By RFIPosted on 16-12-2019Changed on 16-12-2019 at 02:38
The Congolese armed forces are currently carrying out an offensive against armed groups in the east of the country. However, arrested combatants are often accompanied by their wives and children and are currently detained in deplorable humanitarian conditions.
President Félix Tshisekedi welcomed Friday that the FARDC destroyed in the region of Kalehe , in South Kivu, more than 95% of the CNRD bases and carried out 1,700 arrests including those of 245 combatants.
Nearly 2,000 of them are detained at the Nyamuyinyi military camp. Five people including children died on Friday due to poor living conditions. Since the beginning of December, a dozen people have died from severe malnutrition or suffocation because the detainees are crammed into a cramped and poorly ventilated space, explains a UN source.
A report which, rare thing, pushed Ocha to leave its silence. In a statement released on Saturday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs " expresses deep concern " over the situation of the 2,000 people detained in this camp: " hundreds [are] sick there, especially the elderly and children " , warns the UN organization which calls into question " unsanitary conditions of hygiene, promiscuity, poor access to water, health care and food ".
This report was drawn up after an Ocha team was able to enter the camp on Wednesday and Thursday accompanied by members of Monusco. This visit, accepted by the Congolese authorities after several days of negotiations, did not, however, allow an accurate assessment of the number of civilians, although there is no doubt that they are largely in the majority.
Faced with this situation, David Mac Lachlan-Karr, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, reminds the Congolese authorities that they have " the obligation to guarantee respect for human dignity and humanitarian principles ".
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DRC: clashes in Kalehe, South Kivu, worry civil society
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