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Viewing cable 06KINSHASA443, USAID/OFDA FEBRUARY VISIT TO NORTH KIVU AND

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06KINSHASA443 2006-03-15 14:56 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Kinshasa
VZCZCXRO9583
RR RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR
DE RUEHKI #0443/01 0741456
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151456Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3427
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHRO/USMISSION UN ROME
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 KINSHASA 000443 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AIDAC 
 
AID/W FOR DCHA/OFDA- MMARX, CGOTTSCHALK, MSHIRLEY 
AID/W FOR DCHA/FFP- TANDERSON, NCOX, TMCRAE 
AID/W FOR DCHA/OTI- RJENKINS, KHUBER 
AID/W FOR AFR- KO'DONNELL, JBORNS 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/OFDA/ARO- JMYER,ADWYER 
NAIROBI FOR USAID/FFP- DSUTHER, ADEPREZ 
ROME FOR USUN FODAG- RNEWBERG 
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID SOCI PHUM PREF CG
SUBJECT:  USAID/OFDA FEBRUARY VISIT TO NORTH KIVU AND 
ITURI 
 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (U) This is the 2nd of two communications reporting 
observations from the trip of the OFDA team in eastern DRC 
in February 2006.  Discussed here is the team's visit to 
North Kivu and Ituri. In the Beni-Eringeti area of North 
Kivu, USAID/OFDA partner Solidarites is implementing an 
innovative program with three different assistance 
packages for Ituri IDPs who have been there since 2002. 
IDPs may choose to benefit from a facilitated return to 
Ituri, a cash-for-work program, or a sharecropping 
arrangement with local landowners.  Since the IDPs' home 
areas in Ituri have been stable for over a year, the 
program is intended to be the final assistance offered to 
this group.  At the time of the visit, 311 families had 
already participated in the facilitated return option, and 
Solidarites was reporting that perhaps as many as 1000 
families are interested.  Other IDPs in the same area 
have, however, been prohibited from returning to their 
homes in northeastern North Kivu by FARDC troops in the 
area.  If the situation is not resolved, these people will 
both lose the present harvest and miss the opportunity to 
plant for the next season.   The 35,000 IDPs in the 
Kanyabayonga-Kirumba area in North Kivu have received 
needed food and non-food assistance, though access to 
drinking water remains a problem.  These IDPs will not be 
able to return home until renegade military elements 
operating in the Kibirizi area of Rutshuru Territory, 
believed to be allied with rebel general Laurent Nkunda, 
are brought under control.  A final group of IDPs in North 
Kivu - those that fled the Boga-Tchabi area of Ituri in 
September 2005 - could return, according to those that had 
already returned and were on hand to talk to the 
USAID/OFDA team during a visit to those two localities. 
Planned seed and tool assistance to that area is on hold, 
however, due to fighting between FARDC and Mouvement 
Revolutionnaire du Congo (MRC) militiamen on the road 
south of Bogoro.  The joint FARDC-MONUC effort to rout 
this militia has so far met only with defeat and loss of 
territory.  On March 10, even the main road between Bunia 
and Kasenyi was cut briefly by militia activity.  The 
success of the militia has sent thousands of IDPs to the 
area just south of Bunia.  To the north of Bunia, however, 
life appears to be returning rapidly to normal.  Traveling 
from Bunia to Mahagi by road for the first time since 
2001, the USAID/OFDA team saw multi-ethnic markets, 
considerable house rebuilding, and significant commercial 
traffic.  In a meeting with ECHO, USAID/OFDA Reps learned 
that ECHO will provide 15 million euros (of ECHO's total 
DRC budget of 38 million euros) in humanitarian assistance 
to North Kivu and Ituri in 2006.  The emphasis will be on 
assisting return and reintegration programs.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------ 
IDPs in the Beni-Eringeti Area 
------------------------------ 
 
2. (U) On February 8, a USAID/OFDA team composed of DOS 
Michelle Shirley (Washington), Senior Program Officer Jay 
Nash (Kinshasa) and Program Officer Victor Bushamuka 
(Kinshasa) traveled to Beni in North Kivu to assess the 
progress and impact of the work of OFDA partner 
Solidarites in a project to assist Ituri IDPs remaining in 
the area. 
 
