5th November, 2008

Ecumenical News International

Christian emergency response organizations have expressed alarm at a deteriorating situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Northern Kivu province and about brutalities innocent civilians are facing in a potential humanitarian catastrophe.

The Geneva-based ACT International (Action by Churches Together) said in a statement on 30th October that it had accounts from aid workers of looted shops and dead bodies on the pavements in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

"It has been a night of horror, but Goma is quiet now," ACT International quoted one of its aid workers as saying. Emergency work became paralysed after aid workers themselves have been withdrawn from the field for security reasons, while thousands of people are seeking refuge as rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has moved towards the city.

In Manila, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on 30th October appealed for an end to the fighting in the DRC saying, "Unfortunately, the situation in Goma is worrisome. There were some attacks even against the United Nations mission by civilian people."

Emile Mpanya, ACT representative in Kisangani, the most northerly navigable point on the River Congo, said that the UN security service has asked the emergency agencies to withdraw international staff from the area.

Mpanya said he had received eyewitness accounts of armed groups shooting and engaging in overnight looting. Many shops have been pillaged and houses broken into. A family of nine, including a breastfeeding baby, was killed in the Katindo area. Several corpses were found in the streets on the morning of 30 October.

The ACT International statement said, "The population in Goma is confused. They can hardly find out who is in charge in town and what soldiers they see walking in the streets. Thousands have fled to Goma in panic. Others are on the run out of town, mostly families of the retreating Congolese soldiers."

Mpanya, who works for the Lutheran World Service, a member of ACT International, said that people also have moved to Lubero, 150 kilometres north of Goma town. Many of them are wounded soldiers and civilians.

"It is feared that with the fall of Goma to the rebels, the retreating soldiers will commit brutalities on the population," said Mpanya. Most of the displaced people are the families of retreating soldiers, mostly their wives.

Another Christian organizations in the area, World Vision, said it had evacuated its office in Goma into neighbouring Rwanda during the rapidly deteriorating security conditions in Goma.

World Vision's emergency communications advisor Michael Arunga said in a statement,  "We heard sounds of gunfire and witnessed scenes of panic near World Vision's Goma office, not long after the United Nation's OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] issued an advisory this morning on the growing insecurity in Goma."

World Vision said it is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties and for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to enable access by aid workers to those in need.

"Given that many humanitarian workers have now been forced to relocate or evacuate, that the international community, led by the UN, immediately [should] develop a plan to address the current humanitarian crisis resulting from the latest displacements - in addition to the ongoing humanitarian needs," said World Vision.

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