By AMINA WAKO

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is facing a humanitarian crisis in North Kivu, with over one million people displaced due to fighting linked to the resurgence of the M23 armed rebels, medical organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said..

The crisis has made the already bad humanitarian situation in North Kivu province even worse, putting people who have been forced to flee and those who live in remote areas that are cut off by fighting at risk of many health problems.

MSF, whose teams work in the area, has said that the current humanitarian response is very poor.

Read: UN flags the Congo refugee disaster

MSF wants the international community and the government to immediately step up their efforts to help people. According to MSF's DRC Representative Raphal Piret, the situation in North Kivu and the conditions in which people live on the outskirts of the provincial capital Goma show that the response does not meet their needs.

DRC soldiers deploy to secure members of the UN Security Council at the Bushangara IDP camp in North Goma on March 12, 2023. PHOTO | GUERCHOM NDEBO | AFP

"The situation in North Kivu is alarming. You only have to look at the appalling conditions in which people are living on the outskirts of the provincial capital Goma, to realise that the response is not up to the needs despite the fact that there are many humanitarian organisations working in eastern DRC," Piret said.

Risk of health issues

Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and villages to live with host families or in informal settlements. Makeshift shelters made of plastic sheets or mosquito nets around Goma stretch as far as the eye can see, while others have found shelter in churches and schools.

People forced to move and those living in remote communities cut off by fighting are at risk for a lot of health problems. This is because they live in shelters that are too small or crowded and don't have clean water or toilets. This makes it easy for diseases to spread.

In recent months, measles and cholera broke out north of Goma in Nyiragongo territory while the health situation has now become critical in Bulengo and Lushagala, with cases of suspected measles and cholera multiplying over the past few weeks.

MSF teams have been working in informal displacement sites around Goma since May 2022, providing free medical care, trucking in drinking water and constructing latrines as well as showers.

"This is a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who are currently camping out around the city’s gates. Families have been at the mercy of rains, epidemics and violence for months as shown by the worrying number of victims of sexual violence that we treat every day in our medical facilities," MSF Project Coordinator Abdou Musengetsi said in Goma.

Food security worsening

However, much remains to be done. In Bulengo, an informal settlement 10 kilometres west of Goma, there is just one latrine for almost 500 people. This is less than one-tenth of what is required to meet basic humanitarian emergency standards. In the neighbouring settlement of Lushagala, displaced people are surviving on just over one litre of clean water per day, well below the recommended 15 litres of water per day.

In Rutshuru territory, access to healthcare was already difficult but has now become even more challenging due to the lack of functioning health facilities and the cost of medical care, which is unaffordable for many in the current economic crisis.

With prices rising and access to healthcare deteriorating, food insecurity is worsening in the province, and more than one-third of North Kivu's population (about three million people) are currently at risk of food insecurity, according to the UN.

Baggage handlers offload a consignment of humanitarian aid for DRC civilians from an EU flight at the airport in Goma, North Kivu province March 10, 2023. PHOTO | ARLETTE BASHIZI | REUTERS

MSF is calling on the aid community and authorities to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the people who need it.

Piret emphasised that there is no time to lose and that all parties to the conflict must commit to facilitating access for humanitarian organisations.

“As the fighting continues, more people may be forced from their homes and require aid to survive. MSF teams are working around the clock to fight cholera and deal with the growing cases of measles, but they are completely overwhelmed. Stepping up assistance to the displaced people both in Goma and elsewhere is a matter of urgency,” Piret said.

Read: M23’s ceasefire fails to hold in east DRC

In late 2021, the M23 rebel group, dominated by DRC Tutsis, resumed its armed insurgency against the DRC army. The group had previously taken control of Goma in 2012.

Since March 2022, the violent clashes linked to the resurgence of the M23 have led to the displacement of approximately one million people in North Kivu, exacerbating the already critical humanitarian situation in the province, where an estimated 2.5 million people are displaced.