IDPs In Mambasa, DRC, On The Move Again Following Repeated ADF Attacks
The humanitarian situation of the displaced people is worsening as civil society groups call on the government and aid organisations for support.
Mass movements have been recorded of already displaced persons trying to escape from repeated attacks by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in DRC’s Mambasa area.
According to the local civil society actors, the Komanda-Mambasa highway has again become the target of the rebels and more than 800 households of displaced persons have been recorded.
“Most of the fleeing displaced persons are flooding the villages of Bengasoli, Mabukulu and Masiliko in the Walese Vonkutu chiefdom on the national highway number four,” revealed a civil society activist.
“Since the attacks of last week, it is particularly the inhabitants of the villages of Bengasoli, Mabukulu, and Masiliko on the Mambasa-Lolwa highway who have been invading the Mambasa centre while others have been going right to Komanda and have been living under very difficult conditions,” said John Vuleverio, president of the new civil society in Mambasa.
The Lolwa reference hospital, which is the largest operational health structure along the Komanda-Mambasa highway, has since closed down following increasing attacks by the ADF. As a result, the displaced persons find themselves in very difficult conditions in the schools where they are currently located, especially as schools are due to reopen on Sept. 5, 2022.
“There are more than 800 households spread out in schools and benevolent families while others sleep in the open air. On the ground in Mambasa, the humanitarian situation of the displaced families escaping from atrocities in the area remains precarious. We are calling on the Congolese state and humanitarian organisations to come to the aid of these displaced persons,” Vuleverio pleaded.
Due to rising insecurity, the authorities have suspended traffic on the Komanda-Mambasa highway. The important highway links the provinces of North Kivu, Ituri, and Tshopo to Uele.
The Walese Vonkutu chiefdom and the Mambasa forest remain the stronghold of the rebels, who are now moving towards Mambasa centre while killing, looting, and abducting in the region. Operations by the Congolese and Ugandan armies against the ADF in Beni and Irumu territories have also continued.
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