When did these displaced persons arrive in the Ruzizi plain, and how many are there?

The displaced have arrived there since the beginning of Operation Kimia II. As I speak to you, there are 25,000 IDPs in the area between Kamanyola and Kiliba. And there are an estimated 19,000 displaced persons in the mountains of the Moyen Plateau region (Katogota). Most of the displaced are lodged with host families. 


A few days ago, a member of national parliament voiced concern that those displaced were deprived of aid and abandoned to their own fate. So what immediate measures have been taken by the UNHCR to assist these vulnerable people?

First of all, let me say that UNHCR and its partners are responsible for the following activities: we conduct monitoring on protection activities in areas of displacement and in accessible areas of return, and we carry out identification of target populations and of risks associated with protection.

We also perform identification of individuals with specific needs; as well as identification of priority roads for access or escape corridors, coordination at the level of NGOs which constitute avenues of communication for collecting provisional data and identifying individual cases and protection risks.

We are also responsible for coordinating identification of specific needs for interventions in the areas of child protection and against sexual violence, as well as conducting advocacy in cases of arbitrary arrest, extortion and forced taxation.

Other activities include referring individual cases to local actors; raising awareness through organising stage plays on peaceful cohabitation and conflict resolution; assessing the need for emergency shelter assistance in order to minimise the pressure on the host families and thereby avoid tensions within an overly crowded community.

Furthermore, we assist persons with specific needs, providing them with used clothes and essential hygiene items in kits. 


Has there been any immediate assistance provided in terms of food and sanitation and so on? 

The UNHCR and other organisations actually envisage providing humanitarian assistance. In Uvira, the UNHCR is finalising the preparation of kits containing household utensils to be distributed to about 2,000 displaced families in need. These kits consist of cooking utensils, water containers, bars of soap, bedspreads and a sleep mat.

Many host families are already warning about dwindling food supplies. Moreover, some families are finding it difficult to reach their agricultural fields for security reasons, which is worsening the already difficult food situation.
Other organisations are working to improve the water supply and to install adequate latrines, without which both host and displaced families will face serious health problems.

However, the UNHCR warns that at this stage, humanitarian assistance is considered only for the IDPs in the Ruzizi plain, because the area is accessible. It is currently difficult to bring aid to other IDPs in the mountainous Moyen Plateau area, due to insecurity and the bad state of roads. 


What is the long term solution if this massive displacement is really a consequence of Operation Kimia II?

At the moment, we are working in collaboration with other humanitarian partners present in the area. Our contingency plan changes according to military operations and population displacements. Remember also that we do not often have access to all areas of displacement, due either to insecurity or logistical constraints.

Collaborating with the Pakistani MONUC contingent in the area is very important because their patrolling of the villages where IDPs are located enables them to monitor better the conduct of the DRC Armed Forces.