Goma, 16 January 2012 – The Ntoto built-up area located at around 200 km northwest of Goma in Walikale territory now looks like a ghost town. The villagers have fled their homes to take refuge around the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) military base. An estimated one thousand people, and more, are living in makeshift shelters that they have built around the military base of the Indian peacekeepers. Some have laid siege to a primary school and others to the premises of the NGO Synergie des Femmes pour le Développement, near the base. A local schoolteacher, explained to the MONUSCO-sponsored Radio Okapi that: "It is because of MONUSCO that all these people are here; otherwise everybody would have gone somewhere else. The situation in terms of health, security and food is not good, and the internally displaced persons (IDPs) no longer have access to their fields."

Most of these IDPs have fled from about ten villages of the Waloa Uroba grouping, Ntoto being the administrative center. The villages they come from include Brazza, Kashalala, Binkusé, Mashuo, Ruenga, Kiheri, Kilungu and Ntoto-centre. They have fled those villages because of the clashes last week between the Forces de Défense du Congo (FDC), a faction of a local militia, and the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR). A month ago, Ntoto was in the hands of the FDC, who have now been chased away by the FDLR. The FDLR are now ruling Ntoto.

The populations are prepared to return to their villages, but not until the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) have secured the area. Meanwhile, the good news for these IDPs is that the humanitarian agencies have announced that they will start providing some relief aid this week.

Clara Padovan et Bernardine Diambu/ MONUSCO