At the eye camp organized on January 16 and 17 at Goma hospital by the UN peacekeeping mission, known by French acronym MONUC, the patients treated ranged from one year to 86 years of age and included three children suffering from congenital cataract.

The camp was inaugurated by Colonel J S Negi, Acting Commander of MONUC's North Kivu brigade, MONUC Electoral Coordinator M Fritz Krebs and Commanding Officer of the hospital Colonel I P Arora.

Colonel Arora said more than one hundred eye surgeries had been conducted at the hospital using "phacoemulsification," which is only available in the DRC at the MONUC Goma hospital.

The violence that has ravaged the Congo in recent decades has made medical treatment out of reach to many of the country's population.

Colonel Negi expressed MONUC's concern for the civilian population, and stressed the need to help locals in need of eye surgery.