body criticizes FDLR attacks on IDPs

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been alarmed by the renewed armed attacks against camps for displaced people in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). OCHA raised concern on Friday after reports on series of armed attacks by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), on camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). The UN agency decried that such incidents seriously disrupt aid operations. In one cited instance, it is reported that the FDLR raided the Nyange camp in North Kivu on January 22, killing and injuring several people. According to OCHA, the raid was allegedly intended to forcefully recruit men into the FDLR. Speaking over the phone from the DRC’s Eastern provincial capital Goma yesterday, David Nthengwe, the Public Information Officer of The UN refugee agency - UNHCR, confirmed the agencies’ latest fears. “Yes there was, about two weeks ago, a raid in one of the camps and this is a threat to the delivery of assistance to the people who need it most,” Nthengwe said, noting that there are 47 such makeshift camps in Eastern DRC, including one in Minova, South Kivu province. Acknowledging the ‘threat’ of attempts by the FDLR to recruit men from the camps, Nthengwe also noted that “the position of the UNHCR is clear – those camps cannot be dwelling sites of recruitment because they compromise our work.” “When the FDLR come to attack, they make the situation more difficult for humanitarian workers.” The FDLR has been weakened by several joint Rwanda-DRC and UN-DRC military offensives since early last year in a bid to flush the group out of the DRC where it has been killing, raping and pillaging. Ends

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UN body criticizes FDLR attacks on IDPs