NAIROBI, Dec 16 (AFP) - New fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) threatens millions of refugees already affected by decades of unrest in the Great Lakes region, a pan-African church group warned Thursday.
The fighting since Sunday in Kanyabayonga, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Nord Kivu capital Goma, has claimed dozens of lives.
"These renewed hostilities will directly and indirectly exacerbate the already worsened situations of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons in the region," the Nairobi-based All African Conference of Churches (AACC) said in a statement.
The refugees are "currently living under intolerable situations in extremely poor conditions without adequate shelter, water and food. Besides, millions of the most vulnerable women and children have so far been killed with many more affected by HIV/AIDS," the statement said.
AACC urged both sides to "desist from further aggression and opt for dialogue as opposed to war."
Since the end of the colonial era in the 1960s, and especially after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the Great Lakes region has suffered endless cycles of civil and regional wars, at a cost of millions of lives.
The DRC and Burundi are now in advanced stages of peace processes that are due to lead to elections next year.
In Uganda, fresh efforts are under way for talks between the Kampala government and rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose conflict has ravaged the country's northern region since mid-1980s.
"Unrest in this vast African restive zone has given rise to millions of refugees, who are threatened by attacks, starvation and diseases," the statement noted.
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