The Representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uganda has asked the government of Uganda to investigate the alleged kidnap of a former bodyguard to the Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Saturday, 24 August 2013
UN Tasks Uganda To Investigate Attack On Rwandan Refugees | Red Pepper | Breaking News | Uganda News | Gossip | News | Technology | Museveni | Besigye | OPM | Cranes |
The Representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uganda has asked the government of Uganda to investigate the alleged kidnap of a former bodyguard to the Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
U.N. peacekeepers in Congo ordered to protect civilians after city shelled
U.N. peacekeepers in Congo ordered to protect civilians after city shelled
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO |
By Kenny Katombe
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. mission in Congo on Thursday ordered peacekeeping troops to act to protect civilians after shelling hit the city of Goma in renewed fighting between the army and M23 rebels.
The fighting close to Goma, a city of a million people on the Rwandan border, comes after a relative lull in the 18-month rebellion. Late last month, the United Nations pledged to keep the M23 rebels out of range of the town, which they briefly seized last year.
Rwanda, which has long had strained relations with its neighbor, accused the Congolese army of deliberately firing artillery into its territory. Kinshasa denied the reports and repeated its accusation that Rwanda backs M23. Rwanda denies it.
Martin Kobler, head of the U.N. mission known as MONUSCO, said populated areas and U.N. positions had been directly attacked during the clashes on Thursday.
"I have ordered the MONUSCO Force to react and to take necessary action to protect civilians and prevent an advance by the M23," he said, without elaborating.
A Reuters reporter in Goma said three shells landed in the town and saw the bodies of two children killed in one of the explosions. Another civilian was killed and four others wounded, officials at a local hospital said. Two Congolese soldiers were also wounded, they said.
Fighting initially broke out late on Wednesday.
A senior U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone surrounding Goma, which was established by a new, robustly-mandated U.N. Intervention Brigade earlier this month.
The official said M23 had fired the shells that fell on Goma and across the border in Rwanda.
RWANDA BLAMES CONGO ARMY
Rwanda's defense ministry acknowledged a rocket had hit the Rwandan border village of Buga but blamed it on the Congolese army, calling it "completely unprovoked and senseless".
No casualties were reported in Rwanda, but the ministry said the explosion had damaged property.
In New York, deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet asked the U.N. Security Council to condemn M23's attacks, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. France drafted a council statement that would have "condemned in the strongest terms the attacks by M23 rebel group against civilians" and M23's attacks on MONUSCO, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
But the delegation of Rwanda, currently a council member, objected to that wording and proposed an amended text, also seen by Reuters, that would condemn both the Congolese FARDC army and M23 and urge the "FARDC and M23 to cease violence immediately."
Rwanda also proposed deleting language noting that targeting peacekeepers is a war crime. Rwanda was the sole member of the 15-nation council that objected to the French-drafted statement, envoys said.
Two Western diplomats said the Rwandan amendments were an attempt to equate the Congolese army with the M23 rebels and therefore unacceptable.
The rebels rejected accusations they were behind Thursday's shelling, saying it was done by Congolese soldiers in an attempt to draw peacekeepers and Rwandan troops into the fight.
"We want the (Congolese army) removed from Goma and for it to be protected by the neutral forces of MONUSCO and the police. We have no intention of entering Goma," M23 spokesman Amani Kabasha said. "We are waiting for negotiations to start."
The M23 rebels began taking large swathes of Congo's volatile east early last year, accusing the central government of failing to honor a previous peace deal.
They dealt a serious blow to the image of MONUSCO - at 17,000 troops the world's largest U.N. mission - last November by marching past U.N. soldiers to briefly seize Goma.
They withdrew under a deal that called for peace negotiations between the rebels and Congolese government representatives. However the talks in the Ugandan capital Kampala have made little headway.
The 3,000-member U.N. Intervention Brigade - made up of South African, Tanzanian and Malawian troops - was established in the wake of Goma's seizure by M23 and is tasked with fighting and disarming rebel groups in Congo's volatile east.
MONUSCO said last month the new security zone established by the Intervention Brigade would keep Goma beyond the range of M23 and said the city would not come under attack again.
(Reporting by Kenny Katombe; Additional reporting by Jonny Hogg in Kinshasa and Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by David Lewis and Andrew Roche)
U.N. peacekeepers in Congo ordered to protect civilians after city shelled
U.N. peacekeepers in Congo ordered to protect civilians after city shelled
GOMA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO |
By Kenny Katombe
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. mission in Congo on Thursday ordered peacekeeping troops to act to protect civilians after shelling hit the city of Goma in renewed fighting between the army and M23 rebels.
