Refugees International will return to the Democratic Republic of Congo in February 2006 to investigate conditions among internally displaced persons and returning refugees and to document emerging priorities for humanitarian and developmental assistance following elections scheduled for this year. Advocates Andrea Lari and Rick Neal will travel first to Brussels to participate in the launch of the UN humanitarian action plan for the DRC on February 13, then spend three weeks on the ground assessing needs and the response to them in the provinces of Katanga, South Kivu, and Equateur. The RI team will return to Washington, DC on March 9.

This mission builds on visits to the DRC in April and October 2005 when Refugees International documented the situation of the displaced and the process of disarming and reintegrating demobilized combatants. Since then, conditions in Katanga have deteriorated due to fighting between Mai-Mai militia and the Congolese army. More than 80,000 have fled their homes since November, yet assistance has been minimal. Inadequate food aid is a particular concern, and a recent outbreak of cholera in the isolated area increases the threat to health and well-being.

Meanwhile, thousands of Congolese refugees in Tanzania and Burundi continue to return to Baraka and Uvira in South Kivu under the auspices of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and a UN Development Program pilot project has facilitated the return of the internally displaced to their homes in Equateur. The mission provides an opportunity to evaluate both of these efforts, as well as UNHCR’s role in the new UN cluster approach to IDP protection. Beyond refugee returns, local communities in the east are under stress from the reintegration of former combatants, which will also be a focus of the mission.

Beyond immediate needs for assistance and protection, however, the main factor affecting the lives of the displaced in 2006 is the electoral process organized by the UN, which should result in the installation of a new government by the end of June. While MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, bolstered by EU forces, will be able to maintain current levels of control, it seems doubtful that conflict in the east will ease substantially. Refugees International is concerned that the post-electoral transition could force focus away from humanitarian needs to development, and lead to political disengagement at a time when the opposite is needed. This mission will assess the extent to which the UN and other partners have learned lessons from previous transitions and are ready to apply them.

The DRC is one of five priority countries for Refugees International in 2006, given the level of humanitarian need, ongoing conflict and displacement, and opportunities presented by the elections. This mission is the first in a series planned for this year to ensure that the voices of the displaced are not lost in the momentum of the transition, and that the international community maintains the political engagement necessary to foster stability, justice, and peace.