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by IANS |
Lusaka, Feb 8 (IANS) Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema is committed to collaborating with other African leaders to foster peace, security and stability in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a senior government official said.
Jack Mwiimbu, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said Hichilema will join other leaders in Tanzania for a joint summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) on Saturday.
In a statement, Mwiimbu said the summit aims to establish common ground for resolving the conflict in eastern DRC.
He said that the meeting will be co-chaired by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the SADC chairperson, and Kenyan President William Ruto, the EAC chairperson.
Earlier, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a bombing in South Kivu injured three civilians and damaged power infrastructure in the town of Nyabibwe, about 60 km north of the provincial capital of Bukavu.
Continued clashes in South Kivu are triggering mass displacement of people and causing civilian casualties. Thousands of people are on the move, with many fleeing active combat zones towards Bukavu, which is under threat of an M23 rebel attack.
The UN humanitarians said they and their partners are assessing conditions in and around Goma, where hundreds of thousands of people are still on the move.
However, the office said its partners reported three non-governmental organization (NGO) workers were killed in a bombing on Wednesday in North Kivu province, forcing the suspension of food and agriculture assistance in the area.
According to OCHA estimates, nearly 33,000 people returned to villages in Nyiragongo Territory, immediately northeast of Goma, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that many medical facilities in North Kivu were destroyed in earlier fighting, while others struggled to restart operations. Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, mental health and other routine services are also affected as medicines have run out, and health workers are either absent or overburdened.
The threat of infectious diseases has multiplied. Cholera, malaria, measles, meningitis, mpox and tuberculosis are among the contagious threats in the area. Nearly 600 suspected cases of cholera and 14 deaths were reported in North Kivu January 1-27.
The water supply in Goma was disrupted but was partially restored in some areas, leading people to rely on water from Lake Kivu and heightening the risk of cholera.
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