The UN raises to 800,000 civilians displaced by violence in the Congolese region of North Kivu

March 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The escalation of violence in the North Kivu region, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has caused more than 800,000 displaced persons in the last twelve months, including nearly 300,000 who had to leave their homes in February this year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The activity of armed groups such as the March 23 Movement (M23) or the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), as well as the operations launched by the Government itself, have led to an incessant wave of displacement that also increases the humanitarian needs of the population. local, in need of the most basic help.

The UN tries to assess these needs, which also involves putting numbers to the emergency. In the last week alone, some 20,000 people have fled the town of Rutshuru, while nearly 50,000 fled in the Kitchanga region in mid-February, UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said.

“Civilians continue to bear the high and bloody price of the conflict,” said this spokesman, who has influenced the fact that part of the displaced people cross into neighboring provinces such as South Kivu or Ituri. In addition, this year some 5,500 people have arrived in Rwanda and another 5,300 in Uganda.

Those fleeing report scenes of indiscriminate violence including “arbitrary killings, kidnappings, extortion and rape” and Saltmarsh has urged all parties to end the violence, as the DRC was already the world’s largest displacement crisis. interior of Africa, with 5.8 million people affected.

The United Nations has warned that the needs are skyrocketing to the point of exceeding “dramatically” the available resources, for which reason it has appealed for solidarity. By 2023, UNHCR has appealed for more than $232 million, but has only received 8 percent of this money.