Community violence spreads to several DR Congo provinces causing more displacement: UN

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - Large numbers of people were forced to move and are now in need of humanitarian assistance after violence broke out in July in several provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a UN official said Friday.

More than 35,000 people have been displaced from the provinces of Mai-ndombe and Kwilu in the DRC to several locations in the same and neighboring provinces where violence broke out in July, while more than 1,400 people have taken refuge in the neighboring Republic of Congo, mainly because of land and inter-community conflicts, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Bruno Lemarquis, DRC’s UN representative, in a statement called for "urgent measures to be taken to halt the escalation of violence and provide an emergency humanitarian response" to violence.

"The humanitarian community is concerned about the continuing violence which is now also affecting other provinces. A significant number of people have been forced to move and are now in need of humanitarian assistance," he said.

A better understanding of the root causes of the conflict in the Central African country with a population of more than 89 million and more than 5 million displaced people will facilitate the search for a lasting solution and the establishment of mechanisms to resolve the conflict, Lemarquis added.