DRC has highest number of displaced people in Africa

By Godfrey Olukya

ARU, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) currently has the highest number of displaced people in Africa, the UN said Monday.

UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said in a statement issued Monday that the DRC was now one of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises, in which 7.3 million people need humanitarian assistance.

"The relentlessly acute nature of the crisis, the lack of basic social services throughout the country and the persistent armed conflict have led to the internal displacement of 3.8 million people. This is the highest number of displaced people in the African continent," said the UN statement.

The humanitarian crisis is mainly due to the country's numerous conflicts, namely in the eastern North Kivu region and to the growing intercommunal tensions and violence affecting new parts of the country, namely in the central Kasai area.

Chaos in the Kasai region started last year when police killed the leader of Kamuina Nsapu militiamen -- also named Kamuina Nsapu. Since then, the militiamen have conducted numerous violent raids in Kasai.

The Catholic church in DRC recently said that it had carried out an investigation and established that over 3,000 people had been killed in Kasai and over 1.3 million displaced since August last year.