500,000 forced to flee their homes in January

More than 500,000 people have been displaced thus far in January due to heavy fighting in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country’s foreign minister told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

“The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, with more than 500,000 new (internally displaced people) in North and South Kivu provinces in January alone,” Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said.

In the worst escalation of a long-running conflict in more than a decade, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels entered Goma, the capital of North Kivu and the largest city in eastern Congo, on Monday. Large parts of the city are now under rebel control.

MONUSCO calls for international action

Meanwhile, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) has called for international intervention as violence escalates in the country.

“The situation in Goma requires urgent and coordinated international action,” Vivian van de Perre, deputy special Representative for Protection and Operations in the MONUSCO, told the UN Security Council in New York.

“These attacks continue to ravage the city, killing, injuring, traumatizing and displacing civilians and exacerbating the crisis,” he said, adding that the UN peacekeeping mission had taken in a large number of people seeking protection in Goma.

Rubio urges ceasefire in call with Kagame

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Rwandan President Paul Kagame in a phone call that Washington was “deeply troubled” by the escalation of the conflict in the Congo, particularly the fall of the city of Goma to Rwandan-backed rebels.

The top US diplomat “urged an immediate ceasefire in the region, and for all parties to respect sovereign territorial integrity,” a State Department statement said.

Goma is located in one of the most resource-rich areas of the DRC and borders Rwanda. The M23 rebel militia has been fighting Congolese government troops and allied militias for years, seeking access to natural resources.

According to the European Union, the total number of displaced people in the country is now estimated at more than 7 million.

dh/rm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)