Attacks force medical charity MSF out of DR Congo region

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has pulled out from a restive territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a statement released on Tuesday, MSF said it had decided to end projects in Kimbi and Baraka in Fizi territory, due to several violent incidents against the organisation this year.

MSF staff withdrew from that part of South-Kivu Province in July.

“The predictability of further incidents and potential further serious harm to our staff has reached a threshold that we are no longer able to accept,” MSF operational manager, Ellen van der Velden said in a statement.

"The ever-increasing activity from criminal and armed groups across eastern-DR Congo, has led to ongoing violence and attacks against civilians at a shocking scale, including targeted killings and horrific acts of violence, including sexual violence," the statement added.

Nearly 70 armed groups signed a ceasefire agreement on 17 September this year in the city of Murhesa to end hostilities, but efforts to pacify the region is yet to yield results.

South-Kivu alone counts at least 70 army groups preying on the civilian population for more than two decades.