3. (U) There are now three distinct groups of IDPs in the 
area between Beni and the Ituri border:  an estimated 
25,000 to 30,000 remaining from the original 100,000 who 
fled ethnic fighting in Ituri in 2002; an additional 
10,000 Iturians who arrived in Eringeti in August- 
September 2005 as a result of MRC militia activity in the 
Boga and Tchabi; and 50,000 people from the eastern part 
of northern North Kivu who came in December and January as 
a result of FARDC-MONUC operations against the NALU 
Ugandan rebel group. 
 
4. (U) The OFDA-funded project implemented by Solidarites 
 
KINSHASA 00000443  002 OF 006 
 
 
since October 2005 targets specifically the first of these 
groups, the original Ituri IDPs, and is intended to be the 
final assistance offered them.  Most of these people come 
from areas in Ituri that have been calm for two years now, 
and most of the group long-ago returned home.  Those who 
go back benefit from a return-facilitation program run by 
NGO Premiere Urgence in Komanda, Ituri, the first major 
town in Ituri on the road north between the North Kivu 
border and Bunia.  Premiere Urgence provides returnees 
with seeds and tools financed with OFDA funding, non-food 
items (NFI) financed by ECHO, and a food ration supplied 
by WFP. 
 
5. (U) Solidarites has been assisting this group of Ituri 
IDPs in North Kivu with OFDA funding through food 
distributions and the provision of safe water since they 
arrived in August and December of 2002.  In full agreement 
with the humanitarian community in the province that it 
was time for the remaining IDPs to decide to either stay 
permanently in North Kivu or return home, but not wanting 
to be accused of pushing people to return when they were 
not yet ready, Solidarites decided to offer a final 
program consisting of three different assistance options. 
For those who are ready to return home, Solidarites 
provides transportation to main towns in Ituri and 
coordinates their arrival with the NGOs delivering return 
assistance there (principally Premiere Urgence and GAA - 
German Agro Action).  For those who plan to return to 
Ituri eventually but claim not to be yet ready (because 
they have crops planted in North Kivu not yet ready for 
harvest, have continuing security concerns, or have 
children in the middle of the school year, etc.), 
Solidarties offers a cash-for-work program rehabilitating 
key infrastructure in North Kivu that had suffered damage 
during the war to help these families earn the cash 
reserves needed to make the trip back to Ituri at a later 
time.  For those deciding to remain indefinitely in North 
Kivu, Solidarites arranges sharecropping opportunities 
with local landowners and provides seeds and tools. 
 
6. (U) Solidarities originally planned for 1000 families 
to participate in the return program, 1250 in the cash-for- 
work program, and 2500 in the agricultural program.  At 
the time of OFDA's visit, 311 families had already taken 
the Solidarities bus to Ituri.  Indications are that many 
more than the original 1000 families are now interested in 
participating in the return program, and Solidarities will 
be requesting a budget realignment to reflect this change 
in beneficiary priorities.  (Nearly all of the IDPs with 
whom OFDA reps spoke in various locations during the visit 
claimed to be waiting only for transportation assistance.) 
According to all the NGOs involved (Solidarities on the 
sending side, and Premiere Urgence and GAA on the 
receiving side), the program continues to proceed 
smoothly.  Solidarities plans to undertake a systematic 
evaluation in March to confirm these impressions. 
 
7. (U) OFDA Reps visited a road rehabilitation project and 
tree-nursery sites of a reforestation project which are 
part of the cash-for-work option where IDPs, having 
decided to stay longer, are earning $66 each for one 
month's labor.  Conversations with these IDPs suggested 
that many were as yet undecided as to their future plans. 
They appeared to be still weighing their options, with the 
cash-for-work program allowing them a bit more time to do 
this.  OFDA Reps did not have the opportunity to visit the 
fields of those participating in the agricultural 
sharecropping program, but did speak with some of the 
participating IDPs, who seemed relatively satisfied with 
the arrangement. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
New Northern North Kivu Population Displacements 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
8. (U) Beginning December 24, 2005, FARDC troops, with 
MONUC logistical assistance, began a military offensive 
against elements of the NALU Ugandan rebel group who had 
long resided in northeastern North Kivu.  The humanitarian 
 
