At least 10 people die every day from cholera and malnutrition in a camp for displaced people in Ituri in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a United Nations representative said on Tuesday.
”These deaths, for the most part children, are recorded every day in Gety,” a camp about 40km south of Bunia to where more than 40 000 people have fled over the past month to escape fighting, Modibo Traore said.
Traore, a local representative for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, declined to say how many people have died in total.
Bunia is the capital of Ituri, a mineral-rich province where fighting between the army and various rebel factions has claimed more than 60 000 lives and displaced 600 000 since 1999, despite the presence of UN peacekeepers.
”The situation is constant and nutritional centres have been set up,” Traore said by telephone from Bunia, adding that measures have been taken to halt the spread of a cholera epidemic, including the construction of more toilets.
Traore said the displaced are forced to remain confined to Gety due to instability in the region, creating an enormous need for water and food in the camp.
The World Food Programme (WFP) distributed 50 000 tonnes of food to vulnerable people over a two-week period at the end of last month, but the other displaced have not received anything since the end of July, Traore said.
Inhabitants of the area cannot tend their fields as the DRC army has placed restrictions on the movement of people due to ongoing violence, thereby aggravating the food crisis, he added.
The WFP’s deputy representative in the DRC, Claude Jibidar, described the humanitarian situation in Gety as ”worrying” and said food distribution for the displaced will continue. — Sapa-AFP