Democratic Republic of the Congo: Clashes in Rutshuru Territory cut off 800 children from their families
ReliefWeb Press Release
DRC: Clashes in Rutshuru Territory cut off 800 children from their families
More than one thousand children have lost contact with their parents in the wake of violent clashes in Rutshuru Territory between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and fighters from the March 23 Movement (M23). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is concerned by the growing number of tracing requests submitted by families in the DRC and Uganda who have become separated.
“Our Red Cross teams in Uganda and the DRC tell us that 800 children have been separated from their families as a result of the upsurge in violence in Rutshuru Territory,” says Roman Machover, the ICRC’s head of Programmes and Prevention in the DRC.
Since 28 March 2022, clashes between the DRC’s armed forces and M23 have caused large numbers of people to move both within the DRC and in neighbouring countries, particularly Uganda. According to the North Kivu Protection Cluster, a group of humanitarian actors working to protect the civilian population in the province, around 1,000 families have fled to Kabindi, Rugabo and Rutshuru in the centre of the country, while another 4,000 have sought refuge in Uganda.
Telephone booths of hope
The ICRC and the Red Cross Society of the DRC have set up a free telephone service for displaced people who have been separated from their loved ones. Local Red Cross volunteers showed invention to adapt how they worked, as they too had been displaced by the fighting.
Displaced people often do not have the means to pay to make telephone calls. “It’s been two weeks since I lost touch with my brother. Shots were being fired, and people ran off in every direction,” said Irakiza Musafiri, a refugee in Kanyaruchinya.
The telephone booths, operated by the Red Cross Society of the DRC, are a sign of hope and highly praised by the people using them. “Every day, more than 100 people make calls here. They’re usually parents calling relatives to track down their children,” said Theonest Bitakuya, a local Red Cross volunteer.
On the other side of the border, in Uganda, several thousand refugees are looking for relatives of theirs who stayed behind in the DRC or are in other refugee camps, such as Nakivalé, Kyaka or Rwamwanja. Since the start of the crisis, around 20 staff members from the Uganda Red Cross Society and the ICRC have been working to help them find answers.
When the fighting intensified in June 2022, a large number of displaced people preferred to remain behind at Nyakabande’s transit centre or with host communities, close to the border, in the hope of being able to return as soon as the security situation allowed.
Since March, more than 4,088 free calls were made by refugees. (Another 2,210 calls were made but no one picked up.) So far, 155 unaccompanied children have been reunited with their parents.
Because the number of refugees staying with host communities close to the border is rising, the Uganda Red Cross Society and the ICRC are seeking the authorities’ support to expand the telephone service.
Lack of security
Unfortunately, the volatile security situation in the region makes searching for missing people and reuniting them with their families difficult. Access to areas where displaced people originally come from is risky and the family members are constantly on the move. In addition, the teams on the ground can only reunite children with their families when the conditions are right. “As soon as the security situation allows it, the ICRC will be able to send teams into the areas of Rutshuru where the people we’re looking for could be,” said Pamela Ongoma.
The ICRC’s delegation in the DRC and Uganda works in close collaboration with the National Red Cross Societies of both countries, who play a key role in restoring family links. Meetings are held with all three to share information about the situation and what people need, and to coordinate and harmonize the collective humanitarian response.
Facts and figures for the Restoring Family Links programme from 28 March to 15 June 2022, in the wake of renewed violence in Rutshuru Territory
Democratic Republic of the Congo
- 74 unaccompanied children identified
- 34 unaccompanied children registered
- 41 unaccompanied children reunited with their families
- 54 missing children being looked for by their families
- 373 requests received from unaccompanied refugee children in Uganda looking for their families
- 6,943 free calls made (and picked up by recipients) from telephone booths installed in areas of refuge
- 3,406 free calls made (but not picked up by recipients) from telephone booths installed in areas of refuge
Uganda
- 716 unaccompanied children registered
- 155 unaccompanied children reunited with their families at the Nyakabande transit centre
- 21 vulnerable adults registered
- 4,088 free calls made (and picked up by recipients) from the Nyakabande transit centre
- 2,210 free calls made (but not picked up by recipients) from the Nyakabande transit centre
For more information, please contact:
Halimatou Amadou, ICRC Dakar, tel: +221 78 186 46 87
"Children Among 13 Killed in DR Congo Unrest This Week: UN"
STAFF WRITER WITH AFP, JUNE 23, 2022
"At least 13 civilians, including four children, were killed in fresh clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this week, the UN said, amid increased fighting between the army and rebels.
Clashes have intensified in recent months after M23 rebels accused the government of failing to honor a 2009 agreement under which the army was to incorporate its fighters.
The renewed violence has already forced thousands to flee their homes in eastern DRC, and is putting pressure on humanitarian agencies in the region.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday that 13 civilians died in fighting between June 19 and June 21 in Rutshuru territory in North Kivu.
Tens of thousands have been forced to flee.
“Several villages in Rutshuru territory have been practically emptied of their inhabitants, some of whom have fled to Uganda,” OCHA said.
People are fleeing to neighboring Uganda, or to safer zones in eastern DR Congo where “they are currently housed in schools, stadiums and other collective spaces,” it added.
At least 158,000 people have been forced from their homes since March in Rutshuru and Nyiragongo as a result of clashes between the Congolese army and the M23, the UN said.
OCHA said the mounting need for humanitarian assistance was being “hampered by continuing violence.”
After lying dormant for years, the rebels resumed fighting last November.
A primarily Congolese Tutsi militia that is one of the scores of armed groups in eastern DRC, the M23 leapt to global prominence in 2012 when it captured North Kivu’s capital Goma.
It was forced out shortly afterwards in a joint offensive by UN troops and the Congolese army.
But the militia has recently made a comeback, clashing frequently with Congolese troops in violence that has inflamed tensions in Central Africa.
The flare-up has revived decades-old animosities between Kinshasa and Kigali, with the DRC blaming neighboring Rwanda for the militia’s resurgence.
Rwanda has repeatedly denied backing the rebels, while both countries have accused each other of carrying out cross-border shelling." (source: https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/06/23/children-killed-dr-congo/)
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