The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has continually voiced their concern over the increasing number of attacks by armed groups on displaced civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Because of this violence, over one million people have been forced to leave their homes since the beginning of 2020.

On Tuesday, June 30, the UNHCR stated publicly that it was becoming increasingly concerned over the amount of attacks on displaced civilians, saying that it was “appalled” by this clear growth in violence.

Between May and June 2020, the UNHCR along with its partners recorded numerous attacks by armed groups on displacement sites, villages, and “refugee camps” all over the DRC.

These attacks were mainly in Ituri province, South Kivu province, and North Kivu province, specifically in Djugu Territory, Fizi and Mwenga Territories, and Masisi and Rutshuru Territories respectively. It is in these areas that over one million people have been displaced over the last six months.

North Kivu especially has suffered at the hands of armed groups, specifically the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF. The ADF is a mainly Muslim movement that began in the 1990s in Uganda. In Ituri however, there is a much higher presence of inter-ethnic violence with the Lendu and Hema communities; this violence claimed almost 300 lives between March and June.

In Djugu territory, U.N. monitors recorded more than 3,000 serious human rights violations between April and May of this year. According to UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley, nearly 50 attacks against the local community are carried out on an average day.

“Displaced people have reported acts of extreme violence with at least 274 civilians killed with weapons such as machetes. More than 140 women were raped and almost 8,000 houses set on fire. The vast majority of those displaced are women and children, many of whom are now living under crowded circumstances with host families from the community.”

Charlie Yaxley

The UNHCR has called on authorities in the DRC to fortify police/military presence in the Eastern region of the nation in order to better the situation with security and hold the offenders accountable.

The agency has stated that these attacks are worsening a pre-existing and extremely complex displacement situation in eastern DRC; reportedly, the attacks are heightening pressure on regions with large populations of internal migrants that lack food, water, and healthcare services.

According to the U.N., the DRC has one of the highest levels of internal displacement globally, alongside rates of gender-based violence, sexual slavery, and genital mutilation. The current situation has increased the number of killings and mutilations not only in eastern DRC, but nationally as well.

“UNHCR is receiving accounts of the way armed groups are unleashing terror on people as they flee, in displacement sites and hosting areas, and when they attempt to return, including reports of killings and mutilation, sexual violence and looting.”

Fragment from UNHCR statement

The looting mentioned in the statement applies to healthcare centers, seeing as medicines designed to treat people potentially exposed to HIV were looted during attacks on these places.

Crowded circumstances in shelters have made required social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 extremely difficult, meaning that these shelters are not only vulnerable to attacks, but also to uncontainable/undocumented numbers of Coronavirus cases.

Although a million people have looked for safety as refugees in neighboring countries, over five million people within DRC have been uprooted by insecurity. Those who were uprooted were “overwhelmingly women and children”, and 1.2 million were exclusively from Ituri province.

Even though the violence is growing at alarming rates right now, civilians in the DRC have been fleeing since the beginning of 2019. The majority of refugees go to Uganda, which is now sheltering around 400,000 of these refugees. However hundreds of thousands of others are also fleeing to Angola, the Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, and Burundi.

The UNHCR has been providing shelter, cash, and relief items all over the nation, however it has consistently appealed for further funding. The agency has only received 21% of the 149.59 million euros (168 million USD) needed for DRC operations in 2020. The aid stemming from this funding will also assist host countries where camps are “overstretched in terms of their capacity”.

Around 2,000 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa, eastern DRC has always been one of Africa’s major trouble spots. Two major wars between 1996-1997 and then from 1998-2003 took place in the area; the latter involved nine different countries and 24 different armed groups.

Millions of people lost their lives in these wars, either from the fighting, disease, or malnutrition, however the same violence and problems in this area still exist today.

Link to donate to UNHCR for DRC:

https://donate.unhcr.org/la/republica-democratica-congo/~mi-donativo

---

Sources: