Kinshasa, DR Congo – The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group said Thursday that one of its workers had been shot dead by a uniformed attacker in the latest incident involving the charity in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Another MSF was killed during fighting between the armed group M23 and pro-government militia. The charity said its teams had been involved in 15 incidents in the region since January.
Both deaths were in the town of Masisi in North Kivu province where fighting has intensified since M23 launched a new offensive that saw it take the key cities of Goma and Bukavu from government forces.
Last Friday “two men in military uniforms armed with assault rifles attacked and threatened civilians in the town of Masisi before going into the home of an MSF employee to seize goods,” MSF said in a statement without giving details of the victim.
“These armed men used their weapons, fatally wounding the MSF worker, who was hit twice in the thorax,” added the statement.
The MSF representative in Democratic Republic of Congo, Emmanuel Lampaert, called it a “terrible act … that highlights the massively worsening security that we are seeing in North Kivu and South Kivu since the start of the year.”
“Even far from the frontlines, insecurity is everywhere,” said Mathilde Gueho, a senior MSF official in North Kivu.
© Agence France-Presse
