About 90 internally displaced persons (IDP) sites in the city of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have been destroyed amid rebel hostilities, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
A total of 248,676 people have been affected by the destruction of 90 IDP sites amid hostilities around Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, which the March 23 Movement (M23) rebels claimed to have captured on January 27, the WHO said in its latest situation report.
The WHO noted that the security situation in Goma, a key logistical hub for the entire region in the distribution of humanitarian aid, remains "extremely volatile" as the rebels' entry into the city has significantly worsened the humanitarian situation.
At a press briefing late Tuesday, Patrick Muyaya, spokesman for the Congolese government, said that more than 5,000 bodies had been buried in Goma, 1,568 deaths had been recorded in health facilities, and 4,645 injured people had received medical care. The WHO also warned that the city faces health risks, including a resurgence of cholera cases, while several Mpox treatment centres in camps for internally displaced people have been dismantled amid the hostilities.
Of the 128 Mpox patients who fled Goma's treatment centres during the fighting, only 33 have been found, according to WHO. A humanitarian corridor was opened in the Goma region last Saturday. DRC Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba said WHO had been authorised to deliver humanitarian supplies to Goma via Kenya and Rwanda.
The situation in eastern DRC is rapidly deteriorating, with serious human rights violations and abuses, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned on Tuesday, calling for an immediate end to the violence.Â
