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DRC: UN troops must deploy as soon as possible
Special session of Human Rights Council confirmed
As the civilian death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues to rise, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and more than forty other organizations active in Africa warned that the situation in the eastern DRC is at risk of turning into a humanitarian catastrophe, and called on the UN Human Rights Council to convene a special session on the crisis without delay.
Now a special session of Human Rights Council has been confirmed. It will take place Friday 28 November at 3pm (Geneva time).
Deployment of extra troops
On 20 November the UN Security Council authorized the deployment deployment of 3,000 extra troops to reinforce those already on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Amnesty International said:
“This is a good first step, but it is the implementation that matters. The people of the DRC have waited a long time for this small grain of hope – they urgently need to see those troops on the ground, protecting them from attack.”
“This resolution may have been passed today – but the situation remains unchanged. We are still receiving reports of killings, rape, and abduction of children – and we will continue to get those reports until there is effective protection of civilians in practice.
“It is not enough to pass resolutions. States around the world need to make an immediate pledge of troops and equipment – to make a concrete contribution towards protecting the people of the DRC.”
On the ground in DRC
At least 250,000 civilians, most of them women and children, have been forced to flee their homes by recent fighting in the eastern DRC, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Kivu from this and previous rounds of conflict to well over one million, and to as high as 1.6 million according to some estimates. Most are in a desperate situation, without sufficient food, water, medical supplies or shelter.
International humanitarian operations are only just restarting after the fighting, many IDPs remain inaccessible and some humanitarian operations are suspended because of the fragile security situation.
Read more about the situation and view photos here.
Reach out to help Justine
Justine Masika Bihamba is a human rights worker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She and her family have been targeted by the DRC military because of her work as the coordinator for women’s human rights.
Justine was out of the house on 18 September 2007, when six army soldiers forced their way into Justine’s home. They tied up her six children at gunpoint, and assaulted two of them.
Click here to help Justine and other women in the DRC by sending letters to DRC Président Joseph Kabila.
Children should not be used for war: Speak-out now
“The mayi-mayi (ethnic militia) took 12 girls and 10 boys from my village. I was 14. Some were younger, between 10 and 13. Everyone went to the front, even the little ones… it was terrible – you would be whipped if you did something wrong. Once, I’d been ordered to carry some bananas but they were too heavy so I left some behind. As a punishment, I was tied by my arms and feet and given 20 lashes with a rope.”
- Joseph, former child soldier, age 15.
Between 3000 and 6000 children are estimated to be serving armed groups in the DRC.
You can do something to stop this tragedy by clicking here. (PDF) Scroll down to page 7.
