An estimated 10,000 people who fled October clashes between militias and government troops in the Ituri district of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have this week started receiving relief from humanitarian organisations, the UN said.

Some of those displaced fled from clashes on 8 October and 29 October 2007 between the Forces armées de la RDC (FARDC, the national army) and fighters of the Fronts Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes (FNI) led by Peter Karim, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN mission in Congo (MONUC).

Others fled harassment and looting allegedly committed by government soldiers as they searched for FNI militias.

"Because the FARDC received information that there were militiamen in certain villages, they set fire to houses and fired in the air forcing the population to flee," said Jean-Charles Dupin, OCHA's head of office in Ituri.

FARDC's spokesman in Ituri, Captain Charles Boyeka, said soldiers had been ordered not to fight Peter Karim's men because some of them were taking part in a disarmament programme.

"Unfortunately, a certain prefect of a school in Libi, who wants to control the wood and gold trade in the area, persuaded FNI dissidents to attack us," said Boyeka.

French NGO Solidarités RRM said it had started providing non-food items to 2,138 families in the town of Kit, while the UN Children’s Agency (UNICEF) has been setting up blocks of latrines for the displaced along the Libi-Wadza road, about 120km northeast of Bunia, the regional capital. The UN World Food Programme has provided food to displaced families around Djugu.

To stem looting and protect civilians from harassment, MONUC troops have begun patrolling marketplaces and other busy areas.

"Our actions are aimed at reducing incidents of civilian harassment and not to stop them altogether. One cannot put a soldier behind every person," said Madnodge Mounoubay, MONUC's spokesman in Ituri.

Clashes rooted in tensions between Ituri’s two main ethnic groups, the Hema and the Lendu, have claimed thousands of lives since 1999, while many more civilians have been displaced.

A programme to disarm and demobilise 4,500 former members of armed groups in Ituri got underway in July.

Ex-fighters participating in the programme include former FNI members, the Forces de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri of Cobra Matata, and the Mouvement Révolutionnaire Congolais, headed by Mathieu Ngudjolo.

The three groups had remained active, fighting each other and attacking civilians, despite peace agreements culminating in presidential and parliamentary elections in DRC in 2006.