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UNHCR flies vital shelter aid to North Kivu for displaced Congolese

News Stories, 13 November 2008

© UNHCR/ D.Nthengwe
UNHCR workers unload components of a Rubb hall from the chartered flight at Goma Airport today (Thursday).

GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, November 13 (UNHCR) – A UNHCR-chartered aircraft carrying vital shelter aid for thousands of displaced civilians arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) troubled North Kivu province on Thursday.

The flight touched down in the provincial capital, Goma, after leaving Entebbe Airport in Uganda earlier in the day carrying 1,500 bales of plastic sheeting and three giant portable warehouses, known as Rubb halls, from UNHCR's regional stockpile in Dubai.

The halls will be used as accommodation for some of the more than 67,000 people currently sheltering in two camps in the town of Kibati, which is located just north of Goma, after fleeing fighting between government soldiers and troops loyal to renegade general, Laurent Nkunda.

A day earlier, a six-truck convoy arrived in Goma from UNHCR's aid warehouse in Ngara, Tanzania, carrying 3,525 pieces of plastic sheeting, 2,652 kitchen sets, some 20,220 blankets and 20,200 sleeping mats. The refugee agency had already transported non-food items for some 50,000 people to Goma from Ngara.

The latest items will help ease the plight of the 65,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Kibati I site and the 2,600 IDPs in Kibati II, which are located just two kilometres from the frontline of the opposing military forces.

"What we have received and what we are distributing to displaced families is still short of actual needs. We hope relief goods will continue to arrive at this pace until all displaced families have been assisted," said Ibrahima Coly, head of the UNHCR sub-office in Goma.

The UNHCR airlift on Thursday came as the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) launched a major distribution of non-food items – including some stock from UNHCR's Goma depot – to the displaced in both Kibati camps. This followed a food distribution by the World Food Programme.

The aid distributions have been warmly welcomed by newly arrived IDPs such as 35-year-old Juliana. "I do not believe what I see," said the mother of five, who had fled to Kibati from the village of Rugari to the north. "We have suffered without blankets or sleeping mats," she added.

Meanwhile, the North Kivu provincial authorities and aid agencies are looking at ways to move the IDPs in Kibati to safer areas, further away from the frontlines.

"We are going to ask the population at Kibati to voluntarily move to Mugunga III, where we have enough space and security," said provincial official, Patrice Lumumba, referring to a proposed new IDP site to the west of Goma with a capacity of up to 22,000 people.

UNHCR and its partners are looking at issues such as infrastructure, sensitization of the IDPs to a move, transportation of the IDPs, registration and security. "The security of displaced persons is our priority and we plan to conduct the exercise within a week," said UNHCR's Coly.

Fighting in North Kivu intensified at the end of 2006. By January 2008, it had brought the total number of IDPs in the region to more than 800,000. Since the fighting resumed in August, some 250,000 civilians have fled, many of them already displaced.

By David Nthengwe in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signed a cease-fire accord and began a series of talks aimed at negotiating a lasting peace. By late 2003, more than 300,000 internally displaced persons had returned to their often destroyed towns and villages.

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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

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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.

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UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

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