By David Lewis
KINSHASA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Thousands
of Congolese civilians forced from their homes by recent fighting in the
east are now fleeing again to escape rape, beatings and torture by marauding
gunmen, aid workers said on Thursday.
Just months ahead of scheduled elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, clashes between government forces and rebels and militias in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Katanga provinces have displaced tens of thousands and curbed aid work, relief organisations said.
France's Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement civilians were being "raped, tortured and beaten up". MSF doctors had provided medical care for 23 rape victims during the last six days alone in North Kivu.
"The population fled into the bush during the fighting. But they are now having to flee again because of abuses by armed men and the poor conditions," Jean-Guy Vataux, head of MSF-France in Congo, told Reuters by phone from the eastern town of Kayna.
Congo's war officially ended almost three years ago. Nearly 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers are deployed across the vast central African country and elections are due to be held by mid-June.
But the violence continues across much of the east.
After weeks hiding in the bush, some 40,000 civilians had sought shelter in three towns in North Kivu, where former Rwandan-backed rebels have rejected integration into the national army and are confronting government soldiers, MSF said.
Many other displaced people remained in the bush, however, subject to violence and looting but unable to move on because they were too weak or it was too dangerous, it added.
Congo's war killed some 4 million people since it began in 1998. Experts say some 1,000 people continue to die every day, mostly from war-related hunger and disease.
UK-based Amnesty International said on Wednesday that government forces as well as rebels were carrying out abuses against civilians in North Kivu and Katanga.
"In both provinces, military action is preventing aid efforts of humanitarian agencies, leaving thousands of people dying from direct violence or from preventable disease and starvation," the organisation said.
Government officials were unavailable for comment.
While U.N. peacekeepers are trying to keep a lid on ethnic violence in North Kivu, they are thin on the ground in copper-rich Katanga, where former government-backed militias are battling government forces and more than 100,000 civilians have fled their homes.