Photographer : Wikimedia Commons |
The Ituri province in located in the north-eastern part of DRC. The Ituri province has been the epicentre of violence in the DRC. Despite UN efforts at disarmament and reintegration, numerous rebel groups continue to wage war, making a large part of the region inaccessible to aid workers and harming the civilian population with their often indiscriminate terror.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has worked alongside the people of Ituri since 1999. As field teams have provided aid to the ill and war-wounded, they have heard victims’ accounts of massive violations of international humanitarian law.
Sexual violence is especially prevalent in the region, with more than 2,500 rape survivors treated by
MSF's medical teams in the 20-month period between June 2003 and January 2005. Sexual violence in Ituri affects hundreds of women, children, and sometimes men, of all ages.
MSF’s hospital Bon Marche, set up in 2003, offers a full range of medical care including facilities for surgery where MSF regularly treats the war-wounded.
As tensions have escalated among Ituri faction groups fighting for control of resources, the resultimg attacks, rapes and mass killings have prompted tens of thousands of people to flee to Djugu territory.
How do I know this?
MSF2003, ‘Ituri: Unkept Promises? A pretense of protection and inadequate assistance’,
MSF Report July 2003
MSF 2005, ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo: Another year of misery’,
MSF Activity Report 2004/2005,
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?obj...
This page was written in conjunction with MSF Australia 
