Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 138: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo with particular reference on the hardship experienced by the international community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21985/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is slowly recovering from the effects of the brutal civil war which lasted from 1996 to 2003. While much of the country now enjoys a degree of stability, I remain deeply concerned by the situation in the east of the country. Renewed heavy fighting broke out in North Kivu in August 2008 between the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) and the armed forces of DRC. An unknown number of civilians were killed by both sides, many women were raped, and 250,000 people were forced to flee their homes, bringing to over 1 million the number displaced in North Kivu. The CNDP declared a ceasefire in October 2008, and talks began in Nairobi in December between representatives of the DRC government and the CNDP, under UN and African Union facilitation and CNDP fighters are now being integrated into the DRC armed forces.

In parallel with the Nairobi talks, the governments of DRC and Rwanda agreed to put aside the mutual hostility which has persisted since previous Rwandan incursions into DRC in support of ethnic Tutsis, and their armed forces began joint operations against the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), many of whom fled Rwanda to escape punishment for crimes committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The joint offensive did not achieve its objectives and the FDLR continues to be a threat to the civilian population. Since January, attacks by the FDLR in North and South Kivu have driven more than 370,000 people from their homes and into forests and other places of refuge.

Separately, appalling atrocities have been committed in Orientale Province in north-eastern DRC by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Following the LRA's failure to sign a negotiated peace agreement, Ugandan and Congolese armed forces launched a joint offensive against the group in December 2008. Fleeing this offensive, LRA fighters carried out brutal attacks on the civilian population, in which up to 1,100 civilians were killed. In March 2009, the Ugandan Army stated that it had achieves its objective of dismantling the LRA's command structure, and began a phased withdrawal of troops from north-eastern DRC.

I am gravely concerned by recent reports of an increase in attacks against international aid organisations and humanitarian workers in North and South Kivu. UN agencies have reported 44 attacks against humanitarian workers in the region between January and April. The vehicles of humanitarian organisations have been intercepted to transport fighters, and in some cases property has been looted. The security situation, as well as difficulties in securing access to those in need, due to poor roads which are frequently impassable due to rains, pose enormous challenges for international aid agencies and humanitarian workers who aim to address the needs of civilians affected by conflict.

The international community has sought to enhance stability in DRC through the work of MONUC, the UN's largest peacekeeping mission. Ireland and our EU partners strongly support MONUC, and have welcomed the UN Security Council's decision to authorise the reinforcement of the mission to allow it to meet more effectively the challenges it currently faces. Ireland contributes three members of the Defence Forces to MONUC as Military Liaison Officers.

Ireland has been able to respond quickly to the humanitarian dimension of the crisis in DRC. An airlift of emergency relief supplies was made to eastern DRC in December 2008. Thus far in 2009, Irish Aid has allocated more than €4 million in humanitarian funding to the DRC through the UN and NGO partners, bringing total humanitarian support to the country since 2006 to over €26 million.