Alarming humanitarian crisis and massive sexual violence in conflict-wracked eastern Congo, UN says

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A senior UN official says the humanitarian situation in conflict-wracked eastern Congo has deteriorated alarmingly in the past 18 months with 8 million people in urgent need of assistance and women and girls subjected to sexual violence on a massive scale — just in three provinces. Edem Wosornu, the U.N. humanitarian office’s operations director who just returned from Congo, said what she and other U.N. and humanitarian officials saw and heard “was shocking, heartbreaking and sobering.” She told a news conference Tuesday the situation in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces “is frankly the worst situation we have ever seen.” Conflict has been simmering for decades in mineral-rich eastern Congo, where Wosornu said over 130 armed groups are fighting.