“In most cases, people have left behind their homes, their fields and livestock, which are their sole source of food and income,” said the World Food Programme (WFP) Representative in DRC, Martin Ohlsen. “They are therefore – even if they just fled 20 kilometres away from their village – cut off from any sort of support for their families.”

An estimated 390,000 people have been internally displaced in eastern DRC and more than 60,000 Congolese have fled to neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda since fighting erupted in the North Kivu province in April between Government forces and the M23 rebel group.

The conflict is intensifying, WFP said in a news release, with militia groups fighting to extend their zones of influence. Human right violations, including murders, looting, rapes and abductions, have also led to massive population movement in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, North Katanga, Maniema and Province Orientale.

The new operation, which will target these five provinces, will provide people with high energy biscuits, followed by emergency food rations or, in areas where markets are functioning, cash or vouchers that allow them to purchase their own food.

To fund the emergency operation, the agency has also launched an appeal for $81 million. However, Ohlsen said that so far only 15 per cent of the total cost had been mobilized.

As part of the operation, WFP is boosting the use of innovative tools to increase the efficiency of its emergency assistance such as the distribution of cash and vouchers, which has proved to be cost effective and has helped some 77,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Kivu. The programme will be expanded to other provinces over the next few months, and is planned to cover 188,000 people.

Between January and August, WFP provided food assistance to about 730,000 people displaced in eastern DRC, living in camps, informal settlements or with host families.

In addition to emergency response operations, WFP said it will continue to provide support to the Congolese who face day-to-day struggles such as chronic food insecurity, malnutrition in children and pregnant or nursing women, and a high incidence of HIV and tuberculosis. An additional $84.6 million is required to continue to address these issues in the country, the agency said.

“It’s important not to forget that this crisis in the East is taking place in one of the poorest countries in the world, where 5.4 million people were already facing chronic hunger and malnutrition,” Ohlsen added.

“Our observers are reporting exchange of fire, shelling and explosions in addition to use of helicopters, tanks, heavy machine guns and artillery shelling,” said the spokesperson for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), Sausan Ghosheh, adding that observers also saw firing from a fighter jet yesterday.

Ghosheh said the violence occurred in the southeastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, around the Salah Eddin area, with the Mission’s observers confirming that opposition forces are also in possession of heavy weapons, including tanks.

“The UN has reminded both parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law, to protect civilians,” she said in the capital, Damascus. “We call on both sides to show utmost restraint and shift from this mind-set of confrontation to a mind-set of dialogue.”

Established in April, UNSMIS had suspended its regular patrols due to the escalating violence, in which over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 17 months ago.

Aleppo has been the centre of intense combat between Government and opposition forces over recent days. In addition, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as Damascus.

Earlier this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced deep concern about the impact of shelling and use of other heavy weapons on civilians in various locations around the country, particularly in Aleppo, where violence over recent days has also already caused a large number of civilians to flee their homes.

Today, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced that some 28,000 people in Aleppo will receive food assistance following reports of shortages of food, gas and electricity after weeks of violence.

Since the beginning of the clashes in Aleppo, the country’s most populous city, WFP and its partner, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), have distributed food rations to close to 40,000 people.

In July alone, WFP said it provided food assistance to 541, 575 people throughout the country. However, the agency said, it had aimed to reach 850,000 people, but was prevented from doing so by fighting in Homs, Hama, Deir Ezzor, as well as Damascus and Aleppo.

In addition to distributing food to people in the country, WFP has also launched a regional refugee emergency operation to provide food to those who have fled the violence.

The number of those who have fled has significantly increased since the start of the clashes in Aleppo – the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent estimate that some 200,000 people fled the city and the surrounding areas over the past weekend.

The six-month emergency operation, which started in July, will provide food to vulnerable Syrians in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, through food vouchers. With the operation, WFP aims to assist 67,000 people this month and progressively reach 120,000 by December.

The agency also warned that the Syria operation is facing a critical funding shortfall of about $62 million.