KINSHASA, 1 July 2009 (IRIN) - Continuing clashes between armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have forced civilians to abandon their homes in North Kivu and affected aid operations, a UN official said.

"These incidents are causing a significant movement of IDPs [internally displaced people] from the area adjacent to Nyabiondo Masisi," Lt-Col Jean-Paul Dietrich, spokesman for the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC), said.

The national army, FARDC, recently clashed with the Mayi-Mayi group known as the Alliance of People for a Free and Sovereign Congo (APCLS – Alliance du peuple pour un Congo libre et souverain).

Last week, hundreds of IDPs demonstrated near the town of Sake, 30km south of Goma, North Kivu's capital, blocking a main road.

"The IDPs blocked the Sake-Kitchanga [at Kilolriwe] road, asking humanitarian officials for food," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a brief.

IDPs, it added, had continued to arrive in the region west of Kitchanga, in Masisi territory of North Kivu. Access to the displaced was, however, a problem because of ongoing military operations.

Aid workers could also not access South Lubero (north of Goma) following recurrent incursions by the FDLR (Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda) in the region.

The situation is almost the same in the neighbouring province of South Kivu where, according to OCHA, three people were killed and a woman was raped on the night of 9-10 June in Kabare region.

"On the night of June 20-21, several houses were burned and a health centre looted in the counties of Mianda in the territory of Kalehe," OCHA said, adding that the attack was attributed to the FDLR.

"According to an initial assessment, 118 houses were burned," it added. "There is no information on civilian casualties, but there are reports of people drowning as they crossed a river during their escape."

Local authorities in Nindja, in the territory of Kabare, said most of the civilian population had fled to areas controlled by the DRC army.

Fields looted

According to the UN-supported Radio Okapi, hundreds of families have also fled their homes because of insecurity in the North Kivu villages of Kashuga, Kalembe, Malemo, Minjenje, Mpet and Mera.

Callers to the radio station said they no longer had access to their fields for fear of being attacked by rebels and their villages were no longer safe from armed men who also looted their fields.

There were reports from the town of Pinga, about 250km west of Goma, that army troops had looted, erected barriers and were holding civilians at ransom. They were also creating fear and panic in nearby villages.

MONUC said some of the atrocities were attributed to the fact that soldiers have not received their salaries for some time.

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