{"id":63626,"date":"2023-03-13T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T08:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=63626"},"modified":"2023-03-13T11:52:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T08:52:28","slug":"300000-flee-violence-in-dr-congo-in-february-unhcr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/300000-flee-violence-in-dr-congo-in-february-unhcr\/","title":{"rendered":"300,000 flee violence in DR Congo in February – UNHCR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humanitarians issued an alert on Friday for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where heavy fighting continues to uproot hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country.<\/p>\n

Renewed violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have sparked the latest emergency, with 300,000 people forced to flee their homes in North Kivu Province\u00a0in\u00a0February alone.<\/p>\n

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, another\u00a020,000 fled at the start of the week\u00a0and nearly 50,000 became displaced from the Kitchanga region in Masisi territory during the week of 17 February.<\/p>\n

Civilians continue to pay the\u00a0heavy and bloody price\u00a0of conflict, including women and children who barely escaped the violence and are now sleeping out in the open, in spontaneous or organized sites, exhausted and traumatised,\u201d said UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNHCR teams on the ground reported\u00a0horrifying testimonies of human rights violations in affected areas, especially in Rutshuru and Masisi territories, including arbitrary killings, kidnappings, extortion and rapes,\u201d the UNHCR spokesperson continued.<\/p>\n

Lacking resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conditions are dire for those arriving at spontaneous or organized sites, which the UN refugee agency said were now buckling under the strain.<\/p>\n

The resurgence of violence in eastern DR Congo has displaced more than 800,000 people since March last year, including towards the provinces of South Kivu and Ituri.<\/p>\n

More than 130 armed groups operate at the border\u00a0between DR Congo and Rwanda, including the\u00a0M23 militia, which has in the past targeted Government forces and the UN peacekeeping mission in the country,\u00a0MONUSCO<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

An M23\u00a0ceasefire deal brokered last week<\/a><\/u>\u00a0and due to start on Tuesday, has failed to materialize.<\/p>\n

The resurgence of violence in the region has displaced over 800,000 people since March last year, including towards the provinces of South Kivu and Ituri.<\/p>\n

Standing by<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where access permits, UNHCR teams are positioned to provide psychosocial counselling and community support for those traumatised by what they have witnessed or endured.<\/p>\n

Humanitarians have continued to warn that despite \u201call efforts\u201d to provide protection and assistance to those displaced close to Goma, Nord Kivu\u2019s provincial capital, relief access remains complicated as major routes have frequently been rendered inaccessible because of ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n

More than\u00a05,500 people have also crossed the border into neighbouring Rwanda\u00a0since January, and a further\u00a05,300 into Uganda\u00a0as insecurity and violence continue to ravage border regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNHCR strongly reiterates its call on all actors in eastern DRC to stop the\u00a0violence which is taking an enormous toll\u00a0on the civilian population,\u201d the UN agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The DRC is the largest internal displacement crisis in Africa, with\u00a05.8 million people internally displaced, mainly in the east of the country. It also hosts over a million refugees from neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n

It is also one of UNHCR\u2019s most underfunded operations worldwide. For 2023,\u00a0UNHCR is asking for $232.6 million\u00a0to assist internally displaced people and refugees in the DRC. As of today, the DRC operation is only eight per cent funded.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humanitarians issued an alert on Friday for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where heavy fighting continues to uproot hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country. Renewed violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have sparked the latest emergency, with 300,000 people forced to flee their homes in North Kivu Province\u00a0in\u00a0February alone. According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, another\u00a020,000 fled at the start of the week\u00a0and nearly 50,000 became displaced from the Kitchanga region in Masisi territory during the week of 17 February. Civilians continue to pay the\u00a0heavy and bloody price\u00a0of conflict, including women and children who barely escaped the violence and are now sleeping out in the open, in spontaneous or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":63627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"F j, Y g:i a","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"3","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[480,1471],"class_list":["post-63626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-drc","tag-unhcr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}