KINSHASA 00000443  003 OF 006 
 
 
community had expected the action, contingency plans had 
been drawn up, and humanitarian supplies pre-positioned. 
The NALU group had the previous month ignored an ultimatum 
to surrender their arms at a specially designated office 
in Beni, and there had been a major buildup of FARDC 
troops throughout December.  Many humanitarians 
nevertheless deplore the campaign, expressing the view 
that it was conducted purely for political reasons at the 
expense of the local population.  They note that the NALU, 
unlike many armed groups in the country, lived 
harmoniously with the local inhabitants and did not 
constitute a real military threat to the Ugandan 
government.  They report that many of the NALU are now, in 
fact, Congolese. Although the FARDC now claims to have 
successfully chased the NALU from Congolese soil, 
observers in the area believe that many of the NALU have 
simply retreated deep into the Ruwenzori Mountains on the 
border separating the two countries. 
 
9. (U) The area where military operations occurred is, 
fortunately, not heavily populated.   Nevertheless, a 
displacement of an estimated 65,000 persons is reported by 
UNOCHA for the period December 2005 to January 2006.  Most 
fled westward to the Beni-Eringeti-Bunia road, where they 
established new IDP camps and have received humanitarian 
assistance.  A substantial number are pygmy communities. 
About 16,500 people fled to Kamango on the border with 
Uganda, a location reachable from the rest of North Kivu 
only by motorcycle.  Assistance provided to these IDPs has 
been minimal.  Another group that has not received 
sufficient attention is one of 25,000 IDPs who fled to 
Isale, a town east of Butembo and Beni.  Though they have 
received some NFI assistance, no food has been 
distributed.  UNOCHA claims to have asked WFP repeatedly 
in the month since the arrival of these IDPs to provide 
food, but the WFP reports they are completely occupied 
with serving the IDPs from the Rutshuru crisis now staying 
in the Kanyabayonga area and will not have the means to do 
a distribution in Isale until that operation is concluded. 
 
10. (U) For the entire month of February, the humanitarian 
community in North Kivu remained extremely concerned 
because, though the military campaign in the northeastern 
corner of North Kivu was officially over, the FARDC had 
prohibited the displaced populations from returning to 
their home areas.  The reasons given were that 1) these 
communities collaborate with the NALU and 2) many of these 
people live and farm illegally in Virunga National Park. 
However, many among the humanitarian community and local 
population voiced the view that the FARDC simply wanted to 
profit from what the populations left behind in their 
fields.  As these populations needed to be harvesting, as 
well as preparing the fields for the March-April planting 
season, and would become dependent on humanitarian 
assistance if not permitted access to their home 
communities, humanitarians lobbied the government to have 
the FARDC cease prohibiting IDP returns.  Orders to this 
effect were issued on March 7 and 8, but preliminary 
reports are that many of those who attempted to return 
were beaten.  UNOCHA in Goma brought this to the attention 
of the regional military commander, who attributed it to a 
communications problem, and promised to remedy the 
situation immediately. 
 
------------ 
Kanyabayonga 
------------ 
 
11. (U) The OFDA team did not have sufficient time to 
travel southward from Beni to the part of North Kivu that 
has been affected by the ethnically based conflict within 
the ranks of the FARDC in the Rutshuru area, but was told 
by UNOCHA that there are currently 35,000 to 50,000 IDPs 
in the towns of Kanyabayonga, Kayna, Kirumba, Kamandi and 
Kikuvo -- the first towns high up in the mountains 
traveling north from the plain at the southern end of Lake 
Edward.  The IDPs are from the Kibirizi-Nyanzale-Kashalira 
area in Rutshuru Territory, northwest of Rutshuru, which 
has seen considerable instability since the clashes 
 
KINSHASA 00000443  004 OF 006 
 
 
between the integrated 5th brigade of FARDC and the mostly 
Rwandaphone, non-integrated, ex-RCD/Goma 83rd brigade in 
Rutshuru in January.  These IDPs are staying largely with 
host families, and most immediate humanitarian needs, 
including medical care and food aid, have largely been 
met.  Water supply remains a problem, however, since local 
water sources are insufficient to meet the increased 
demand.  NGOs specializing in water and sanitation are 
currently investigating the possibilities for augmenting 
water availability. 
 
