In the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have committed violent attacks in response to military operations launched by the armies of Uganda, DRC and southern Sudan. MSF is providing assistance to the abandoned population, which has been left to its fate in a highly isolated region. The MSF Congo Emergency Pool started providing support to a health centre and two referral hospitals in Faradje and Niangara one week ago.
MSF has been working in this region since last September and has now decided to step up its activities in light of the increased attacks on the civilian population, resulting in an influx of displaced people deprived of all medical assistance.
An MSF doctor treats a child in the mobile clinic at Rubare in North Kivu.
Photo by Espen Rasmussen
Support to hospitals and health centres
The MSF teams are renovating the medical structures in the area, training medical staff and providing free healthcare for both the displaced and local populations (who have been sheltering displaced people for several months now). The nutritional situation also gives cause for concern: “In addition to a number of crops being destroyed by severe rains, the displaced populations, far from home, are not in a position to grow any food at all”, said Amaury Grégoire, the emergency pool coordinator.
In Niangara, close to 10,000 displaced people have found refuge in the town centre and 15,000 refugees have settled in the outskirts of the town. The MSF teams are providing support to the referral hospital and an outlying health centre, mainly treating malaria, acute respiratory infections and sexually transmitted infections, and seeing some 250 people a day in hospital. Special consultations have been set up for the victims of sexual violence and an MSF psychologist will join the team soon to train the local personnel on providing psychological care to victims.
“The worst horrors”
According to the United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the total number of refugees in this part of northeastern Congo (DRC) currently stands at around 190,000. “These people have fled terrible violence and lived through the worst horrors”, Amaury Grégoire declared. “They have lost a father, a mother, a husband, a wife or a child. Most of their villages have been burnt to the ground. Thousands of people are suffering from the violence they have lived through or seen: some have been kidnapped, raped, beaten up or killed.”
It is not only the displaced who need urgent humanitarian assistance in this region- many of the resident families offering them shelter are also in an increasingly precarious situation. "Displaced people have been offered shelter and help by the local families”, concludes Emmanuel Lampaert, the head of the Pool’s medical team. “Initially, this is a positive thing, as it helps new arrivals to survive. However, in the long term, this system undermines the overall standard of living for both the displaced and the host families. And so it is an even bigger group of people who need help and their needs are huge”.