Funding says...

I copied this from one of the funding proposals we sent out:

Thousands of civilians have fled fighting between the Congolese army and Mayi-Mayi militia in the northern province of Katanga since November 2005. OCHA estimates nearly 120,000 IDPs in Katanga Province.

Katanga Province has a long story of unrest. In 1998 Kinshasa used local Mayi-Mayi militias to stop the advance of Rwandan-backed forces. While the enemy has disappeared, “the militias have taken on a life of their own and are now the largest security problem of the country”[1]. They are estimated by UN to total 5,000 to 8,000.The local officials who had armed the Mayi-Mayi, by the end of 2002, seemed unable to control them. Despite the efforts of pacification (round tables and buying peace with bicycles programs) the situation has worsened and population was forced to move to the bush or to safer villages.

In early 2004, political division among Mayi-Mayi factions sparked fighting among groups and counter attacks by the FARDC north of Mitwaba, causing a major population exodus towards the forest and the south of the territory.

Further fighting in March/April and July/August 2005 left thousands of people spread across the camps and villages of Mitwava, Kasungeshi, Sampwe, Mazombwe and Dubie.

In November 2005, in the run-up to elections, the 6th military region of the army attacked the Mayi-Mayi in northern Katanga. Battles developed in a triangular area of 200 sq km between Manono, in the north of the Province, Mitwaba, south of it and Pweto, to the east on the border with Zambia. Houses have been burnt and several civilians have been killed. Local population was forced to flee again their villages. The 1st of December a camp for displaced people, Mazombwe, seven kilometers from Mitwaba, was attacked and 3,000 people who were living in the camp once again were forced to flee for their lives. As consequent of army attacks, most of Gedeon's men have fled the area they controlled around the town of Dubie to Lake Upemba National Park; the army is following them there and fighting are still taking place farther west in the Upemba Park. Mayi-Mayi groups recently started crossing Lake Upemba and attacking villages on the other side.

Displacement was massive. Today there are several sites in and around Mitwaba, including three camps and scattered displaced families around Sampwe, Kasungeshi and Upemba Park; the total number of IDPs in Mitwaba territory is around 25000 people, but every week there are new movements of people living in the bush. Around Dubie there are three camps with around 16,000 people. The situation is more stable but the security situation in the origin villages is still dangerous.

Displaced people are living under very difficult conditions. The IDPs also have to struggle with the fear of theft and violence. IDPs regularly report that the military loot their cooking pots, blankets and any other possessions they might own. In Mitwaba in the past, both residents and displaced, men and women also complained of sexual violence and torture.

The camps and their surroundings lack assistance and security. The displaced have found refuge in areas ill-equipped to receive them with little prepared for their arrival. The camps are over-crowded, with few facilities, limited shelter and poor hygiene conditions. There are large medical needs ranging from malaria through respiratory infections to diarrhoea and worm infections - all of which are common and treatable problems and exacerbated by pre-existing vulnerability, over-crowding and unhygienic conditions. Having survived with few or no clothes, blankets or shelter in the fields and in the bush, living in unsanitary conditions with little nutritious food, they are even more vulnerable now in the camps. MSF is providing emergency medical care and, in some villages water/sanitation facilities.

Food remains a major challenge, with malnutrition rising. Today thousands of displaced survive on only one meal a day, insufficient in either quantity or quality. The numbers of children under five years old in MSF Therapeutic Feeding Centres have been swollen by the newly arriving displaced - with numbers from the host populations significant too. Several organizations are currently deployed on the ground or are planning on deploying shortly to try to remedy to the food scarcity situation. Some of these organizations are: WFP, ECHO, ACF-USA, and MONUC.

Of course, at the time of my arrival in September the camps are now almost empty – seems that the folks are heading back to their respective villages so the kids can start school (where that is possible) and to start farming as the rainy season is to start any time. The entire ‘emergency’ seems to be passed during the scramble of preparing proposals and recruiting funding followed by the ramping up: developing a base, generating necessary TORs and agreements in principle, hiring staff….

That is not to say that there is no need. Folks here are still starving; life is hard in the dusty heat. Manioc is a staple and the surrounding vegetation of grasses and trees are sparse. Access to water is challenging -the ‘town water’ a system created ten years ago by the Nuns is just now showing signs of lack of supply from the source in the surrounding hills. The few hand pumps in the area are drying up as well forcing people to hike to the river. It is not that far, less than two kms, but you can imagine the effort. The real problem is that the river is so tiny now at this time of year, and the bathing and laundry is going on concurrently with the collection.

Still the camps persist at some level – my MSF colleagues suggest that there are about 5000 folks left in the three camps around our little village and empting slowly. Movies are blasted daily long into the night in the camp just across from my brick house, evoking sleepless nights on Indian buses. If not for the movies, then the drums and dancing occupy the inhabitants. The skies are clear and the stars are sharp and the evenings finally cool. It is a dry heat here at 1000 m elevation, so the dust is everywhere (concern for electronic appliances) and is kicked up from the thick layer of sand/dirt.

[1] International Crisis Group, “Katanga: the Congo’s forgotten Crisis”, January 2006.