from JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC
DRC Bureau
KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – MILLIONS in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are facing destitution as violence forces people to flee multiple times.
The escalation of violent conflict in recent months has pushed people in eastern DRC into desperate conditions, warned the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary General, Jan Egeland on a visit this week.
Displaced families sheltering at temporary sites have once again been forced to flee, as fighting and abuse plunge people into life-threatening situations.
Egeland said the explosion of humanitarian needs required immediate attention from an international community that had turned its back on people in crisis urging parties to the conflict to end the violence facing civilians.
The March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group is the main perpetrator.
“I am truly shocked by the conditions I have seen in and around the city of Goma,” Egeland said of the largest city in the east.
It was taken over by the M23 at the end of 2024.
“The lives of hundreds of thousands of people here in eastern DRC are hanging by a thread,” Egeland said.
He noted that in North and South Kivu provinces, people had been repeatedly compelled to flee camps, where essential facilities were often already inadequate.
“Now, most find themselves in locations that lack shelter, basic sanitation, or drinking water, with diseases such as cholera rapidly increasing as a result,” Egeland added.
Since the M23 offensive across the region earlier this year, an estimated 1,2 million people have been displaced across North and South Kivu.
Some 1,8 million people have been compelled to return to their places of origin, often to locations which bear deep scars from years of conflict between multiple armed groups.
– CAJ News