Christians struggle to reach Congo refugees

|PIC1|Mission Aviation Fellowship says its efforts to reach thousands of refugees in Congo have been seriously hampered by ongoing fighting between government troops and rebel forces and the almost non-existent road networks in some parts of the country.

MAF has helped several aid agencies deliver vital food and medical supplies to refugee camps in the northern part of the country where the Lord's Resistance Army has gone on the rampage since mid-September, killing civilians, looting and burning buildings, and abducting women and children.

"It has been very insecure even at airstrips and then it is difficult getting the aid on to displaced peoples due to very bad or non-existent roads, or insecurity along the roads," said MAF pilot Dave Jacobsson.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced in the worst affected North Kivu region of Congo, many sheltering in internally displaced people (IDP) camps.

MAF has flown medical supplies and a medical team to some of the camps.

"It was very sad to see the IDP camps from the air on the edge of Goma and destroyed, looted villages and homes in the area," said Jacobsson.

Barnabas Fund warned, meanwhile, of widespread panic among refugees as they attempt to flee the rebel forces as well as Congolese government troops

"Thousands of refugees have disappeared from the radar of aid agencies as terrified people flee from the advancing rebel troops and the looting, raping and murdering Congolese government soldiers," said the organisation in an appeal for donations to its relief effort.

"Barnabas Fund is working with Christian partners in Congo to try to alleviate the developing crisis, providing emergency aid for those in desperate need," it said.

The UN's special envoy to Congo, the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, met rebel leader Laurent Nkunda for the first time on Sunday to hold crisis talks on ending the violence.

Nkunda, a former general in the Congolese army, has led a rebellion against the government since 2004 that he claims is to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo from Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. International NGOs believe his military campaign is nothing more than an attempt to seize power and control of mineral-rich lands valued at billions of dollars.

Obasanjo said on Friday that Congo President Joseph Kabila was open to talks with Nkunda on the condition that the many other militias operating in North Kivu join the meetings, according to the Associated Press.