KINSHASA, 19 March 2009 (IRIN) - Whole villages are being abandoned as civilians flee attacks by Rwandan Hutu militia and Ugandan rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, just weeks after joint army operations to oust the militias ended.

"[On] Monday and Tuesday the FDLR [Forces démocratiques pour la libération du Rwanda] attacked a FARDC [national army] position and burned some villages … causing massive population displacement," Joseph Malikidogo, president of the North Kivu civil society, said. The FDLR comprises militias, some of whom are blamed for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The DRC government invited the Rwandan and Ugandan armies to North Kivu and Orientale provinces, respectively, to help quell the FDLR and Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) threat in the east. The LRA is blamed for attacks on civilians in parts of Southern Sudan and Orientale Province.

Since the end of the operations, hundreds of civilians have come under attack, with villages looted and women raped. The Rwandan army left on 25 February while the Ugandan army pulled out on 15 March.

"The situation … is characterised by a large number of population movements due to multiple FDLR attacks, particularly in the north … the situation in Haut-Uele and in part of Bas-Uele [Orientale] is reminiscent of the one in the province of North Kivu," Nestor Yombo Djema, an information officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.

Some of the FDLR militia had regrouped in Lubero, Walikale and Masisi, in North Kivu, and clashed with the FARDC, according to the spokesman for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Lt. Col Jean-Paul Dietrich.

"The FDLR are still in their hundreds and they always pose a threat to the population even though, according to different sources, the joint army operation weakened their capacity," said Dietrich. MONUC is to launch anti-FDLR operations with the army.

According to government spokesman Lambert Mende, remnants of the armed groups were still harming the population. At least 8,000 people have been displaced in Lubero, 14,000 west of Musienene, and 17,500 in Kirumba in North Kivu where some returns have also been recorded, according to humanitarian organisations. The number of Congolese refugees has also increased by 7,622 since January.

Rumours of attacks had also contributed to displacement in places like Kayna, North Kivu, where people had fled, only to return home later, said Yombo of OCHA.

The FDLR had also displaced civilians in South Kivu. "In the past three weeks, the FDLR, which fled the joint operation [in North Kivu], has driven away at least 7,600 people from their villages north of Kalonge," he said.

Some of the FDLR and newly integrated FARDC units were reportedly also kidnapping civilians for ransom and taxing farmers to access their fields.

LRA attacks

Meanwhile, in the northern territory of Dungu in Orientale, civilians were still fleeing LRA attacks. "The LRA attacks on villages and civilians have displaced the population and complicated [the provision of] humanitarian assistance," he said.

Medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland pulled out of Banda, Haut Uele, after the LRA attacked and pillaged its base on 5 March. About 20,000 people fled Banda, Yombo said.

Oxfam GB was also forced to suspend an IDP verification exercise in Lubero following obstruction by FARDC soldiers' wives, while MSF Holland suspended its activities in Kitchanga.

In addition, aid convoys were unable to use the roads, leaving thousands of people without assistance, although generally incidents targeting aid organisations have decreased in North Kivu.

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