UN witnessing 'massive destruction' in DR Congo's Kasai region

Geneva (AFP) - The United Nations warned Friday that its staff had witnessed destruction and suffering on "an enormous scale" in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile Kasai region.

Staff from the UN's refugee agency who returned last week from the Kamonia territory at the country's border with Angola had seen "entire villages burnt down and civilians in a dire situation," spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told reporters in Geneva.

"We are witnessing massive destruction and human suffering," she said.

The mission was UNHCR's first into an area which has been at the centre of the fighting, and where "basic services have largely stopped and lawlessness prevails", Pouilly said.

In an area near the border town of Kamako, UNHCR staff found that nine out of 10 villages had been burnt down in attacks by armed groups or destroyed in fighting between local fighters and government forces.

"Local armed groups have systematically destroyed or pillaged health posts, schools and public buildings," Pouilly said, adding that "hundreds of children have been separated from their parents or have witnessed their murders."

The violence in Kasai erupted last September after the death of a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against the authority of President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The killing sparked clashes that have escalated, with alleged rights violations including extrajudicial killings, rapes, torture and the use of child soldiers.

The violence has claimed more than 3,000 lives, according to a tally by the Roman Catholic Church, and about 1.4 million people have been displaced by the violence.

Pouilly said the UNHCR mission to Kamonia had been possible because of gradual improvements in access for humanitarian groups to the Kasai region.

On Friday the agency called on the authorities to give humanitarian organisations full access to those in need of protection and assistance.

"We are also asking for improved safety and security in the area, which will allow the refugees and the internally displaced to eventually return home," Pouilly said.

UNHCR said it needed more funds as it ramps up its presence in the region, where it is deploying staff and opening three offices.

So far, it said, it has received only 17 percent of the $102.5 million it needs this year to respond to the situation in DR Congo and in neighbouring Angola, where about 33,000 Congolese have sought refuge since April.