Goma, 31 May 2013 - The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-wha Kang, visited the Democratic Republic of Congo on 30 May 2013. Her mission was undertaken in the context of monitoring the current humanitarian situation in eastern DRC where millions of people are affected by armed conflicts.

Following meetings in Kinshasa with Congolese authorities, representatives of the United Nations system and representatives from troop contributing countries, Assistant Secretary-General Kang travelled to Goma, in North Kivu province, where nearly 140,000 people have been forced to flee their villages due to armed conflicts since the start of 2013.

Accompanied by the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, Moustapha Soumare, Ms. Kang visited displaced people at the Sotraki camp near Goma, where she saw first-hand the impact of the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC. Some 300,000 people found refuge in this camp following the latest fighting between the Congolese national army and the M23 armed group. These newly- displaced people are the latest victims of the humanitarian crisis in North Kivu that has uprooted more than three million people.

"The latest fighting on the outskirts of Goma shows how fragile the situation remains in North Kivu," Ms. Kang said after her visit to the IDP camp. "The killing of civilians by shelling last week is unacceptable and I call on all parties to fully respect international humanitarian law. The immense suffering of the people in the Kivu and other parts of the DRC where violence continues has gone on for far too long. It is time to put an end to the horrors of this human crisis," she added.

This is Ms. Kyu-wha Kang's first field trip to eastern DRC since being appointed Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator on 18 March 2013 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Clara Padovan/MONUSCO