As of 31 July 2010, an estimated 1.9 million people were internally displaced in North and South Kivu, Orientale, Katanga and Equateur provinces of DRC. And it should not be forgotten that IDPs represent just a fraction of the people in need in DRC. The situation of returnees, host families and large numbers of populations in non-conflict affected areas is often dire.
The Kivus
Forced displacement can be lawful under international humanitarian law (IHL) if it makes a community safer or if imperative military reasons require it. However, in most cases people leave their homes because one or both sides to a conflict has been violating IHL. When a community experiences or fears murder, rape, kidnapping, destruction of their homes or looting, flight is a natural reaction.
The articles in this collection together with the findings from the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI) consolidate a growing body of social science, public health, policy and operational research that challenges earlier assumptions about the interactive effects of HIV/AIDS and insecurity. Contributing authors draw attention to the social factors associated with forced displacement and migration and their central role in shaping HIV exposure risks.
The striking fact that for the first time in human history there are now more people living in towns and cities than outside them is not in itself a reason for FMR to be covering urban displacement. Behind that fact,…
