GENEVA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said Friday people fleeing militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Ebola area are increasing and they need humanitarian assistance.
"In the last three weeks of June alone, more than 145,000 newly displaced people sought safety and assistance in the displacement sites across Ituri, while 215,000 were estimated to have fled to the neighboring areas," UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said at a UN briefing here.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the mass displacement of people "on the run" in the DRC has also hindered efforts to tackle the year-old Ebola virus outbreak, which has affected parts of the DRC's eastern Ituri and North Kivu province.
Latest WHO data published Thursday indicated a total of 2,842 Ebola infections and 1,905 deaths in DRC's Ituri and Nord Kivu, with an overall fatality rate of 67 percent.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said at the same briefing that dealing with "a highly mobile population on the run - is something that has been underlying this response since the beginning, which is why it is so difficult to end it."
UNHCR's Baloch said that difficulties with access in some places and the vast area from which people have fled means the real figure of people on the move is difficult to verify, but with thousands continuing to flee.
"Fear and squalor" prevail, said Baloch, noting that many "are forced to sleep in the open."
