The war being waged by armed groups in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has displaced thousands of people who live in deplorable conditions, says the ICRC.

"In the Masisi area of North Kivu, where clashes have recently taken place between the armed forces and armed groups, or in Katanga where violence continues, many people have had to flee out of fear for their safety," Franz Rauchenstein, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in the DRC, said on Friday.

“Civilians have also suffered violence, looting and extortion,” he added.

The ICRC said that at the end of December 2012, it provided food aid and tents to more than 23,500 people in the Masisi area who were displaced over the last three months of the year by ethnic clashes.

The Red Cross noted that the violence is now spreading to other regions in the east of the country and called on all parties to the conflict to spare the civilian population.


"Violence between armed groups is now on the rise again in South Kivu," said Laetitia Courtois, the head of the ICRC sub-delegation in the province.

"The fighting is getting closer and closer to the city of Bukavu. At the same time, clashes are affecting remote areas, such as the Kalehe territory to the north of Bukavu, and the Walungu and Shabunda territories to the southwest," she stated out.

The March 23 movement (M23) rebels seized the eastern city of Goma on November 20 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city, which is home to about one million people. The rebels withdrew from the city on December 1 under a ceasefire accord.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

Since early May 2012, nearly 3 million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.4 million have resettled in Congo, but more than 460,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.