The United Nations on Thursday expressed fears that a military offensive launched last month by Congolese troops against Ugandan militants in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to force about 370,000 people from their homes.
Persistent conflict in Congo’s eastern borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and an insurrection in the centre of the country have displaced 4.3 million people internally.
The conflict prompted the United Nations to declare Congo a level three humanitarian emergency in 2017 – on par with Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The government’s campaign against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is expected to displace 196,300 people in Beni territory and another 173,200 people in neighbouring Lubero territory, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.
More than 532,000 people in the two territories near the Ugandan border fled their homes in 2016 and 2017, largely driven out by attacks by the ADF and other armed groups as well as military responses, the report said.
“The absence of protection measures for civilians in the most affected zones risks worsening. The risk of shells falling on civilian sites … cannot be excluded,” it said.
The Congolese army has not made any comment on this.
The ADF has operated inside Congo since the 1990s. Congolese and U.N. troops have conducted repeated offensives against it, but the rebel group always managed to bounce back. It is considered one of the most lethal of Congo’s dozens of armed bands.
