VZCZCXRO4289
OO RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #1188/01 2821131
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 091131Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6996
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5095
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2110
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0546
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 001188 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS TO USAID/W 
USAID/DCHA FOR MHESS, GGOTTLIEB 
DCHA/OFDA FOR KLUU, ACONVERY, KCHANNELL, MSHIRLEY 
DCHA/FFP FOR TANDERSON, NCOX, TMCRAE 
DCHA/OTI FOR RJENKINS, KHUBER 
AFR FOR BDUNFORD, CTHOMPSON 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/OFDA/ECARO JMYER, ADWYER 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/FFP DSUTHER 
GENEVA FOR NYKYLOH 
NSC FOR PMARCHAM 
BRUSSELS FOR USAID PLERNER 
NEW YORK FOR TMALY 
USMISSION UN ROME FOR RNEWBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID PREL PHUM CG
 
SUBJECT: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO - SKIRMISHES AND SQUABBLES 
SURROUND GOMA AREA SETTLEMENT SITES 
 
REFS:  A. KINSHASA 01141  B. KINSHASA 01137  C. KINSHASA 1151 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  During the last week of September, small skirmishes involving 
the Congolese military and various armed groups in North Kivu 
Province resumed, leading several thousand newly-displaced persons 
to flee to Goma-area settlement sites.  Site visits by USAID's 
Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) staff confirm that 
response efforts are underway to meet priority needs of internally 
displaced persons (IDP's), but living conditions and available 
resources vary among sites, and additional space is needed for the 
growing IDP population.  Squabbles continued within the humanitarian 
community regarding registration and response activities for IDP's. 
End summary. 
 
-------------------- 
SCATTERED SKIRMISHES 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  While the government recently issued an ultimatum for troops 
loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda to join the military 
integration ("brassage") process by October 15 or face military 
action, UN agencies noted renewed small clashes between Democratic 
Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR), Mai-Mai, Nkunda, and government 
troops in various locations in Masisi and Rutshuru territories in 
southern North Kivu throughout the last week of September (ref C). 
 
 
¶3.  In Masisi, skirmishes reportedly took place in Mweso, Kichanga, 
Nyabiondo, Karuba, Shasha, Rubaya, Ngungu, and Kalengele towns.  In 
Rutshuru, Mai-Mai troops reportedly gained control of Kibirizi, FDLR 
and Mai-Mai elements clashed between Kiseguru and Kirumba, and 
Nkunda forces temporarily blocked the road between Rutshuru and 
Bunagana.  While the unpredictable security environment limited 
humanitarian assessments to determine the impact on local 
populations, an estimated 5,000 new IDP's arrived in Goma-area 
settlements in late September, and relief agencies report a slow but 
steady rate of continued arrivals. 
 
¶4.  The presence and periodic confrontations of these groups has 
numerous negative consequences for nearby resident and displaced 
populations.  In addition to disrupting livelihoods and uprooting 
communities, humanitarian staff have received reports of troops 
looting towns, forcibly recruiting new soldiers, committing acts of 
sexual violence, harassing IDP's at water points, and stealing UN 
World Food Program emergency food rations. 
 
¶5.  According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), residents 
in Kabaya, Karambi, and Mutabo in southeastern Rutshuru have 
reported increasingly degrading and frequent sexual assaults by 
armed men over the past four months.  IRC stated that all groups 
were implicated in the attacks, although FDLR and FARDC were 
specifically mentioned in the area surrounding Karambi and Mutabo. 
Several relief agencies have received reports of forced recruitment 
of adult and child soldiers by Nkunda forces in multiple locations 
in Masisi and Rutshuru.  In addition, relief organizations are 
concerned that distributions to the estimated 4,800 IDP families 
settled next to a military base in Kabaya could incite looting by 
the government soldiers. 
 
---------------------------- 
SERVICES AT SETTLEMENT SITES 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Humanitarian agencies continue to provide and expand relief 
activities for IDP's in the five settlement sites west of Goma. 
 
KINSHASA 00001188  002 OF 003 
 
 
Although space and some services vary by site, health care is 
available to all IDP's through an OFDA-funded program, water and 
sanitation activities are in place at four of the sites, and relief 
agencies are beginning to provide potable water and soap at the 
fifth site.  The following summary of humanitarian conditions, 
response efforts, and gaps at each site is based on a September 26 
inter-agency assessment and a September 29 OFDA staff site visit. 
 
¶7.  The estimated 10,400 IDP's at Bulengo, the largest and first 
official site in the area, have convenient access to a broad range 
of relief programs.  Two water bladders provide safe drinking water; 
latrines are posted throughout the site; and OFDA partner 
International Medical Corps (IMC) has set up a temporary health 
center with free 24-hour primary and maternal care.  Referrals are 
available from Bulengo and all Goma-area IMC health centers for 
suspected cholera cases or more critical health conditions. 
Widely-spaced huts at Bulengo are covered with plastic sheeting, 
distributed by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR) in mid-September along with additional emergency relief 
supplies and government-provided lentils and vegetable oil.  In 
addition, counseling services are available for victims of sexual 
and gender-based violence, and the UN Children's Fund is preparing 
alternate education programs for displaced children. 
 
