The UN has expressed shock at the sight of thousands of civilians fleeing a rebel advance in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and appealed for access to help those caught up in the violence.
In what would be a major first for its peacekeeping operations, the UN said on Friday it was considering using drones to monitor the fighting between the military and the M23 rebels.
Meanwhile, regional leaders were heading for Kampala for a summit yesterday on the latest crisis in the mineral-rich region.
Photo: AFP
The rebels captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, on Tuesday before taking the key town of Sake 20km to the west on Wednesday, forcing thousands more people to take flight.
A UN source said the rebels appeared to have halted just south of Sake after battles with government forces and an allied local militia.
“I have been shocked by the pictures I have seen of the ordinary women, men and children fleeing the violence in and around Goma,” UN deputy secretary for humanitarian affairs Valerie Amos said in a statement.
The conflict was preventing aid workers from delivering even the most basic aid in already badly hit areas, she added.
The UN refugee agency warned that fighting had blocked access to all but one of the 31 camps for displaced people in North Kivu. Province
“There are bodies lining the road” leading south from Sake, said Thierry Goffeau, the head of the Goma chapter of Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had counted about 80 wounded in just two Goma hospitals on Wednesday and Thursday.
Red Cross officials expressed their fears for the fate of civilians outside Goma.
“The front line is shifting, and new communities are now directly affected by the conflict,” said Frederic Boyer, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Goma.
UN figures show about 1.6 million internally displaced people in North and South Kivu, including 285,000 newly displaced between July and September.
The DR Congo’s army has proved unable to contain the rebellion since it erupted in April. This week, UN peacekeepers deployed attack helicopters in a vain attempt to halt the rebel advance.
UN peacekeeping spokesman Kieran Dwyer said the UN was considering using drones to monitor the fighting.
“Of course, we would do this carefully, in full cooperation with the government of the DR Congo,” Dwyer said.
Diplomats said peacekeeping chiefs had been in contact with the governments of DR Congo and of Rwanda about the move, but it is a precedent that other UN members might oppose. The UN is also considering bringing in extra troops for the 17,500-strong MONUSCO peacekeeping mission.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to recommend options to the Security Council soon.
France has been among those calling for MONUSCO’s operational mandate to be toughened so it can take a harder line against the rebels.
However, UN officials say the peacekeepers, who come from nearly 50 countries, must not replace a national army.
Among the leaders expected at yesterday’s summit in Kampala were DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, all key players in the unfolding conflict.
A report by UN experts has accused Rwanda and Uganda of backing the M23 — a charge both countries vehemently deny.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS