Kalehe: more than 90 thousand displaced by war without assistance

More than 90,000 displaced Congolese nationals who fled war, between the Congolese army and M23 rebels, towards the territory of Kalehe, in the province of South Kivu in eastern Congo are raising alarm. They have not received any assistance since they left their household. Those affected are asking humanitarian organizations and the Congolese government to come to their aid “before we start burying the dead.”

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The new occupants of Kalehe come from the territory of Masisi in the neighboring province of North Kivu. The first displaced people began to settle there more than a month ago.

These displaced people mostly come from the areas of Numbi, Kalabu, Rubaya, Ngungu. They are particularly housed in schools and churches.

Jeanne. In her sixties. She fled with her eight children.

“We have just spent a whole month here without receiving any help from either humanitarian NGOs or the Congolese government,” laments the woman who sleeps in a classroom overwhelmed by displaced families.

“When we fled the fighting between the M23 and the FARDC, we did not have time to collect our belongings. Some of us risked our lives by returning to our households to gather a few items. Along the way, armed men stripped them of it,” displaced people told SOS Médias Burundi, angrily.

To survive, some of those displaced , the dynamic ones, go to work in the fields while others are hired as goods transporters.

Delphin Birimbi, local civil society leader, calls on the Congolese authorities and NGOs to “help these displaced people”.

“We fear that opportunistic diseases could appear among these displaced people,” he warns.

The administrative head of the Kalehe territory Thomas Bakenga confirmed to SOS Médias Burundi that at least 93 thousand displaced people have found refuge in his territory.

Nearly 7 million Congolese have fled their households to head to internal sites following the violence in eastern Congo, an unprecedented number according to an IOM report from October 2023.

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Displaced people settled in Kalehe, May 2024