In the Democratic republic of Congo,the deputy governor of the restive North Kivu province says his administrationis determined to rebuild destroyed infrastructure after years of rebelinsurgencies.
Fellel Lutaicheiowa said PresidentJoseph Kabila's government also pledged to support the reconstruction plan at ameeting Monday.
Lutaicheiowa said that mobilizing the population is essential if hisadministration's efforts are to succeed.
"Theplan of stabilization and reconstruction is a plan which needs sensitizationbecause it can be very difficult to stabilize without training, withoutworkshop because we have to bring all people to understand what is expectedabout this project," Lutaicheiowa said.
Hesaid the rebuilding effort will be extended to five other provinces that wereadversely affected by years of clashes between government troops and variousarmed groups.
Lutaicheiowasaid an agreement between Kinshasa and some armed groups has helped improve thesecurity situation in North Kivu province. But he says reconstruction will not be an easy task.
"Atthe east part of the country now the situation is really improved. But we needto build infrastructure and we have many challenges because we are in asituation after conflict," Lutaicheiowa said.
Thedeputy governor said his provincial government will start with the rebuildingof schools, roads, health centers as well as buildings that were destroyedduring the conflict. He said his administration will also assist returningresidents who were displaced.
"(Wealso have to improve on agriculture) because as you know we have many displacedpeople and now they are coming back (to) their villages and we think that theywill begin to make farms," Lutaicheiowa said.
Meanwhile, the UnitedNations Office for theCoordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a recent report thatdespite relative peace in the area, security incidents against humanitarianworkers in North Kivu province increased by 26 percent since January comparedto the same period last year.