Citizens for Global Solutions

Nine UN peacekeepers were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, February 25, in an ambush. They were all from Bangladesh stationed in the north-eastern Ituri region and were attacked while patrolling the Kafe camp for displaced people. Their mission was to secure the surrounding areas of the camp zone. The commander of the Ituri Brigade has launched a helicopter operation to provide air support to his troops. Bangladesh, which is one of the largest contributors of UN Peacekeeping efforts, currently has 1,300 troops in DRC. This is not the first time the country has lost its peacekeeping troops; in October 2003, 15 Bangladeshi officers died in a plane crash in Liberia.

The UN mission in Congo stated that unidentified soldiers refused to disarm before attacking the UN personnel. “The UN holds the military and political chiefs of these armed elements responsible for the deaths of the peacekeepers and calls for their arrest,'' the Congo mission said in a statement. “This attack will only reinforce the UN's will to further its work against these criminal groups and its efforts to protect the population.''

The attack has had negative consequences for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDP’s) as several NGO’s working in Ituri suspended the distribution of food and medical aid due to security concerns. According to Modibo Traore from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), approximately 65,000 people have been directly affected due to the security situation in Kafe, Tche, and Gina camps.

"Kafe and Tche camps have no more medical supply after the team of Doctors Without Borders had to pull out," he said. "Tche camp is also without clean water supply due to a broken pump. Oxfam, which maintained the pump has, now, no more access. This will have grave consequences in terms of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases."

Several staff members of German Agro Action were held hostage by militia from the Hema community on Wednesday, February 23, according to Rudi Stelz, the acting coordinator the German-based NGO. At the time, the aid workers were distributing food to about 1,600 families when the militia men from Union Patriotique Congolais (UPC) (UPC) "forced them to lay down on the ground, verbally abused them and wanted to use the trucks of the humanitarian aid workers". The aid group called MONUC (the Un mission in DRC) for help. “Our work is very restricted now,” Stelz stated.