DRC: MSF vaccination used as bait in attack on civilians

Democratic Republic of Congo | 06 November 2009

Thousands of people came under fire last month by the Congolese army at seven vaccination sites operated by international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The army is fighting against the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Because many of those fleeing the sites ran into the nearby bush, MSF is unsure how many people were injured or killed during the attacks.

MSF denounces this clearly unacceptable violation against civilians through the abuse of humanitarian aid for military purposes.

MSF medical teams were vaccinating thousands of children in seven different sites in Ngomashi and Kimua zones, controlled by the FDLR at the time. Although all parties to the conflict had given security guarantees to MSF to vaccinate at these locations at those times, the Congolese national army launched attacks on each of the vaccination sites. All the people who had come to get their children vaccinated were forced to flee the heavy fighting. Scattering everywhere, they are now in unknown locations and thus cannot be vaccinated. MSF had to stop activities in these zones and evacuate the teams to Goma, the regional capital of North Kivu.

“The attacks coincided with the beginning of our vaccination and put the lives of civilians in extreme risk,” says Luis Encinas, head of MSF programs in Central Africa. Thousands of people, and the MSF teams, were trapped in the gunfire. “We feel we were used as bait.”

“MSF demands that all parties to a conflict respect the work of humanitarian organizations,” adds Meinie Nicolai, MSF director of operations. “If not, it is the populations who pay the price. Those already overwhelmed by extreme violence and endless displacement are the ones who may end up cut off from humanitarian assistance.”