Crime has increased in eastern DR Congo’s two major cities which were recently seized by the Rwanda-backed M23, the UN’s humanitarian agency said Monday, although life is beginning to return to normal.The M23 now controls large parts of east Democratic Republic of Congo, a region rich in natural resources that has been blighted by various conflicts over the last 30 years.M23 fighters took control of South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu just over a week ago, after capturing Goma, the capital of North Kivu and main city in the country’s east, late last month.The day after Bukavu was taken life in the city “returned to normal, but local sources reported an increase in crime”, particularly burglaries by armed men, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.”This increase in crime is due to the circulation of weapons abandoned by the soldiers” of the DRC army, OCHA said, adding that this “raises the risk of an increase of insecurity in the province”. Schools were reopening on Monday in Bukavu, although few pupils showed up, an AFP journalist saw.Several heads of public and private schools also told AFP they were far from full.”Lots of parents did not send their children, some classrooms are empty” and others are not very full, said Adolphe Mujunju, the head of one private school complex.Anuarite Feza said she had not sent her two children to school on Monday because the security situation is “not reassuring at all”.The mother aged in her 30s said she was waiting to see what happens and might send them “tomorrow or the day after”.- ‘Exacerbated food insecurity’ -In Goma and its outskirts, the “security situation… also remains worrying”, with a resurgence of criminal acts including home robberies, thefts and assaults which fuel a “climate of fear”, OCHA said.The agency said that the six main hospitals in Goma “are still overwhelmed by the new influx of wounded” and that medical facilities in and around the city “now fear an imminent shortage of medicines”.The hostilities have also “exacerbated food insecurity” in and around Goma.”The supply chain has been severely disrupted, breaking links between producers, markets and consumers”, leading to soaring prices and shortages of products on the local market, OCHA said.At least 3,000 tonnes of food were looted from a UN World Food Programme warehouse in Goma, the UN body added.To the north of Goma, there is “a return to normal community life and a gradual resumption of socio-economic activities”.OCHA said that almost half of all displaced people have returned to the area.
