“Mine action partners continue to report casualties due to explosive ordnance, and that is happening sadly on an almost daily basis,” Mr. Dujarric explained in a press briefing on Monday in New York.

Farmers and shepherds are particularly vulnerable. Since January, more than 60 people have been killed and over 90 injured, many while tending to their land or grazing animals. 

Clearance efforts underway 

With hostilities subsiding in some areas, humanitarian partners have been expanding mine action work in newly accessible regions.

Since December, over 1,400 unexploded ordnance items have been safely disposed of, and 138 minefields and contaminated areas identified in Idleb, Aleppo, Hama, Deir-ez-Zor and Lattakia.

On Monday, UN partners visited a farm in Darayya, Rural Damascus, that had been cleared with support from the Syria Humanitarian Fund. This work is critical to enabling farmers to safely return to their land.

Aid and diplomacy continue 

Meanwhile, humanitarian aid operations remain uninterrupted.

Over the weekend, 40 trucks carrying nearly 1,000 metric tonnes of food from the World Food Programme (WFP) crossed from Türkiye into northwest Syria through the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing – assistance sufficient for more than 270,000 people.

UN partners have also increased the import of food and other aid from Jordan since the start of the year.

On the diplomatic front, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is set to visit Damascus this week following meetings at the Munich Security Conference. 

There, he stressed the need for an inclusive, Syrian-led political process and urged all parties to uphold their commitments on women’s rights. 

“[The UN] calls on all parties in Syria to uphold their international commitments, respect the rights and dignity of women, and to ensure their full participation in shaping the country’s future,” Mr. Dujarric said.  

This includes ensuring access to education, freedom of movement, political representation and protection from violence and exploitation. 

In an online message on Monday, the WFP said that it “condemns the pillage of its warehouses in Bukavu in South Kivu…the food supplies kept there were meant to provide vital support to the most vulnerable families who now face a growing humanitarian crisis”.

Looters made off with 7,000 tonnes of humanitarian food supplies, the UN agency said, adding that as violence spreads and access to food becomes increasingly difficult, “WFP stands ready to resume essential food aid to the most vulnerable as soon as it is safe to do so”.

The UN agency also urged all parties to the conflict “to respect their obligations vis-à-vis international humanitarian law”, which includes the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers.

The development came as M23 fighters made continuing gains in eastern DRC, after taking control of Goma – capital of North Kivu province – at the end of January. Hostilities have continued in this mineral-rich region for decades amid a proliferation of armed groups, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Aid routes blocked

In an alert, the top UN aid official in the country, Bruno Lemarquis, warned last Thursday that a shortage of humanitarian routes was threatening the aid operation in the mineral-rich region.

Before the M23’s latest offensive at the beginning of the year, Mr. Lemarquis recalled that the humanitarian situation in South Kivu was already dire.

Roughly 1.65 million people, or just over 20 per cent of the province’s population, had been displaced for a wide range of reasons.

On Saturday, the UN Secretary-General warned of the potential for the conflict to spark a regional war, before calling for “African diplomacy to solve the problem”.

Speaking on the sidelines of the African Union Summit, António Guterres told journalists that it was “time to silence the guns, it’s time for diplomacy and dialogue. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected.”

MONUSCO, the international UN peacekeeping force in DRC, will continue to provide support, the UN chief continued, although he cautioned that “a peacekeeping force can’t solve the problem because there is no peace to keep”.

He insisted, on the other hand that the conflict “will be solved if there is an effective African unit and African diplomacy to solve the problem”.

Mr. Guterres pointed to the crucial importance of efforts such as the recently held joint summit by the South African Development Community in Tanzania, which resulted in a clear pathway for an immediate ceasefire. 

“The crisis is worsening as people flee to areas where humanitarian aid cannot reach due to insecurity,” UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Eujin Byun told reporters in Geneva.

The development comes a day after the top UN aid official in the country Bruno Lemarquis warned that a shortage of humanitarian routes was threatening the aid operation in the region.

Advance on Bukavu

The rebels, who seized North Kivu province’s capital Goma late last month, are advancing towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, following a short-lived lull in fighting.

Ms. Byun said that in South Kivu, more than half of the aid groups providing critical support to survivors of sexual violence “report being unable to reach those in need due to insecurity and continuous displacement”.

Meanwhile, in North Kivu, “the destruction of health facilities, including mortuaries, and overcrowded hospitals increase the risk of spreading infectious diseases, including cholera, malaria, and measles,” she said.

The UNHCR spokesperson also highlighted the fact that “heavy artillery shelling and looting” have destroyed 70,000 emergency shelters around Goma and Minova in North and South Kivu provinces, leaving some 350,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) “once again without a roof over their heads”.

While some 100,000 displaced people have attempted to return to their home areas – where they are met with damage to their homes and a lack of essential services – many remain stranded, Ms. Byun said.

Deadly remnants

Unexploded ordnance left over from the fighting is another obstacle to their safe return.

Ms. Byun warned of the possibility that those people “will be displaced once again”.

The UNHCR spokesperson stressed that most of the 28 IDP sites around Goma are now destroyed. The agency’s concern in terms of aid access is that the road from Goma to Bukavu has been cut off, she said.

Ms. Byun also recalled that the airport in Goma is “still not functioning for humanitarian aid”.

“Since violence has spread to South Kivu, this supply line is our biggest concern,” she added.

With the rebels pushing towards Bukavu, the UN’s Mr. Lemarquis expressed worry on Thursday about the fate of South Kivu’s main airport some 20 miles from the province’s capital, which until recently was the “main lifeline” for bringing in humanitarian personnel.

Mpox spread

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Christian Lindmeier, highlighted the “heavy” impact of the hostilities on the mpox response, “particularly in Goma and the adjacent area” as the fighting spread southwards.

He stressed that the DRC is “the worst-affected country for mpox”, with Kivu being the epicentre of the highly infectious clade 1b outbreak.

Due to the rapid spread of the clade 1b strain, in August last year WHO moved to declare mpox once again a “public health emergency of international concern”, for the second time after a global outbreak of the virus made headlines in 2022.  

Earlier this month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that before the latest violence in eastern DRC, mpox cases had been stabilizing. But the recent fighting has forced patients to flee treatment centres, increasing transmission risks.

“Out of 143 confirmed mpox patients in isolation units in Goma and around, 128 fled in fear for their lives,” Mr. Lindmeier said, stressing that only 15 patients remain in isolation.

“That’s of course dangerous for everybody around,” he insisted.

Mr. Lindmeier added that some health facilities in the area had been looted, health workers had fled, and people were unable to access healthcare because of the security situation.