DRC: Tens of thousands of IDPs flee fighting in Katanga

Some 49,000 civilians who have fled fighting between the Congolese army and Mayi-Mayi militia in the northern province of Katanga are living under very difficult conditions, according to an official of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "We need clothing, plastic sheeting, kitchen utensils, soap and other things," said Anne Edgerton, the OCHA spokeswoman in Kalemie, a town in Katanga Province, on Friday (January 6). She said nearly 120,000 people in the region had fled their villages since the government launched an operation to disarm the militia groups on 15 November 2005.