BUNIA, 4 January (IRIN) - Civilians displaced by clashes between the army and militias in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are facing a major health risk, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.

"There is the risk that cholera could break out any moment in the schools and churches where the displaced are," said Idrissa Conteh, the OCHA public information officer in Bunia, the main town in the district of Ituri.

About 4,000 displaced civilians are at Fataki, 90 km north of Bunia. Since 24 December, the area has been the scene of several clashes between militiamen loyal to the Fronts des nationalistes et intégrationnistes (FNI) led by Peter Karim, and the Congolese army, known by its French acronym, FARDC.

The clashes have affected at least 25,000 people in several villages in Fataki, according to local authorities. "The residents are at the risk of dying of hunger," Jean Bosco Lalo, the head of the Ituri Civil Society, said.

Conteh said the displaced needed food, non-food items and access to medical care. "The health centre in Fataki was burned [during the fighting], making the situation very precarious," he said.

OCHA, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducted a joint mission to Fataki on Tuesday to negotiate with the army for a humanitarian corridor to assess the security situation.

According to aid workers, any intervention should be done in a neutral zone, without the FNI; preferably the zone secured by the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC.

"It's difficult to convince the partners to just go to an area like that because of lack of security," Conteh said.

On 1 January, UNICEF transported 800 kg of high-protein biscuits and bedding for vulnerable internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Fataki, mostly children and breast-feeding women. However, it failed to distribute the aid because of insecurity and left it under MONUC's care, Conteh said.

Ituri has remained volatile due to militia activity, despite the end of the country's civil war in 2003, and the holding of democratic elections in 2006.

On 24 December, Karim and his troops took control of localities in Ituri, including Djugu, 75 km northeast of Bunia, Fataki, and nearby Bule. The move, according to MONUC, violated an agreement between the army and the FNI that required Karim to keep his initial position. The FNI also abducted 15 soldiers, including officers whom they are holding hostage.

However, on 26 December, Brig-Gen Vainqueur Mayala, the Ituri operational zone commander, said the army had recaptured many of the localities that had been seized by the militias. Although he did not give figures, he said both sides suffered many casualties. The clashes resumed again on 31 December at Djina, 60 km northeast of Bunia, displacing 2,000 towards Nizi, 28 km northeast of Bunia.

These clashes occurred two weeks after the government gave Karim the rank of colonel, in compliance with his appointment as an army officer in September 2006.

Although mandated to support the Congolese army, MONUC has so far not taken an active part.

"MONUC does not know officially who started [the fighting]," Florian Barbey, MONUC spokesman in Ituri, said. "Everyone blames the other. What we do is to help FARDC soldiers in their attempts to hold dialogue with Peter Karim."

On 26 December, militiamen fired at a MONUC team that had just arrived in Fataki. "The [MONUC] helicopter landed in Fataki and civilians gathered around it, all of a sudden the gunners came up and said that they had no business with MONUC but with the FARDC brigadier-general who was in the delegation," Barbey said.

He said MONUC was awaiting a decision from President Joseph Kabila's government before considering what options to take; a large-scale military operation or dialogue with militiamen.

Karim, Mathieu Ngujolo of the Movement des Revolutionaires Congolais (MRC - loose coalition of several militia groups) and Cobra Matata, leader of the Front de résistance patriotiques de Ituri (FRPI), had on 29 November, signed an agreement on the cessation of hostilities and the beginning of the disarmament of at least 5,000 militiamen in Ituri.

However, only FRPI and MRC combatants have so far started laying down weapons. MONUC says 118 FRPI militiamen have so far surrendered, while 270 MRC ex-combatants had surrendered and joined a centre for the integration of the Congolese army at Rwampara, 8 km west of Bunia.

Karim now controls a larger zone straddling the central parts of Mahagi and Djugu territories, areas that are rich in timber. He has about 2,000 militiamen in this area and he continues to expand the areas under his control.

The clashes in Ituri have coincided with others in North Kivu Province, also in the east of the country, where thousands of people have been displaced due to renewed clashes between the army and forces allied to renegade commander Laurent Nkunda.

Military sources and MONUC said fighting on 27 December in the village of Jomba, eight km north of Goma, capital of North Kivu, had been quelled. At least 18 of Nkunda's forces, and one civilian, were killed in clashes.

MONUC and the Congolese military said the conflict erupted when militia elements attacked regular military positions, despite an ongoing process to integrate various militias into the regular army.

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