Despite insecurity, World Vision continues providing aid to desperate children and families fleeing the recent strife. (VIDEO)

December 13, 2007

By Horeb Bulambo, Congo Communications

World Vision continues to respond to the enormous needs of residents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who are fleeing the brutal, ongoing conflict — considered to be one of the world's deadliest since World War II.

In a continuation of recent violence, tens of thousands of villagers fled areas of fighting in eastern Congo late on Dec. 10 when government forces launched a bombing campaign targeting three villages occupied by rebels, about 25 miles northwest of the town of Goma.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an estimated 200,000 people in recent months have been displaced in eastern Congo alone.

'Enormous Humanitarian Needs'

World Vision continues to provide aid and plans to scale up its emergency response in the eastern part of this war-ravaged African country.

"The [current] situation is gradually deteriorating and needs more attention and more aid," says Appollinaire Bahole, who oversees World Vision's operations in eastern Congo. "This conflict has generated enormous humanitarian needs that have to be addressed in a very big way."

Rory Anderson, World Vision's deputy director for advocacy and government relations, agrees: "Because innocent civilians — particularly women and children — are most affected by this round of violence, the United States and the international community need to pressure all combatants to seek a negotiated end to this crisis."

Despite a 2003 peace deal between the DRC government and rebel groups, brokered by neighboring African states, at least 1,200 Congolese people — more than half of them children, according to the BBC — continue to die daily in the eastern part of the country from war-related causes, chiefly disease and starvation.

Brutal sexual violence against women, increased malnutrition, high incidence of school dropout among children, food shortages, and limited clean water supplies all characterize the insecurity in this vast region.

World Vision Continues Aid Efforts

Along with our ongoing programs in the region, our DRC staff in the east also is focused on providing immediate relief supplies and services to families and children in recent war-affected areas, including Rwanguba, Mutwanga, Goma, Beni, Masisi, Bukavu, and Rutshuru. Aid projects include:

• Provision of non-food emergency supplies for 8,000 displaced families;
• Administration of a UNICEF-funded psychosocial child protection project for 50,000 children;
• Provision of health, nutrition, and food security; and
• Construction of 200 latrines to meet the sanitation needs in Masisi.

"The situation in eastern Congo does not seem to have an immediate solution," Appollinaire concludes sadly. "War-affected people may continue to be in humanitarian need for many more days and weeks ahead."