The fighting close to Goma, a city of a million people on the Rwandan border, comes after a relative lull in the 18-month rebellion. Late last month, the United Nations pledged to keep the M23 rebels out of range of the town, which they briefly seized last year.
Rwanda, which has long had strained relations with its neighbor, accused the Congolese army of deliberately firing artillery into its territory. Kinshasa denied the reports and repeated its accusation that Rwanda backs M23. Rwanda denies it.
Martin Kobler, head of the U.N. mission known as MONUSCO, said populated areas and U.N. positions had been directly attacked during the clashes on Thursday.
"I have ordered the MONUSCO Force to react and to take necessary action to protect civilians and prevent an advance by the M23," he said, without elaborating.
A Reuters reporter in Goma said three shells landed in the town and saw the bodies of two children killed in one of the explosions. Another civilian was killed and four others wounded, officials at a local hospital said. Two Congolese soldiers were also wounded, they said.
Fighting initially broke out late on Wednesday.
A senior U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone surrounding Goma, which was established by a new, robustly-mandated U.N. Intervention Brigade earlier this month.
The official said M23 had fired the shells that fell on Goma and across the border in Rwanda.
RWANDA BLAMES CONGO ARMY
Rwanda's defense ministry acknowledged a rocket had hit the Rwandan border village of Buga but blamed it on the Congolese army, calling it "completely unprovoked and senseless".
No casualties were reported in Rwanda, but the ministry said the explosion had damaged property.
In New York, deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet asked the U.N. Security Council to condemn M23's attacks, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. France drafted a council statement that would have "condemned in the strongest terms the attacks by M23 rebel group against civilians" and M23's attacks on MONUSCO, according to a draft seen by Reuters.
But the delegation of Rwanda, currently a council member, objected to that wording and proposed an amended text, also seen by Reuters, that would condemn both the Congolese FARDC army and M23 and urge the "FARDC and M23 to cease violence immediately."
Rwanda also proposed deleting language noting that targeting peacekeepers is a war crime. Rwanda was the sole member of the 15-nation council that objected to the French-drafted statement, envoys said.
Two Western diplomats said the Rwandan amendments were an attempt to equate the Congolese army with the M23 rebels and therefore unacceptable.
The rebels rejected accusations they were behind Thursday's shelling, saying it was done by Congolese soldiers in an attempt to draw peacekeepers and Rwandan troops into the fight.
"We want the (Congolese army) removed from Goma and for it to be protected by the neutral forces of MONUSCO and the police. We have no intention of entering Goma," M23 spokesman Amani Kabasha said. "We are waiting for negotiations to start."
The M23 rebels began taking large swathes of Congo's volatile east early last year, accusing the central government of failing to honor a previous peace deal.
They dealt a serious blow to the image of MONUSCO - at 17,000 troops the world's largest U.N. mission - last November by marching past U.N. soldiers to briefly seize Goma.
They withdrew under a deal that called for peace negotiations between the rebels and Congolese government representatives. However the talks in the Ugandan capital Kampala have made little headway.
The 3,000-member U.N. Intervention Brigade - made up of South African, Tanzanian and Malawian troops - was established in the wake of Goma's seizure by M23 and is tasked with fighting and disarming rebel groups in Congo's volatile east.
MONUSCO said last month the new security zone established by the Intervention Brigade would keep Goma beyond the range of M23 and said the city would not come under attack again.
(Reporting by Kenny Katombe; Additional reporting by Jonny Hogg in Kinshasa and Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by David Lewis and Andrew Roche)
Friday, 23 August 2013
Goma running out of space for DRC's displaced
Goma running out of space for DRC's displaced
BULENGO, 23 August 2013 (IRIN) - If the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) North Kivu capital of Goma were a hotel, there would be a sign hanging on the door with the words "sorry - no vacancies."
From the 1994 exodus from neighbouring Rwanda, in the wake of the genocide, to interstate wars and decades of insecurity caused by a multitude of armed groups, the city has become the end of the line for those fleeing the country's conflicts.
The latest influx of internally displaced people (IDPs), fleeing conflict with the allegedly Rwandan-backed armed group M23, is pushing the city to its breaking point.
"Goma is full," Flora Camain, the Goma-based spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN. "There's no room left."
More to come
In response to continued displacements from across North Kivu, about 30 temporary "spontaneous sites" have been established in the province, using venues ranging from churches and schools to marginal land.
