Kalehe : displaced Congolese Hutus live in unbearable conditions

More than 7,000 displaced Congolese Hutus are settled in Nyabibwe in the territory of Kalehe in the province of South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They lack everything in this camp. Local authorities have no solution to this situation.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Originally from the neighboring province of North Kivu, these displaced Congolese Hutus fled the insecurity that prevails in this region of eastern Congo following the fighting between the regular army and the armed group M23.

Entire families live in huts, under trees or sleep under the stars.

Jeannette N. is a mother of five children. She left the Kaluba area located in the Masisi territory in North Kivu in February 2024. She fled hostilities between the Congolese military supported by the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) and local militias maintained by Congolese authorities, and the M23. She deplores the lack of assistance that the occupants of Nyabibwe are facing, despite the presence of several NGOs.

“Since we arrived here, we have not received any humanitarian aid and yet here in Kalehe we see a lot of NGOs,” she complains.

These displaced Congolese Hutus deplore that in addition to the lack of food aid, they have no drinking water, much less toilets.

A woman and her children in a hut in Nyabibwe, September 2024 (SOS Médias Burundi)

Displaced people of Nyabibwe are spread across 877 homes. When it rains, they are exposed to the elements. Life on the site is so hard, say displaced people, that some women are forced into prostitution to feed their children and men are forced to steal from the local community’s fields.

“There are some among us who are imprisoned,” say displaced people from Nyabibwe, speaking of a very regrettable situation.

In Kalehe, dominant tribes are the Bahavu and the Batembo. Displaced Congolese Hutus accuse them of “not wanting to see us in their homes.”

“They want to chase us away so that we return to our homes in Masisi, which would amount to suicide for us,” they say.

On September 26, local authorities organized a security meeting to try to find solutions to this situation, in vain.

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi told the United Nations General Assembly on September 25 that nearly 7 million people have fled their homes since the resurgence of the M23. He spoke of “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”

The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion that took up arms again in late 2021, accusing Congolese authorities of not having respected their commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. The latter have since controlled a large part of the province of North Kivu, including the city of Bunagana, which borders Uganda.

Congolese authorities remain convinced that it benefits from support from Rwanda, which the Rwandan government continues to dismiss out of hand.

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Huts installed in the Nyabibwe site not far from homes of members of the local community, September 2024 (SOS Médias Burundi)