MSF condemns surge of violence in DR Congo

KINSHASA: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Tuesday said civilians were suffering "horrific" wounds in a new surge in violence in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo's turbulent Ituri province. Gold-rich Ituri has long been hit by conflict between ethnic group as well as attacks by the IS-linked group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). It lies just north of North and South Kivu provinces, where the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group has seized large tracts of territory in recent months.

The medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, said it had seen "a renewed spike in atrocities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, where its medical teams are providing care for civilians with horrific injuries". Citing UN figures, it said violence had displaced around 100,000 people since the beginning of the year, with attacks killing more than 200 people in January and February alone. More than half of the victims of violence that MSF treated at its clinic in the provincial capital, Bunia, up until mid-March were women and children, it said. — AFP