NGOs are providing basic services, such as water and sanitation and primary healthcare, to the burgeoning IDP population. IDPs are also staying with host families in the city.
According to the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO), "Over one million civilians live in the relatively small area of Goma and Sake and along the road that connects them, where amongst others the Mugunga IDP camps, temporary home to 70,000 people displaced by the conflict, are situated."
Of the more than two million IDPs in the country, about one million are displaced from South and North Kivu provinces. Spontaneous sites have been established in the North Kivu towns of Goma, Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale. And the robust mandate afforded to a UN intervention force meant to "neutralize" the more than 30 armed groups in the Kivu provinces is expected to see even more displacements.
IOM, other humanitarian actors and local authorities are currently identifying any available land to accommodate new influxes of IDPs, while at the same time preparing for the eventual return of the displaced should there be an improvement in the region's security conditions.
Although the displaced plight is high on the agenda of donors, IDPs in spontaneous sites - due to their sheer number and extreme need - often have access to only "minimum assistance," Camain said.
"Difficult to live"
IOM estimates the population of IDPs living in spontaneous sites in North Kivu is about 231,000 people. One such site is Bulengo, on the outskirts of Goma, where about 58,000 people live.
Aziza Kasidika, 19 and three months pregnant, fled there from North Kivu's Masisi during fighting between DRC's national army (FARDC) and armed groups in January 2013. She has since lost contact with her family.
Her home is a crudely constructed "bâche", about 2m long and just more than half as high. Branches provide a framework for thatch, with a patchwork of plastic bags to try to keep the weather out. A piece of cloth is used for a door, and the bed is a thin mattress of grass on top of volcanic rock.
"I sleep very bad because I sleep on the rock. The bad shelter is a problem, and it's very difficult to live. I get sick," she told IRIN. "There should be food distribution twice a month, but it's only usually once a month. I get rice, maize, beans and oil, and there is never enough salt."
The absence of adequate shelter is a common complaint in Bulengo, as are the security risks associated with foraging for fuel - needed for both cooking and warmth - beyond the site's perimeter.
"I don't know how long I will be here. It's difficult to see the future. Our only future is the next food hand-out… I will return to Masisi when there is peace - but not that regular peace of two weeks and then war again. I live in Bulengo, and I will stay in Bulengo," Kasidika said.
Illness, uncertainty
Maria Sankia, 60, fled to Bulengo from Walikale in November 2012, after fighting between the armed groups the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Raïa Mutomboki - Swahili for "angry citizens". She came with two of her neighbour's young children, and cites the same concerns as Kasidika: food distribution, security and poor shelter.
"Children don't have schooling. There are no toys; there is nothing for the children to do. So many children go to the lake, but they don't know how to swim. Five or six children have drowned [in Lake Kivu] that I know about since I came here," she told IRIN.
At MSF's Majengo clinic, situated in a Goma school where IDPs have taken refuge, Barikurie Kosi, 35, told IRIN, "This is maybe the fourth time I have run away [from Kibati, after M23 entered her village]. But this time was definitely the worst. There was no chance to take anything."
She fled her home in May and arrived in Goma after a six day walk. She managed to bring her youngest three children, aged two, three and six, but her three teenage children, 13, 15 and 17, "ran in other directions. I don't know where they are."
"I don't know when I will go back," she said. "I am staying at the clinic."
Frontline Goma: An IRIN reporter's diary
go/rz
From the 1994 exodus from neighbouring Rwanda, in the wake of the genocide, to interstate wars and decades of insecurity caused by a multitude of armed groups, the city has become the end of the line for those fleeing the country's conflicts.
The latest influx of internally displaced people (IDPs), fleeing conflict with the allegedly Rwandan-backed armed group M23, is pushing the city to its breaking point.
"Goma is full," Flora Camain, the Goma-based spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN. "There's no room left."
More to come
In response to continued displacements from across North Kivu, about 30 temporary "spontaneous sites" have been established in the province, using venues ranging from churches and schools to marginal land.
NGOs are providing basic services, such as water and sanitation and primary healthcare, to the burgeoning IDP population. IDPs are also staying with host families in the city.
According to the UN Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO), "Over one million civilians live in the relatively small area of Goma and Sake and along the road that connects them, where amongst others the Mugunga IDP camps, temporary home to 70,000 people displaced by the conflict, are situated."
Of the more than two million IDPs in the country, about one million are displaced from South and North Kivu provinces. Spontaneous sites have been established in the North Kivu towns of Goma, Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale. And the robust mandate afforded to a UN intervention force meant to "neutralize" the more than 30 armed groups in the Kivu provinces is expected to see even more displacements.