12. (U) The humanitarian community is of the view that it 
is essential that FARDC leadership move quickly to 
neutralize the disruptive potential of the renegade 83rd 
brigade, believed by many people in Goma to have direct 
ties to rebel General Laurent Nkunda, so that the Kibirizi- 
area IDPs can return home and resume their livelihoods 
before they become long-term dependents on assistance in 
Kanyabayonga.  MONUC is now reporting the situation to 
have calmed down considerably, and some IDP families have 
sent "scouts" back to look after their fields and to 
reevaluate the security situation.  A battalion of FARDC 
now protects some 10,000 residents of Kibirizi and its 
environs who huddled in Kibirizi rather than flee, but the 
insurgent elements of the 83rd brigade are believed to be 
not far away.  These people have told UNOCHA that they do 
not want any humanitarian assistance for the moment, since 
they fear this would certainly draw the insurgents into 
town, quickly overpowering the 300 FARDC troops currently 
there to protect them.  Their first priority is to have 
MONUC forces deployed to the area. 
 
----------------------------- 
The Boga-Tchabi Area of Ituri 
----------------------------- 
 
13. (U) Following its visit to North Kivu, the OFDA team 
traveled to the towns of Boga and Tchabi in southern Ituri 
near the North Kivu border.  Much of the population of 
these towns fled to North Kivu in August 2005 when the MRC 
militia briefly occupied this part of Ituri.  The MRC was 
eventually chased out of the area by a joint FARDC-MONUC 
operation, and local authorities in Boga told OFDA  that 
most of the population had now returned home.  Since there 
are still some 10,000 Boga-area IDPs in the camp in 
Eringeti, North Kivu, it would seem that primarily those 
IDPs who did not flee all the way to Eringeti but rather 
stopped in Kainama, the first town across the border, have 
returned so far.  As Kainama can be reached via Beni only 
by motorcycle, these IDPs were never able to participate 
in any assistance program. Since IDPs with whom OFDA had 
spoken several days earlier in the camp in Eringeti had 
claimed that continuing insecurity near Boga was their 
reason for not returning home, OFDA Reps asked people in 
Boga if this fear was justified.  All Boga interlocutors, 
however, were unhesitant in stating that security had been 
sufficiently reestablished throughout the area to permit a 
safe return for all. 
 
14. (U) OFDA partner Premiere Urgence has reopened a base 
in Boga after being forced to leave for security reasons 
nearly a year ago.  They had planned to provide seed and 
tool support to returned IDPs there in March. 
Unfortunately, the road from Bunia to Boga passes through 
the Aveba-Gety-Tcheyi area, which during the week of 
February 27 was the scene of heavy fighting between FARDC 
troops and militiamen of the MRC under the direction of 
warlords Cobra and Dark.  Due partially to fighting among 
themselves, FARDC troops had, by the end of the week, lost 
control of most of the territory south of Kagaba, 
including the large towns of Aveba and Gety.  Unless 
control of this area is quickly regained, Premiere Urgence 
will not be able to move seeds to Boga in time for the 
agricultural season now starting, and Boga and Tchabi will 
remain completely cut off from the rest of Ituri. 
 
15. (U) During the OFDA visit, civil authorities in Boga, 
who are all (southern) Hema, expressed an eagerness to 
find ways to promote an environment of peace and 
 
KINSHASA 00000443  005 OF 006 
 
 
reconciliation between the various ethnic groups in the 
area (Hema, Ngiti and Nyali).  They felt that the Boga 
area was fertile ground for such activities, since none of 
the groups harbored particularly strong feelings against 
each other.  The war, they said, was something that had 
largely come down on them from the Lendu-Gegere (northern 
Hema) conflict further north in Ituri, forcing the various 
populations to choose sides, but now there was a strong 
desire to restore normal relations.  As an example of the 
lack of interethnic hostility, the administrative head of 
Boga showed OFDA the 50-some Ngiti IDPs that had fled 
militia activity in the Tcheyi area and are now camped 
just outside his home. 
 
