DR CONGO: UN FUND ALLOCATES OVER $12 MILLION TO AID VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE

DR CONGO: UN FUND ALLOCATES OVER $12 MILLION TO AID VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
New York, May 29 2009 2:00PM
The United Nations humanitarian wing has allocated over $12 million to help nearly 200,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cope with the lingering consequences of a series of attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Elizabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (<"http://ochaonline.un.org/">OCHA), told reporters in Geneva that the majority of the grant from the Central Emergency Response Fund (<"http://ochaonline.un.org/Default.aspx?alias=ochaonline.un.org/cerf">CERF) – over $6 million – will go towards ensuring food security.

The World Food Programme (<"http://www.wfp.org/">WFP) will use the funds to provide assistance to stabilize food security among some 160,000 people, particularly children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, in the remote north-eastern Haut-Uélé and Bas-Uélé regions.

According to the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as <"http://monuc.unmissions.org/">MONUC, some 1,100 people have been killed by the LRA between December 2008 and January 2009, while hundreds have been abducted and 200,000 uprooted. Attacks by the group, notorious for abducting children as soldiers and sex slaves, have continued in recent months in parts of the DRC.

CERF was created in 2006 to allow the UN quick access to its accounts, potentially saving thousands of lives facing sudden crises. Administered by OCHA, the Fund has so far disbursed well over $1 billion to emergency programmes in 67 countries.
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NOTABLE RISE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS, AID WORKERS IN DR CONGO, UN REPORTS

NOTABLE RISE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS, AID WORKERS IN DR CONGO, UN REPORTS
New York, Feb 27 2009 2:00PM

There has been a notable rise in violations against civilians and attacks on humanitarian workers in North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), leading to new displacement, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today.

Some people fled the fighting, while others moved from villages to the forest and back again, OCHA's Elizabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva.

In addition, seven security incidents against humanitarian actors had been documented between 14 and 24 February, compared to 15 incidents since the beginning of the year.

The rise in such incidents might lead humanitarian organizations working in the province – which has been the scene of clashes between Government forces and rebels that have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people – to reduce or limit their work, leading to "disastrous" consequences for the population, Ms. Byrs said.

She said that the humanitarian community is appealing to all the parties in the territory to respect and protect the civilian population as well as aid workers and their equipment.

OCHA added that attacks against individuals, as well as entire villages and health centres, by the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are continuing in Haut Uélé province. DRC, Uganda and Southern Sudan have joined forces in an offensive against the group, whose attacks have left hundreds dead and uprooted roughly 150,000 people.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it is preparing an emergency operation targeting those driven from their homes or who lost their crops and possessions as a result of LRA attacks.

Meanwhile, aid agencies say they need military protection and are working to find ways to get to remote populations that can only be accessed by helicopter.

Despite these constraints, OCHA reported that aid is reaching some people. WFP, for example, was able to distribute food to more than 32,000 displaced people last week.

OCHA also noted that work is ongoing to improve the airstrip in the north-eastern city of Doruma to facilitate arrivals of humanitarian air flights.

In a related development, Hilde Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is currently in eastern DRC, where she called today for the release of all children currently associated with armed groups in the area.
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