A 12-vehicle UN convoy took desperately needed aid yesterday to a rebel-held town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as the government rejected the rebel leader’s demand for talks.
Laurent Nkunda, who has wrested control of several strategic towns, threatened in a meeting with reporters on Sunday to launch a campaign to overthrow the government if his offer was turned down.
The UN convoy of about a dozen vehicles left Goma, capital of Nord-Kivu province, for Rutshuru, about 75km to the north, escorted by around 50 UN peacekeepers.
PHOTO: EPA
Thousands of people lined the road from Goma to Rutshuru during the journey. It was the first humanitarian aid delivery behind rebel lines since fighting broke out in August.
Tens of thousands of people live in camps around Rutshuru and many fled into nearby villages and jungle after the new fighting between Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and government forces.
The aid convoy had a small amount of water and medical supplies, but UN officials were to size up the possibility of sending bigger convoys through rebel territory, UN humanitarian official Gloria Fernandez said.
She said medical supplies and tablets to purify water were the priority in this shipment. The priority is to take pressure of Rutshuru hospital, the only operating medical facility in a region of hundreds of thousands of people, she said.
She said clinics there have been “looted and completely destroyed.”
Another convoy today would be bringing food for some of the 250,000 refugees displaced by fighting, she said.
“At the moment, we are sending a team to see if it is possible to bring things to Rutshuru in the coming days,” said Theo Kapuku, national program officer for the UN World Food Programme.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, the UN Children’s Fund and the British medical aid charity Merlin also had representatives on the convoy.
Rebels were allowing farmers to reach Goma, the provincial capital, in trucks packed with cabbages, onions and spinach. The UN convoy also stopped to deliver a sack of potatoes to UN troops in Rugari.
The rebels declared a ceasefire last week after surrounding Goma where more than 1 million people have been displaced by fighting.
Nkunda threatened at a meeting with reporters at his stronghold of Kichangna to oust the government in Kinshasa unless it holds “direct” talks on his demands.
“We say we have to fight until we are going to get resolution of our problems through negotiations or if they ignore [that call], we are going to force them, to liberate Congo,” Nkunda said.
“For us, Congo is under occupation. An occupation of negative forces protected by our government. And our government has betrayed his people,” he said.
However, government spokesman Lambert Mende said that all “armed groups” in Nord-Kivu should be treated in the same way.
“The government sees no reason to discriminate against other groups of Congolese who have propositions to make” on the crisis in the country, he said.
Nkunda’s group was one of several in Nord-Kivu who signed a ceasefire in January and the government spokesman said any contacts had to be part of this process.
Meanwhile, Nkunda said his troops were at the gates of Goma and had infiltrated Goma airport. He said he had ordered his troops to halt their advance because he saw the suffering of people in Goma, and declared the ceasefire.
While Nkunda’s rebels have sought to reassure local people that they would be safe, Western governments have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in the central African nation.
“More than 1.6 million internally displaced are trapped in the crisis” and cannot be easily reached, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Sunday in the Tanzanian city of Dar Es Salaam. “They are without food, water and other necessities.”
Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the African Union, following talks with DR Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame.
Miliband and Kouchner were to present a joint report on the crisis at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Marseille yesterday.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese