As violence in the Congo escalates, thousands of displaced people are effectively held hostage | Vava Tampa

The UN has appealed for urgent help following militia attacks on camps for internally displaced people. But money alone won't solve the crisis

In a bare and violent patch of land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 75,000 people are living in what one UN field officer described as hellish conditions". Food and water are scarce. Even the flimsiest shelters are in short supply and sanitation is nonexistent. Girls have been raped by militiamen while attempting to find food in fields around the site. Ibrahim Cisse of Unicef says people here are effectively being held hostage.

Rhoe - a remote camp of internally displaced people (IDP) approximately 45km northeast of Bunia, the capital of DRC's Ituri province - is a tragedy waiting to happen", according to those who have visited.