¶8.  IDP's at Mugunga One, Mugunga Two, and Lac Vert were also 
eligible to receive plastic sheeting and emergency relief supplies 
from the Bulengo distribution, and clean water, IMC health services, 
and latrines are available at or near each site.  While the quantity 
of drinking water differs among the sites, additional water is 
available from nearby Lake Kivu, and teams are permanently stationed 
at several points along the lake to provide chlorine tablets, since 
cholera is endemic to Lake Kivu.  Based on OFDA and NGO discussions 
with IDP's at the various sites, the population appears well-versed 
in the importance of using the chlorine tablets for water taken from 
the lake. 
 
¶9.  Current response priorities include identifying additional sites 
for existing and newly-arriving IDP's, water and sanitation 
interventions at Ndosho, and the provision of relief supplies to 
IDP's who arrived after the mid-September Bulengo distribution. 
 
¶10.  Relief staff and local authorities agree that moving IDP's from 
Lac Vert and Ndosho to a newly approved sixth site at Buhimba is a 
top priority.  The transfer will provide a safer environment for 
IDP's currently at the roadside Lac Vert site, will enable classes 
to resume in the school currently housing IDP's, and permit relief 
agencies to provide more substantial assistance at Ndosho.  However, 
Buhimba has capacity for only an estimated 1,500 households, which 
is insufficient for the estimated 2,300 households currently at Lac 
Vert and Ndosho and an additional 1,000 newly-arrived households at 
Nzulo.  Furthermore, tightly-packed huts at both Mugunga One and 
Mugunga Two present a fire hazard from open cooking fires, and local 
officials have already indicated that the Mugunga Two site can not 
be expanded. 
 
¶11.  Of the five Goma-area sites, emergency response activities have 
been most limited at Ndosho, where an estimated 400 households have 
not received emergency relief supplies since arriving from Munigi 
after the Bulengo distribution (ref A).  Until September 29, relief 
agencies had not established water or sanitation facilities at the 
site owing to disagreements over whether to provide services to this 
group at their current location or waiting to register and move them 
to a new official settlement area.  Despite dissenting opinions at 
humanitarian coordination meetings, Mercy Corps has since begun 
working to provide potable water and soap to the Ndosho IDP's.  OFDA 
staff note that tension and differing approaches between relief 
agencies in Goma likely contributed to delays in response efforts to 
the Ndosho IDP's. 
 
 
KINSHASA 00001188  003 OF 003 
 
 
--------------- 
STAFF SQUABBLES 
--------------- 
 
¶12.  Infighting within the humanitarian community in Goma has 
resumed in recent days.  Disagreements over current estimates of the 
IDP population near Goma, appropriate registration and response 
methods for the Ndosho and recent IDP's, and assistance to local 
security forces aggravate existing tensions (ref B). 
 
¶13.  Current estimates of the number of IDP's at Ndosho, Lac Vert, 
Mugunga One, and Mugunga Two are greatly contested, fueling debates 
over how much assistance is required.  For example, some relief 
agencies estimate the number of households at Ndosho is around 400 
based on day and night-time visual accounts.  However, a list 
provided by IDP's at the site, cited by other organizations, claims 
2,477 families at Ndosho.  Furthermore, there is currently no system 
in place to track any returning or newly arriving IDP's. 
 
¶14.  Several agencies have repeatedly called for distributions of 
relief supplies to new arrivals and Ndosho-based IDP's, as well as 
food aid for vulnerable households in each Goma-area site.  IMC is 
providing emergency food rations for 600 families with malnourished 
children.  However, WFP and UNICEF are unwilling to conduct general 
distributions based on registration lists that are widely 
acknowledged to be faulty, and UNHCR is insistent that any 
additional food or non-food distributions must be carried out 
equally at all sites.  This standoff contributed to the two-week 
delay in providing drinking water at Ndosho, and has prevented new 
arrivals from receiving relief commodities until a follow-up 
registration is conducted. 
 
¶15.  As of October 1, a team comprised of UNHCR, Norwegian Refugee 
Council (NRC), and Save the Children/UK is preparing to register 
both existing and newly-arriving IDP populations near Goma. 
Following the registration, which is expected to take two to three 
weeks, IDP's from Ndosho and Lac Vert are slated to be moved to a 
new settlement site at Buhimba, pending final authorization from 
local officials.  Humanitarian and government agencies have both 
determined Buhimba to be a viable site. 
 
¶16.  Another recurring source of tension are differing approaches to 
providing assistance to local police forces.  At the Inter-Agency 
Standing Committee meeting for North Kivu on October 1, UNHCR 
announced a decision taken jointly with MONUC and NRC to provide 
food assistance to local police forces as an "incentive", and to 
prevent looting of IDP food stocks.  However, the NRC representative 
at the meeting was not aware of the decision, and OCHA along with 
several NGOs stated that the group's policy on providing support to 
local security forces had not changed since an earlier UNHCR 
proposal to pay police for protection services.  The issue is slated 
to be reviewed at the next committee meeting on October 8. 
 
BROCK