OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan 26 (OneWorld) - The UN Security Council has condemned an attack that killed eight Guatemalan UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amid a new wave of violence sweeping the former Zaire and its neighbors in Africa's Great Lakes region.

The 15-member council, in a unanimous move Wednesday, denounced the attack as ''an unacceptable outrage.''

Although immediately provoked by the attack on peacekeepers, the Security Council statement also echoed alarms sounded by private humanitarian organizations, which briefed the apex UN panel Monday during so-called ''Arria Formula'' talks aimed at giving council members a chance to hear from non-governmental players.

The eight Guatemalan commandos were killed Monday, and five other ''blue helmets'' were wounded, in a firefight with suspected Ugandan rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in DRC's Orientale province.

The rebels have waged a bloody insurgency in neighboring northern Uganda for nearly two decades. Their stated goal has been to oust the government of President Yoweri Museveni and to create a state founded on the religious precepts commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments.

In the process, the LRA has gained notoriety for killing tens of thousands of civilians and for terrorizing more than 1.5 million others into fleeing their homes.

The Security Council statement also condemned the recent seizing of villages in DRC's Kivu province by insurgents and expressed concern about ''atrocities and human rights abuses.''

Read by the council's president for January, Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, the statement stressed the need to press on with measures to demobilize militias, including by incorporating some of their soldiers into the national armed forces of DRC, also known as Congo-Kinshasa. It called on neighboring governments to cooperate in ending armed conflicts that have become intertwined over the years.

The council further reiterated its support for the UN's MONUC peacekeeping mission and emphasized the importance of proceeding with preparations for DRC's first national elections in more than 40 years.

''For many, the talk of peace and democracy is premature,'' Helen O'Neill, deputy director of operations at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders), said in a prepared statement to the council.

''People's lives and livelihoods are being torn apart by violent conflict,'' O'Neill said. ''On Friday January 20, 2006, renegade soldiers from the Congolese army attacked the North Kivu town of Rutchuru, causing more than 30,000 people to flee northward toward Kayna and eastward to Uganda. MSF teams had to evacuate for Uganda as well.''

''According to recent reports, inhabitants of Kanyabayonga fled as well, fearing an attack on the town. All of these events are taking place in an area with heavy MONUC presence, highlighting how unstable the situation is,'' she added.

Likewise, O'Neill highlighted Katanga province, scene of ''perhaps the most forgotten crisis in a country beleaguered by several underreported humanitarian emergencies.''

Since last August, fighting between various armed groups has displaced more than 100,000 civilians, according to MSF. Several waves of violence have washed over Katanga province in the two years since DRC's civil war was officially declared over.

''Despite this massive upheaval, very little assistance has been provided to the displaced, who have lost everything and are now trying to find refuge in areas ill-equipped to receive them,'' O'Neill, a nurse who worked in central Katanga, told the council.

The situation has worsened.

''Since mid-November 2005, more than 80,000 people have fled their villages because of military operations and Mayi-Mayi attacks,'' she said, referring to a local militia.

DRC's peace process has helped some Congolese people, especially those living along former front lines, O'Neill said. But she characterized daily life for the majority--marked by violence, actual or threatened; nonexistent or inaccessible health and education services; insecure and inadequate shelter; and poor diets--as the ''normalization of the unacceptable.''

MSF urged an immediate increase in aid alongside stronger measures to ensure security.

Washington, D.C.-based Refugees International, in a written statement, urged Security Council members to increase support for peacekeeping operations and ratchet up ''commitment from all regional governments to assist their populations, protect them from illegal armed groups, and stem the flow of weapons.''

Silencing the guns would be key as ''civilians are difficult for humanitarian agencies to access because of the remoteness of their locations and ongoing insecurity,'' wrote Michelle Brown, Refugees International's UN representative.

She further highlighted the plight of women, who ''continue to be systematically targeted for acts of sexual violence by all armed groups.''

Refugees International welcomed moves to prevent and punish sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers but urged more action. ''Congolese women and girls who suffer sexual abuse should have access to greater support and improved services,'' Brown said.

In the latest display of volatility, about 20,000 fled violence in eastern DRC late last week and sought refuge over the border in Uganda, the UN refugee agency said on Sunday.

By Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said some 2,000 had returned to their homeland on the strength of assurances from Congolese authorities that the fighting had died down.

''What is most worrying is the unpredictability of the situation,'' Montserrat Feixas Vihe, the acting UNHCR representative in Kampala, said in a statement.

''Now people are going back, but at the same time, reports from DRC say we have to expect worse things,'' she added. ''The situation is very volatile and could change any moment. We are very worried.''

The strain of displacement is felt not only by the refugees but also by their hosts, in this case Uganda, an impoverished and highly indebted country confronting its own resource-draining problems--not the least of which is the LRA insurgency.

Even before the latest influx of Congolese refugees, Uganda was home to some 208,000 refugees, according to UNHCR. These included 168,800 Sudanese, 20,200 Congolese, and 15,600 Rwandans.

Nearly four million people in DRC died between 1998, when civil war broke out, and mid-2004, The Lancet reported earlier this month. The British medical journal dubbed the conflict the world's deadliest ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Most of the deaths were from illnesses that could be easily prevented or treated, not from violence, the journal said.

In December, the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) said that more than 31,000 people were dying each month because of fighting in the impoverished but resource-rich former Belgian colony.