• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%

Ugandan rebel army, attacking inside Congo, drives 125,000 from their homes

News Stories, 28 August 2009

© UNHCR/D.Nthengwe
On Your Bike: These civilians are fleeing to safety after attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army in Orientale province.

DUNGU, Democratic Republic of the Congo, August 28 (UNHCR) -- The scale of destruction and displacement caused by the Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in eastern DRC is becoming clearer as news emerges that at least 125,000 people have been driven out of their villages in the Haut Uele district of Orientale province in the last three weeks alone.

This brings to 540,000 the number of Congolese uprooted in Orientale province in the far northeast of the country since September 2008 by the LRA, notorious for its brutality in looting, killing and kidnapping civilians.

Karl Steinacker, UNHCR's Coordinator for eastern DRC, who is currently touring the area, describes the situation as "the most severe humanitarian crisis ongoing in eastern Congo at the moment" – an area wracked by war since 1999.

Civilians told UNHCR of the traumas they endured at the hands of the LRA over the last weeks. "I am blind, but the LRA has forced me, who could be their grandfather, to flee," said a 95-year-old man north of Dungu, one of the places hardest hit by the LRA attacks despite the fact that it is more than 400 kilometres west of the Ugandan border.

Displaced civilians say they are terrified to go home. "I cannot go back to my village," a woman from the same area told UNHCR officers. "The LRA has looted and burned down our homes."

Rebels have reportedly killed some 1,270 people and abducted 655 children in Orientale province. They have also destroyed hundreds of homesteads and pillaged health centres, schools and other public buildings.

UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies have distributed aid kits consisting of blankets, kitchen sets, jerry cans, mosquito nets, sleeping mats and soap to 11,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) around the villages of Ngilima and Kapili, north-west of Dungu, the capital of Haut Uele district.

However, insecurity and impassable roads continue to make it difficult for aid agencies to reach and help the vast majority of the displaced. Moreover, as the number of IDPs increases, friction over the meagre resources has erupted between the displaced and host families who have been stretched to the limit. Some of the host families have been hosting the displaced since September last when the LRA started its attacks in Haut Uele.

The LRA has also forced an estimated 8,000 Congolese to flee to neighbouring South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR). Some 6,500 of these have gone to the Western Equatoria region of South Sudan, where LRA attacks in Ezo forced UN staff to evacuate less than a fortnight ago.

In CAR, the Congolese refugees headed for Mboki and Obo in the eastern part of the country bordering both DRC and Sudan. This week UNHCR dispatched a team from Bangui to Mboki to assess the situation and assist the refugees and internally displaced people.

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related stories by:

UNHCR country pages

A Time Between: Moving on from Internal Displacement in Uganda

This document examines the situation of IDPs in Acholiland in northern Uganda, through the stories of individuals who have lived through conflict and displacement.

Internally Displaced People

The internally displaced seek safety in other parts of their country, where they need help.

Related Internet Links

UNHCR is not responsible for the content and availability of external internet sites

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

As a massive food distribution gets underway in six UNHCR-run camps for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese in North Kivu, the UN refugee agency continues to hand out desperately needed shelter and household items.

A four-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 33 tonnes of various aid items, including plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans crossed Wednesday from Rwanda into Goma, the capital of the conflict-hit province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The aid, from regional emergency stockpiles in Tanzania, was scheduled for immediate distribution. The supplies arrived in Goma as the World Food Programme (WFP), with assistance from UNHCR, began distributing food to some 135,000 displaced people in the six camps run by the refugee agency near Goma.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting resumed in August in North Kivu. Estimates are that there are now more than 1.3 million displaced people in this province alone.

Posted on 6 November 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Since 2006, renewed conflict and general insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province has forced some 400,000 people to flee their homes – the country's worst displacement crisis since the formal end of the civil war in 2003. In total, there are now some 800,000 people displaced in the province, including those uprooted by previous conflicts.

Hope for the future was raised in January 2008 when the DRC government and rival armed factions signed a peace accord. But the situation remains tense in North Kivu and tens of thousands of people still need help. UNHCR has opened sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) and distributed assistance such as blankets, plastic sheets, soap, jerry cans, firewood and other items to the four camps in the region. Relief items have also been delivered to some of the makeshift sites that have sprung up.

UNHCR staff have been engaged in protection monitoring to identify human rights abuses and other problems faced by IDPs and other populations at risk across North Kivu.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Posted on 28 May 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Uganda: Sudanese Refugees Flee Rebel Attacks

On August 5, 2002, some 24,000 Sudanese refugees fled their homes in Achol-Pii camp in northern Uganda after a bloody attack by the Lord's Liberation Army rebel group. More than 60 refugees and many local villagers were killed in the attack.

Fearing further violence, displaced refugees trekked overnight to Lira, from where UNHCR trucked them to Kiryondongo, 100 km to the south-west. Kiryondongo site, a settlement already hosting 13,000 refugees, was temporarily extended to accommodate the Achol-Pii survivors until another site could be prepared.

Arriving families were initially accommodated at an expanded reception centre at Kiryondongo. After being registered, the new arrivals received UNHCR plastic sheeting, an emergency food ration and a 20 x 15-metre plot per family to build their own temporary shelter. UNHCR also distributed blankets and jerry cans. Additional latrines were also dug, new water pumps installed and a new emergency clinic was set up.

Uganda: Sudanese Refugees Flee Rebel Attacks

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Kimoka ReturneesPlay video

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Kimoka Returnees

Conflict forced hundreds of thousands of Congolese to flee their homes in North Kivu province in 2007-2008. The villagers of Kimoka are finally returning.
Refugees in Republic of CongoPlay video

Refugees in Republic of Congo

Tens of thousands of people have reportedly fled a wave of ethnic violence in the north-west of the embattled Democratic Republic of the Congo. The civilians have fled from Equateur province, crossing the Ubangi River and seeking shelter in Republic of the Congo.
High Commissioner Guterres visits eastern CongoPlay video

High Commissioner Guterres visits eastern Congo

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres visits some of the estimated 2.1 million displaced people in eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and asks for more international assistance.