---------------------------------- 
IDPs in the Bogoro-Cantonnier Area 
---------------------------------- 
 
16. (U) On March 6, USAID/OFDA partner GAA reported to 
OFDA that approximately 5000 Ngiti people had fled the 
FARDC-MRC fighting in the Aveba-Gety area of southern 
Ituri the previous day and were now camped out along the 
road between Bogoro and Bunia in the vicinity of 
Cantonnier village, about 20 minutes southeast of Bunia. 
Others began arriving in Bunia itself.  According to GAA's 
sources, on March 9 many women and children of this group 
moved up the nearby hills to the Lendu-dominant Nzumbe 
area, leaving behind the men and male youth, who on March 
10 attacked positions of the FARDC contingent at Bogoro 
and temporarily blocked the road through Bogoro to Kasenyi 
on Lake Albert.  This group is assumed to be working in 
concert with the MRC troops putting pressure on the FARDC 
troops 15 kilometers south of Bogoro in Kagaba.  As Bogoro 
is located high up at the juncture of the roads to Bunia, 
Kasenye and Aveba, the town has high strategic importance. 
Much of southern Ituri will have to be viewed as having 
slipped back into serious insecurity if FARDC and MONUC 
cannot maintain control of it. 
 
------------------------- 
Progress in Central Ituri 
------------------------- 
 
17. (U) Security has improved dramatically in "central" 
Ituri, just north of Bunia, and the OFDA team was able to 
travel to Mahagi by road from Bunia -- a trip which would 
have been highly dangerous only six months ago due to the 
continued presence in the area of well-organized, non- 
demobilized militia groups (mostly FNI).  Joint FARDC- 
MONUC operations in Djugu Territory over the last year are 
believed by many observers to have seriously weakened 
these groups and pushed them back to defensive positions 
in the bush.  Since then, the Djugu area -- which was the 
part of Ituri where all the ethnic fighting began in 1998 
and which has often since been the area most torn by 
ethnic conflict -- has made remarkable progress toward 
returning to normalcy. 
 
18. (U) The team found Fataki -- which for years had 
remained largely an abandoned city due to ethnic violence 
-- to be bustling with commercial activity and to once 
again have become a popular truck stop.  Trucks loaded 
with commercial goods traveling from as far away as Aru 
and Ariwara in northern Ituri and headed toward Bunia are 
now a common sight.  Though the main road between Fataki 
and Bunia, passing through Iga Barriere and Djugu, is 
still reportedly in very bad shape, several trucks per day 
nevertheless make it through. 
 
19. (U) Using an alternative route that bypasses Djugu 
(but which unfortunately has three small bridges making 
the route unsuitable for heavy traffic), the OFDA team saw 
several mixed Gegere-Lendu markets which appeared to be 
thriving.  Houses were being rebuilt all along the road, 
and people were very much out and about, including Lendu 
pedestrians in the Gegere area and vice versa.  The recent 
success of the MRC militia against MONUC and FARDC in 
southern Ituri may yet encourage the northern militias to 
reorganize and resume activity (especially if the 
 
KINSHASA 00000443  006 OF 006 
 
 
stalemate continues long term and if the situation 
continues to demand serious FARDC and MONUC attention). It 
is certainly the case that the land-use issues that 
triggered the interethnic fighting in the first place have 
not yet been addressed, but for the time being at least, 
central Ituri looks very much like a return to peace and 
normalcy is in full swing. 
 
-------------------------------- 
European Humanitarian Assistance 
-------------------------------- 
 
20. (U) In Goma, the OFDA team had a long conversation 
with the new ECHO representative for North Kivu and Ituri, 
who told the team that of the 38 million euros ECHO had 
allocated for the Congo this year (not including funds 
used to finance ECHO's airplanes), a full 15 million euros 
would be budgeted for North Kivu and Ituri.  Of this, he 
said, Ituri would get the bulk of the funding, and the 
assistance would be primarily directed to facilitating the 
return and reintegration of IDPs. 
MEECE