Speaking from the Goma region, the main city of which was invaded by the M23 rebels supported by Rwanda in January, the United Nations Emergency Rescue Coordator Tom Fletcher had suffered “decades of trauma”.
The last months have been “particularly horrible for many,” he added, referring to the fallout without law of heavy fights this year between rebel fighters and the army of regular DRC which has been linked to serious human rights violations, including potential war crimes.
“The most striking today and yesterday was the stories of sexual violence, and sit with women who tell horrible stories that are too horrible for me to tell here and who are trying to find the courage to rebuild their lives,” said the United Nations Chief of Rescue.
“” We are there to provide them with this support, trying to help them rebuild, but they have gone through hell. “”
Call of peace
All these new displaced by the M23 Rebel Advance are added to the five million people who are already living in travel camps in the east of the DRC. Today, more than 20 million people need to help relief. “” They are desperate that this conflict ends,»M. Fletcher continued.
One day after NATO member states agreed with a 5% increase in funding for their collective defense, UN humanitarian work and its partners is basically rocks.
In the DRC, 70% of UN aid programs were historically funded by the United States-“incredible generosity over the decades”-noted Mr. Fletcher. But today, “we see most of this disappearance,” he insisted, forcing the humanitarian community to make “brutal choice, life and death choices” on which receives help.
“For these women – the survivors of sexual violence, for the children who told me that they needed water, for the communities who told me that they needed shelter, medicine, these cuts are real at the moment and people are dying because of the cuts,” said the senior UN.
Help teams did not stop
Despite the difficulties linked to the prolonged nature of the conflict in the DRC and the massive needs, the United Nations aid teams and their partners “work hard to access these communities,” insisted Mr. Fletcher – “trying to open the airport, trying to open the roads, trying to unlock control points that prevent our aid through”.
In an attempt to squarely the circle of the quantity of aid financing regularly reducing supplied worldwide, Mr. Fletcher recently announced A “hyper priorititized” plan to save 114 million lives this year. But it depends on receiving the necessary financing. “” All we ask to do is one percent of what the world has spent for defense last year“, He continued.
After visiting and connected the communities had an impact repeatedly by fighting, the senior United Nations insisted so that they should not be forgotten. “These are the fronts of humanitarian effort,” he said.
Communities on the front line
“I suppose that the gleam of hope in all of this is, yes, we can work in this more effective and priority way and will do it; But also, the communities here which are – basically – they have passed so much and they are determined to support each other. ”
And despite the increase in antipathy in certain countries towards international cooperation, including work efforts and promotion of the United Nations, Mr. Fletcher insisted that reasons of optimism remain.
“I really believe that there is a movement that will support this work, which will support this work,” he told the UN News. “We have to find them. We have to enlist them, and we must show them that we can deliver them.
“And, you know, I have not abandoned human kindness and human solidarity. I have not abandoned The Charter of the United Nations for a second. And this work is at the heart.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
