The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed on Friday its concern over the increased number of violent incidents and displacements in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2018) The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) expressed on Friday its concern over the increased number of violent incidents and displacements in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Over the past several months, there has been multiple reports about a sharp rise in abuses against civilians in the DRC province of North Kivu and subsequent mass displacement. According to the UNHCR, about 13,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the Beni area in August alone. Last weekend, over 20 people were killed in the city of Beni in an attack carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces - National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU).
"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is gravely concerned for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians in the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where violence by armed groups has recently claimed more than 20 lives," Babar Baloch, the UNHCR spokesperson, said at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, as cited by the agency's press service.
The agency estimated that there were more than a million of internally displaced persons in North Kivu, with half a million fleeing their homes this year alone.
The UNHCR called on the parties to the conflict to protect lives of the civilians displaced in the region that was already suffering from a deadly Ebola outbreak.
The DRC has long been fighting the ADF-NALU, which was formed in western Uganda to oppose the Ugandan government and eventually expanded into the neighboring state. The group is considered a terrorist organization in Uganda and is believed to be responsible for frequent incidents of violence in both Uganda and the DRC.
