More than 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured in just five days since fighting escalated in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between January 26-30, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe WHO (World Health Organization) and its partners conducted an assessment with the government between the 26th and yesterday and report that 700 people have been killed and 2,800 people injured,\u201d Dujarric said, noting that these totals are expected to rise. <\/p>\n
\u201cHumanitarian organizations in Goma continue to assess the impact of the crisis including the widespread looting of warehouses and the offices of aid organizations,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday DRC President Felix Tshisekedi vowed \u201ca vigorous and coordinated response\u201d against the rebel alliance that has besieged swathes of the nation\u2019s mineral-rich east and forced hundreds of local troops to surrender. <\/p>\n
Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters Friday that \u201cthe situation remains tense\u201d in Goma with \u201coccasional shooting\u201d but \u201coverall calm is gradually restored.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also warned that the rebel groups are about 60 kilometers north of another major city, Bakavu, and \u201cseem to be moving quite fast.\u201d <\/p>\n
Experts have repeatedly warned that the chaos of the conflict would leave civilians in Goma with shortages of basic necessities and at the risk of the spread of disease. <\/p>\n
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found on Friday that access to safe drinking water in Goma has been cut off, \u201cforcing people to use untreated water from Lake Kivu with all the risk that entails,\u201d Dujarric said. <\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWithout urgent action OCHA cautions the risk of water born disease outbreaks will just continue to increase.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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More than 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured in just five days since fighting escalated in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between January 26-30, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. \u201cThe WHO (World Health Organization) and its partners conducted an assessment with the government between the 26th <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}