IOM, other humanitarian actors and local authorities are currently identifying any available land to accommodate new influxes of IDPs, while at the same time preparing for the eventual return of the displaced should there be an improvement in the region's security conditions.
Although the displaced plight is high on the agenda of donors, IDPs in spontaneous sites - due to their sheer number and extreme need - often have access to only "minimum assistance," Camain said.
"Difficult to live"
IOM estimates the population of IDPs living in spontaneous sites in North Kivu is about 231,000 people. One such site is Bulengo, on the outskirts of Goma, where about 58,000 people live.
Photo: Guy Oliver/IRIN
A shelter under construction at the Bulengo spontaneous site near the North Kivu capital of Goma
Aziza Kasidika, 19 and three months pregnant, fled there from North Kivu's Masisi during fighting between DRC's national army (FARDC) and armed groups in January 2013. She has since lost contact with her family.
Her home is a crudely constructed "bâche", about 2m long and just more than half as high. Branches provide a framework for thatch, with a patchwork of plastic bags to try to keep the weather out. A piece of cloth is used for a door, and the bed is a thin mattress of grass on top of volcanic rock.
"I sleep very bad because I sleep on the rock. The bad shelter is a problem, and it's very difficult to live. I get sick," she told IRIN. "There should be food distribution twice a month, but it's only usually once a month. I get rice, maize, beans and oil, and there is never enough salt."
The absence of adequate shelter is a common complaint in Bulengo, as are the security risks associated with foraging for fuel - needed for both cooking and warmth - beyond the site's perimeter.
"I don't know how long I will be here. It's difficult to see the future. Our only future is the next food hand-out… I will return to Masisi when there is peace - but not that regular peace of two weeks and then war again. I live in Bulengo, and I will stay in Bulengo," Kasidika said.
Illness, uncertainty
Maria Sankia, 60, fled to Bulengo from Walikale in November 2012, after fighting between the armed groups the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and Raïa Mutomboki - Swahili for "angry citizens". She came with two of her neighbour's young children, and cites the same concerns as Kasidika: food distribution, security and poor shelter.
"Children don't have schooling. There are no toys; there is nothing for the children to do. So many children go to the lake, but they don't know how to swim. Five or six children have drowned [in Lake Kivu] that I know about since I came here," she told IRIN.
"This is maybe the fourth time I have run away. But this time was definitely the worst"
Goma-based Christian Reynders, of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has established primary healthcare clinics at spontaneous sites, told IRIN that the medical caseload included diarrhoea and malnutrition, but that the predominant issue was respiratory tract infections, a direct consequence of the IDPs' inadequate shelter. At MSF's Majengo clinic, situated in a Goma school where IDPs have taken refuge, Barikurie Kosi, 35, told IRIN, "This is maybe the fourth time I have run away [from Kibati, after M23 entered her village]. But this time was definitely the worst. There was no chance to take anything."
She fled her home in May and arrived in Goma after a six day walk. She managed to bring her youngest three children, aged two, three and six, but her three teenage children, 13, 15 and 17, "ran in other directions. I don't know where they are."
"I don't know when I will go back," she said. "I am staying at the clinic."
Frontline Goma: An IRIN reporter's diary
go/rz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
On Sunday, 22 November 2015, 18:52, "Jean Bosco Sibomana sibomanaxyz999@gmail.com [...
-
Reynders manque de clairvoyance et de lucidité. De : "kota venant kotakori@hotmai...
-
----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "FSDDC democratiechretienne@yahoo.fr [Democr...
-
L'armée secrète de Kagame! D'autres hirondelles arrivent... https://www.facebook.com/share/r/hH16f5ZPiSh42emK/?mibextid=UalRPS ### ...
-
If Axel Muganwa Rudakubana had been a son of a Hutu, what would have been the news headlines in Kagame's mouthpiece tabloids? Sinc...
-
La RDC porte plainte contre Apple en France et Belgique pour «exploitation et exportation illégale» de minerais https://www.rfi.fr/fr/%C3%A9...
-
Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fraudulently exported at least 150 metric tons of coltan to Rwanda last year, leading to th...
-
http://www.friendsofvictoire.org/fr/victoire-ingabire-umuhoza-prisonniere-politique-depuis-cin...
-
Rwanda de Kagame: Enfants militarisés à des fins de répression. https://youtu.be/vrmKSp-DN5U?si=DI0BiQ4AKqAYsmy7 ### "Be courteous t...
-
A retired project manager who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, Almadi was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2021, when he arrived on a planned...
