Goma - Widely publicized armed convoys of relief assistance to Goma and Rutshuru are an inadequate response to the humanitarian crisis facing the DRC's troubled North Kivu region, says international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). "Armed aid convoys may aim to improve access for humanitarian aid groups, but they actually risk reducing access to the populations," says Anne Taylor, an MSF Head of Mission in Goma. "There is a risk of aid being manipulated by political or military actors and of humanitarian actors being seen as parties to the conflict." Military-escorted aid convoys also risk blurring the line between humanitarian assistance and political-military action. MSF stresses the need to maintain this crucial distinction in the volatile Kivu region. "MSF provides healthcare to all patients without discrimination," said Taylor. "Thanks to our neutrality, MSF teams can go where people need our assistance and not where we are instructed to go. MSF provides assistance without armed escorts." Not only are the armed convoys risky, but their limited assistance is failing to reach large areas affected by conflict and displacement. Ample and widespread aid is urgently needed.

The recent escalation of violence in North Kivu has brought DRC back to the world's attention, but the suffering there is not new. For years MSF teams have witnessed widespread and repeated displacements of people throughout North Kivu. The ceasefire agreement signed in January did not end their suffering. Hostilities that broke out at the end of August only exacerbated a conflict that had been going on for some time. The conflict in the Kivu region goes far beyond Goma and Rutshuru. Over the past weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have fled in different directions.

MSF is particularly worried about the people in the areas around Rutshuru, Kayna, Nyanzale and Masisi, who are in urgent need of water, food, healthcare and basic supplies. Both a political solution and an adequate humanitarian response are needed. One cannot substitute for the other, nor should politics and humanitarian action be mixed. Doing so jeopardizes the neutrality of aid organizations and compromises their ability to operate in locations controlled by parties to the conflict. Despite ongoing insecurity, MSF continues to work in towns affected by fighting, like Rutshuru, Kayna, Masisi, Kitchanga and Mweso. Throughout the region, the organization is treating war wounded and cholera patients, and providing other healthcare as well as clean water and basic relief items to displaced people and local residents.