The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Children at risk –
Aid workers are deeply worried about food — some children are clearly malnourished.
“Every day, we need on average 500 kilogrammes (1,200 pounds) of rice, 300 kilos of beans and 40 litres (10.5 US gallons) of oil to provide just one hot meal per person,” said Pastor Ignace Bingi, a coordinator with a local NGO, Lasi.
Dirty children, barefoot and clad in dusty rags, wander around the camp.
Many have lost their parents or been separated from their families.
Lasi puts the figure at around 100. The UN children’s agency Unicef on February 23 said it had identified 70 unaccompanied children and 245 children who had been separated from their parents and who “need urgent help” at the hospital site.
Hema and Lendu groups have a long history of low-level violence over land disputes.
But in the late 1990s and early 2000s their fight became a broader, more brutal battle stoked by Rwanda and Uganda, which were eager to seize gold, diamond and timber along with influence as part of a wider war that played out inside DR Congo’s borders.
The latest flare up is part of a patchwork of unrest in the vast country suffering from growing insecurity and political tension.
New conflicts are erupting and old ones are reviving as President Joseph Kabila seeks to maintain his grip on power two years after the legal end of his second term.
Presidential elections, twice postponed, are now scheduled to take place on December 23.
