Goma (DRC) : MSF launches a new alert on a humanitarian disaster in North Kivu

A few days ago, Médecins Sans Frontières released a bulletin alerting to a humanitarian disaster that is taking on new proportions in the province of North Kivu (eastern DRC). At least two and a half million people have fled their households, and only fifteen thousand are settled in makeshift shelters. In addition to this, some localities in the province are no longer supplied with medicines. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The figures were published in the MSF bulletin of April 4. “It is a humanitarian disaster to which the province of North Kivu is exposed […]”, warns one of the major organizations active in the east of the DRC.

Within months, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and villages to move to host families or informal sites.

“Around Goma, makeshift shelters, erected with plastic sheeting and mosquito nets, are piling up as far as the eye can see, while churches and schools offer many families a precarious refuge. About three thousand shelters, currently hosting nearly fifteen thousand people, have been built over the past year on the outskirts of Goma”, explains MSF.

The figure is too low compared to the magnitude of the needs for entire families that have been at the mercy of bad weather, epidemics and violence for months, as evidenced by the worrying number of victims of sexual violence that we treat every day in our structures, says the bulletin.

A real breeding ground for disease For MSF, these families are thus exposed to several diseases. “Over the past months, measles and cholera have broken out in IDP sites north of Goma, in Nyiragongo territory, while in recent weeks the health situation has become critical in Bulengo and Lushagala, where suspected cases of measles and cholera have multiplied”, MSF warns.

And in the localities of origin of the displaced, consequences are enormous. It is for example in the territories of Masisi, Rutshuru and Lubero where access to health facilities is becoming increasingly difficult.

There, many medical facilities are running out of drugs due to supply problems. In Rutshuru territory, for example, some health centers have not received medicine for months. In these territories, access to care, already difficult in normal times, has become even more so today given the lack of functional health structures and the cost of medical care, which is unaffordable for many in the context of the current economic crisis, underlines the organization.

“Our emergency teams continue to provide medical care, ensure the supply of drinking water and improve hygiene conditions in various IDP sites”, it concludes.