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International Aid Groups Fear New Crisis in Eastern Congo- NGOs - Global policy Forum International Aid Groups Fear New Crisis in Eastern Congo
By Marc Lacey
New York Times
October 18, 2002
October 19, 2002International Aid Groups Fear New Crisis in Eastern CongoBy Marc LaceyOct. 18 — International aid workers are warning of a growing humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo, where the foreign troops who had occupied the area until recently are being replaced by local militias that are just as destabilizing for the local population. Leaders across Africa are warning that the situation in Congo, where war has been waged since 1998, could deteriorate even more under the militias than it did under the foreign troops, who sided with either the Kinshasa government or various rebel groups.
After much effort, the United Nations has persuaded all the armies to leave, and today Zimbabwe became the latest to pull out its soldiers. But the removal of the foreign armies is bringing more disorder rather than the stability for which many hoped, especially in eastern Congo. Foreign troops have long fueled the fighting in Congo.
"We're facing a humanitarian catastrophe," said Jean-Charles Dei, the World Food Program's emergency coordinator for eastern Congo, who recently left Bukavu, a strategic town near the border with Rwanda that faces imminent attack from Mai-Mai militia members. "Eastern Congo is very hot now. It's very tense."
In recent weeks, the World Food Program has increased its estimate of the number of people in need of food aid in eastern Congo from 700,000 to 1.3 million. In addition, thousands of refugees have escaped the recent fighting by pouring across the border into Burundi. The food agency has distributed emergency food rations in recent days to 9,500 Congolese refugees in Burundi, most of whom are from the eastern town of Uvira, which recently changed hands in a battle between various Congolese factions.
"There is a grave danger of that whole matter unraveling," President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa warned on Thursday. "If the peace agreement unravels in the Congo, it means you spread that war and instability throughout the region of central Africa." South Africa played an important role in a recent peace deal between Congo and its eastern neighbor, Rwanda, which controlled one of several foreign armies that had taken sides in Congo's civil war.
The deal called on Rwanda to pull out its troops if the Congolese government in Kinshasa cracked down on members of interahamwe, militia groups who have staged periodic attacks on Rwanda from across the Congolese border.
Left out of the equation were the militias operating deep within Congo's forests. The Mai-Mai, a loose coalition of fighters that has received backing from the government over the years, recently took control of Uvira, defeating rebels from a rival movement, the Rally for Congolese Democracy. The Rwandans have blamed the Congolese government for urging on the Mai-Mai.
Today, a spokesman for the Rally for Congolese Democracy said it would "use its legitimate right to self-defense if the government does not withdraw its forces from Uvira within the next 48 hours."
Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, a spokesman for the movement, told the Reuters news agency by telephone from the movement's headquarters in Goma, "We will flush them out and we won't limit ourselves to Uvira either, we'll keep going."
Mr. Mbeki met in Cape Town today with representatives of the Congolese government and the main rebel groups in an attempt to calm the situation. Also present was Maj. Gen. Mountaga Diallo, commander of United Nations forces in Congo, as well as representatives of the Mai-Mai fighters. "If fighting gets out of hand, it would derail everything," Thembi Majola, a senior aide to Mr. Mbeki, told The Associated Press.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who ordered the withdrawal of some 20,000 soldiers from eastern Congo several weeks ago, threatened this week to again deploy them if militia forces continue moving toward his country's border as they make gains on rebel groups that had been backed by Rwanda.
"If we have to carry out intervention to stop them spilling out, we will do it," Mr. Kagame told reporters, calling on the United Nations to increase its presence in Congo to stabilize the country.
"Congo's problem is that of a failed state, and the international community needs to take action by sending in a U.N. force," he said.
Areas once controlled by Ugandan troops are facing similar unrest. The United Nations reported that ethnic fighting between the Hema and Lendu in the Bunia area, near the Uganda border, had displaced 500,000 people in recent months.
Adding to the concern among humanitarian organizations is the crush of crises in other parts of Africa. A looming famine in southern Africa together with continuing war-related hunger in southern Sudan, turmoil in Ivory Coast and a severe drought in the Horn of Africa are putting a strain on relief organizations and donors alike.
"There are so many demands that it is difficult to find funds for all these operations," said Laura Melo, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program. She acknowledged that agencies are facing need in many other parts of the world, as well, not to mention planning for dealing with the effects of a possible war in Iraq.
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