MSF aid workers pull out of Gety, DRC

Aid workers have fled Gety, in the Ituri District of DRC, after attacks by armed gangs. They have retreated to Bunia, the district capital, 60 km northwest, and are trying to find a way to continue assisting more than 40,000 displaced people, an official said.

Full story IRIN 1 Sep 2006. Excerpt:

"We were attacked by armed groups and it could happen again at any time," Patrick Albert, the head of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Gety, said on Friday.

"The health of the displaced people there is terrible and they now have grossly insufficient food," he said.

"Many only recently emerged from the forest where they had been hiding for up to four months," he said. "They are fragile and the mortality rate is high."

At least 10 people are dying every day in displacement camps in Gety, the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA) said in August. "It's higher than the norm," Modibo Traore, the head of OCHA in Bunia, said.