Reference :
V-P-CD-E-01815
Date :
24/04/2013
Caption :
North Kivu, Goma, Don Bosco centre. The president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, talking to children; an ICRC employee is with him.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
ICRC website, News Release 13/80, 25/04/2013, extract
DR of the Congo: In east of country, suffering such as rarely seen
Geneva/Kinshasa/Goma (ICRC) - "The violence and suffering inflicted on people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have reached a level rarely seen in two decades," declared Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), at the end of a four-day visit to the country.
"Amid almost total indifference, people are enduring violent treatment every day. Civilians are directly targeted in attacks that do not even spare children or elderly people, and many people are subjected to sexual violence," said Mr Maurer in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.
In Goma, the ICRC president visited the Don Bosco centre, which accommodates over 3,000 children in difficulty, who are made even more vulnerable by the war and other violence. "Some have lost all trace of their families in the chaos of fighting and the ensuing displacement," said Mr Maurer. "I was deeply moved by all of these personal tragedies, like that of Kambale K., only 10 years old, who has had no news of his parents since last November."
Mr Maurer also went to the bedsides of dozens of people wounded in recent fighting who are being treated in Goma's Ndosho Hospital, where an ICRC surgical team has been working since November of last year alongside local personnel. He listened to the story of eight-year-old Éden K., seriously injured in a rocket attack, whose leg had to be amputated.
Many medical facilities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo struggle to treat the wounded and the sick, as they lack supplies, which are often looted, or because there are armed men on the premises, or because medical staff cannot safely reach their workplace.
"Serious violations of international humanitarian law must stop. It is the responsibility of everyone in a position of influence to work urgently for greater respect for international humanitarian law," declared Mr Maurer, in the hope that the various talks and peace initiatives currently under way will help ease the suffering and improve the humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"The resurgence of inter-community tension and the fragmentation of armed groups are driving the region every day a bit further into chaos and violence," he added. The security situation has deteriorated in the Kivu provinces, in Katanga and in the parts of Maniema that border North and South Kivu. The situation in Eastern Province, in Ituri especially, also remains tense."
(…)
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
5184x3456
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
