Congo, North Kivu, displaced people are increasing day by day in the eastern part of the country: by now there are more than two and a half million on the run

ROME – A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in North Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where an estimated one million people have been forced from their homes in the past 12 months to escape fighting related to resurgence of the M23 armed group. The UN estimates that in North Kivu province, there are around 2.5 million displaced people in all. This very serious crisis is aggravating an already critical humanitarian situation, which affects only and exclusively the civilians residing in the area who have been reduced to displaced persons: entire communities which are in fact isolated due to the fighting, with very serious consequences above all due to the impossibility of access the treatment of a national health system, already semi-existent on its own. A deficit only partially compensated by the presence of the teams of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) present in the area.

What’s really at stake. At this point, it is always worth remembering that when one speaks of that area there are still at stake the immense riches kept underground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which in the end almost always explain the infinite series of local micro-conflicts which – at the beyond the official motivations of the various “rebels” – in reality they hide the need to maintain control of entire slices of territory. All this, of course, in defense of interests that certainly do not coincide with those of the Congolese civilian population, but rather have to do with those of other foreign states, or multinationals in the extractive industry, which foment and finance groups of mercenaries.

Diamonds, coltan, copper and fertile soils and lots of poverty. The DRC is the world’s third largest producer of diamonds, even though most of the production is used for industrial uses, much less for jewelry. Furthermore, it enjoys the second largest rainforest in the world, with immense spaces of fertile land, as well as infinite water resources. And then the gigantic quantities of copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, zinc, but above all coltan, the extremely precious mineral indispensable for the voracious cell phone industry. Without forgetting oil, which participates to a considerable extent in building the country’s wealth. We must also add the main commercial crops, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil, tea, rubber, sugar, cinchona bark, and more corn, rice, potatoes and cashews . All riches which however – as happens in almost all African nations – are not redistributed equally, but end up in the foreign accounts of the men of a corrupt and rapacious political apparatus.

The appalling conditions on the outskirts of Goma. Some 3,000 shelters have been built on the outskirts of Goma in the last year, currently housing around 15,000 people, but these numbers are small compared to the scale of people’s needs. “This is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are currently camped on the outskirts of the city,” says Abdou Musengetsi, MSF project coordinator in Goma. “Families have been at the mercy of rains, epidemics and violence, as evidenced by the worrying number of victims of sexual violence that we treat every day in our medical facilities”. “The situation is alarming” says Raphaël Piret, MSF coordinator in the DRC. “Just look at the appalling conditions in which people live in Goma to realize that the response is not up to the needs, despite the fact that there are many humanitarian organizations active in the area”.

Poor living conditions. In recent months alone, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and villages to live with host families or in informal places. Around Goma, makeshift shelters made of plastic sheeting or mosquito nets stretch as far as the eye can see, while other people have found shelter in churches and schools. “We arrived here in June last year and settled in a disused church in Kanyaruchinya with about 150 other families,” says Celestine, 65. “Over the last eight months, our daily life has been a succession of difficulties sleeping, eating and dressing. Since the beginning of the year there has been only one food distribution and, as my name was not on the list, I have not received nothing. We make do as best we can with what we find in the surrounding fields”. Since May 2022, MSF teams have been working in informal sites for displaced people around Goma, providing free medical care, transporting clean water supplies and building latrines and showers.

There is still a lot to do. In Bulengo, an informal settlement 10km west of Goma, there is only one latrine for nearly 500 people, less than a tenth of what is required to meet basic humanitarian emergency standards. In the nearby settlement of Lushagala, displaced people survive on just over a liter of clean water a day, well below the recommended 15 liters of water. Inadequate and overcrowded shelters and a lack of clean water and latrines create ideal conditions for disease to spread. In recent months, cases of measles and cholera have broken out north of Goma, in the territory of Nyiragongo. The health situation has also become critical in Bulengo and Lushagala, with suspected cases of measles and cholera multiplying in recent weeks. “In Bulengo alone, in March, we treated nearly 2,500 patients with cholera symptoms and over 130 children with measles,” continues Musengetsi of MSF.

Limited access to health care. North of Goma, MSF teams are also observing the consequences of the crisis in the territories of Masisi, Rutshuru and Lubero. As the fighting fronts shifted, most of the major access routes to the region were cut off. Links to this agricultural region, known as “the granaries of the province”, are essential for trade in North Kivu. Cut off from the rest of the province, the inhabitants have not been able to sell their crops or buy essential products, except for some, the price of which has doubled.

Many medical facilities have run out of drugs. And this is due to supply problems; in the territory of Rutshuru, for example, some health centers have not received medicines for months. In these territories, access to healthcare was already difficult, but now it is even more so due to the lack of functioning healthcare facilities and the cost of medical care, unaffordable for many in the current economic crisis. “Due to lack of financial means, most of the population no longer has access to healthcare,” says Monique Doux, MSF project coordinator in Rutshuru. “They have to choose between eating or receiving medical care. Even those who can afford to pay for treatment still have to find a functioning health facility, which can take several hours of walking.”

Rising prices and food insecurity. As prices rise and access to health care deteriorates, food insecurity is worsening in the province. According to the United Nations, more than a third of North Kivu’s population – three million people – is currently at risk of food insecurity. “In the health centers we support in Rutshuru territory, we treated more than 8,500 malnourished children in 2022, or almost 70% more than in 2021,” explains Doux of MSF. In the Rutshuru area, as in Lubero and Masisi, there is a clear lack of organizations providing much-needed aid. “It’s like the people here have been abandoned. For months, MSF was the only humanitarian organization working in the Rutshuru area, but the needs of the inhabitants far exceed our capacity to respond,” concludes Monique Doux, MSF project coordinator in Rutshuru.

“There is no time to lose”. This is the appeal reiterated by Piret of MSF. “The aid community and authorities must redouble their efforts to ensure humanitarian aid reaches people who need it, wherever they are, while all parties to the conflict must commit to facilitating access for humanitarian organizations.”

MSF’s emergency response. The Medical Organization – Nobel Peace Prize winner – launched an emergency response to provide medical assistance to displaced people in Rutshuru territory in April 2022. After the first flow of displaced people arrived in Goma in May last year MSF emergency teams have been providing medical assistance, setting up water supplies and improving hygiene conditions in informal IDP sites, first in Munigi and Kanyaruchinya, and more recently in Bulengo and Lushagala. In February 2023, MSF teams provided medical assistance and humanitarian aid to around 30,000 temporarily displaced people in the town of Mweso. MSF staff are currently working among displaced people in Kayna, in Lubero territory, and in Minova (South Kivu). Meanwhile, MSF medical teams maintain their regular activities in Goma, Rutshuru, Kibirizi, Bambo, Binza, Mweso, Masisi and Walikale, providing basic medical care to thousands of people in North Kivu province.