Insecurity impedes humanitarian efforts in DRC: UN

The increasing insecurity is constraining the access of humanitarian organizations to thousands of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), humanitarian organizations warned on Tuesday in a joint statement.

"Eleven aid workers have been abducted in North Kivu so far in 2016, and 31 in 2015, which is five times more than the previous year," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

Aid agencies are particularly alarmed by the impact that this growing insecurity could have on some 1.6 million vulnerable people who need humanitarian assistance in North Kivu province, including 780,000 displaced people, the spokesman said. "Eighty percent of them are women and children."

Three Congolese employees of international charity Save the Children who were kidnapped in eastern DRC on March 3 were released five days later, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The three were reportedly abducted on March 3 by armed men in Lubero territory in the eastern part of North Kivu province.

In March 2015, two employees of a non-governmental organization were held hostage for 48 hours by unidentified kidnappers in Rutshuru territory (south of North Kivu province) before being rescued by security forces.

The eastern part of DRC has been plagued for two decades by chronic instability caused by local and foreign armed groups who have perpetrated ethnic violence while fighting for mineral resources. Endit