Report

DRC: in the territory of Djugu, insufficient humanitarian aid in the face of the scale of the needs

Djugu, in Ituri, is one of the eastern DRC territories ravaged by decades of community-based conflict. RFI devotes several reports on the situation on the ground. Due to a lack of access and security difficulties, few NGOs can access the Lendu side. On the Hema side, the IDP camps are always full. This is the case of Rhoe's.

Audio 01:25

June 2023. There is a rush in the crowded Rhoe camp, in the territory of Djugu (Ituri province, DRC) where tens of thousands of displaced people are suffering from hunger. © Coralie Pierret / RFI

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With our special correspondent in Rhoe, Coralie Pierret

It's distribution day by the World Food Programme in the camp. One person per family waits to receive their supplies in endless queues. Charity has been patient for several hours. "I come to take beans, oil...

Far from the hustle and bustle, a few young girls are training for Sunday's choir. But in the alleys lined with plastic sheeting houses, it's a rush.

Distributions are rare in this camp where, at the end of April, more than 60,000 people were crammed at the foot of a base of UN peacekeepers. Everyone complains about hunger, says Samuel Kpadjanga, the site's president.

« Here, there has been no food distribution since June 13, 2022 until today. We arrived here and we are displaced in Rhoe camp following the various attacks made by the Codeco armed group. We have been here since June 11, 2019, since the day the Rhe site was created. » 

A population that feels abandoned

Several NGOs are involved in this camp. Nevertheless, funds remain insufficient in relation to needs and access to the complex area.

Indeed, this territory of Djugu is ravaged by a conflict on a communal basis where Hema and Lendu are face to face. So-called self-defense militias are engaged in an endless fight for control of territory, including mining, and also perpetrate numerous abuses against civilians. The state of siege has been in place for two years.

Dieudonné Lossa is the provincial coordinator of civil society in Ituri. For him, this exceptional security system where the army governs is ineffective in restoring security. "The civilian population seems to be abandoned. It was believed that there would be a state of siege, which would be able to take action against armed groups. We didn't see it. All means have been made available to the state of siege, according to the authorities of that country. But on the ground, we have never seen operations against armed groups. There are even armed groups that were created during the state of siege! The soldiers in Ituri were brought back to North Kivu. So it means that in Ituri in fact, there is no problem for the Congolese state and everything that happens here is normal.

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Read on on the same topics:

• DRC
• Humanitarian