Soldiers block UNHCR access to Bunia displacement site
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Kivumorningpost
Soldiers from the Armed Forces of the DRC prevented a delegation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from accessing the Kigonze displaced persons site in Bunia. Displaced people gave it a memorandum calling for justice after acts of vandalism, reports Kivumorningpost.
A delegation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which had come from Geneva with the organisation AEDES, was unable to access the Kigonze displaced persons site in Bunia, DR Congo, on Friday 23 October. Soldiers at the site prevented its members from directly assessing the living conditions of displaced people, reports Kivumorningpost.
Representatives of displaced families presented their memorandum to the delegation in a room at CAJEK in Bunia. They are calling, among other things, for their rights to be respected and for prosecutions following acts of vandalism they say they suffered during operations to seal off the site. Olivier Bavi Karba, president of the displaced persons’ association, said images of the shelters and material damage had been shown to the visitors.
The visit follows incidents already reported at Kigonze, including gunfire at the displaced persons site on 21 September and a fire at another site that led families to flee on 27 September. Displaced persons’ representatives are calling on humanitarian organisations to come and see the situation for themselves.
