A group of women, children and elderly nomadic people who had gathered in a makeshift camp in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to escape being raped or kidnapped in the bush have again been forced to flee.

A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team recently carried out more than 500 medical consultations for the group of 600 nomads over a period of just three weeks. When the people were ordered to leave their camp by the authorities, MSF only had time to conduct a quick emergency food distribution before the group took flight into the forest. MSF is now worried for the safety and health of these vulnerable people.

“When 600 women and children arrive suddenly and set up camp next to a town in northern Congo, an alert signal flashes in your brain,” says Azaad Alocco, MSF project coordinator in the town of Niangara in northeastern DRC. “The terrible thing about the area where we are working is that people deserting their villages and fleeing for their lives is not uncommon – Lord’s Resistance Army rebels are known to operate in this area. But this new group that came in early December was clearly different.”

DRC © Natasha Mlakar/MSF
A Mbororo woman in the bush near the village of Nambia in Haut-Uélé district in northeastern DRC.

Attacked in the bush

Since May 2009 an MSF team has been based in the town of Niangara in Haut-Uélé district, supporting the Ministry of Health in the reference hospital and running medical clinics in two nearby villages. This is a heavily forested and relatively remote part of the country, not far from the borders with Southern Sudan and Central African Republic. “Most of the villages around here are empty, houses and fields overgrown, the only sign of life a rare patch of manioc plants where a farmer has ventured out to try to grow some food for his family,” says Alocco. “Virtually everyone has come to Niangara town and they’re too afraid to return home.”

At the start of December, a group of 600 women, children and elderly arrived and started to construct makeshift shelters on the outskirts of town. They are nomadic herders known as Mbororos, who have for years moved through several central African countries. This was a new development for Niangara.

“They told us that they had been driven out of the neighbouring district and were now afraid of being targeted by FARDC (Congolese army) soldiers here in Niangara,” says Alocco. “They said that the women, children and elderly had come to Niangara to avoid being raped or kidnapped in the bush. Even for nomads used to a hard life, the conditions in their makeshift camp were bad, with no water, no hygiene facilities. Even the few bits of plastic sheeting they had for making shelters were stolen.”

Medical consultations

Over the next three weeks the MSF team conducted 541 consultations for the Mbororos in the hospital and in their camp. “For a group of 600 people, 541 consultations in a three-week period is a very high number and clearly demonstrates that these people need access to medical care,” says Morten Havdal, an MSF physician in Niangara. “We treated many severe malaria cases, intestinal parasites, respiratory infections, skin infections and other pathologies.”

On the morning of Dec. 21, locals informed the MSF team that they had heard gunshots in the direction of the Mbororo camp. An adolescent Mbororo boy had been shot in the groin. “We stabilized the patient and drove him directly to the hospital for surgery,” says Havdal. “The surgery went well and luckily the bullet had passed through his pelvis without creating too much damage. Two weeks after the operation he could get up and walk out of the hospital.”

Forced to leave the camp

On the afternoon of Jan. 5, the MSF team went to the makeshift camp to prepare for the clinic they were planning to run the following day. “We found the camp almost empty, nearly 600 people suddenly gone,” says project coordinator Alocco. “Armed forces were ordering the last few Mbororos to leave the camp immediately. It was very sudden and unexpected.”

Earlier that morning numerous people witnessed Congolese soldiers entering the camp, ordering the Mbororos to leave by 2 p.m. and seizing all their possessions and animals, leaving them only their donkeys for transport.

That evening, an MSF team found a group of a hundred or so women and children by the roadside just north of the Uélé River, without any shelter or food. Night falls quickly in the forests of Haut-Uélé so there was only time to organize a rushed emergency food distribution for them.

MSF’s fears

The women and children who were driven from the camp and several hundred Mbororo men are currently living in the bush around Nambia, where MSF runs a medical clinic when it is safe enough to do so. “We are worried that they are sleeping out in the bush with no shelter, no food, no way of getting medical care, and much more vulnerable to attacks and harassments than when they were in their camp at Niangara” says Alocco.

“It seems these people meet a hostile reception from authorities and local civilians wherever they go. They are currently hiding in places where we cannot reach them. We hope that those who need medical attention can get themselves to our mobile clinics at the Nambia health centre.”

In the Haut- and Bas-Uélé Districts in northern DRC, MSF provides primary and secondary healthcare in and around the towns of Dingila, Doruma, Dungu, Duru, Faradje and Niangara. At Dingila and Duruma MSF also runs dedicated programs for a disease known as sleeping sickness. The medical teams conduct more than 10,000 consultations per month in hospitals and health centres and provide hundreds of mental health consultations for people affected by violence. The insecurity in the region means there is regular displacement of entire communities, so the MSF teams conduct emergency distributions of food and survival material when necessary.

Related News:

 DRC: MSF helps thousands of displaced people in the Shabunda region - 03.09.2010 10:25

 DRC: Hope on the horizon - 22.04.2010 09:05

 DRC: Thousands of displaced civilians trapped by conflict - 11.03.2010 12:28

 DRC: 70,000 flee violence in north-west of the country - 30.11.2009 17:18

 DRC: MSF vaccination used as bait in attack on civilians - 06.11.2009 16:11

 North DRC: Violence expands, population urgently needs assistance - 13.10.2009 15:03

 ‘There is indescribable fear in everyone’s eyes’ - 21.08.2009 17:07