Bold bullets or starvation: the dilemma of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Forced from her home by fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Furaha Niimutoso sums up the dilemma many face: “We are torn between starvation or food risk in our fields where the rebels are shooting.”

Niimutoso is suffering from the aftermath of an uprising by the M23 militia in the east of the African country.

The group’s uprising escalated tensions between DRC and his neighbor Rwanda with accusations from Kinshasa that Kigali supports the rebels.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), it also forced another 200,000 people to leave their homes, exacerbating the difficult humanitarian situation in the region.

Most of them live with host families, said Blaise Ngoy, UNHCR representative in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda and Uganda. He added that UNHCR has taken care of another 4,000 families.

Between January and June, the United Nations agency for the coordination of humanitarian assistance, OCHA, registered 900,000 people domestically.

Lack of funds

In the distance, a crowd is seen gathering outside the Rutshuru Rugabo stadium.

Large white tents with a blue UNHCR logo have been set up inside the building that used to host football matches. Now 1500 families live in tents.

The thick smell of wood smoke from cooking permeates the air. Feeding people is not an easy task for UNHCR, which does not have enough money for this project. Pierre Atchom, head of the agency in Goma, told AFP they needed $225 million to deal with the crisis in the country’s east. DRC.

“So far we have 43 million, or 19%,” he said. “The needs are huge” and the crisis is only getting worse, he said.

This crisis does not receive wide media coverage of the situation, for example, in Ukraine. But if the agency leaves, the consequences would be catastrophic, Atchom warned.

The families of this site have indicated that they are struggling to move forward with UNHCR contributions.

“For someone with a family, it’s a struggle,” says Julien Nyiramana, a mother of four. “We are asking for help to be able to return to our villages.”

“Hunger will wipe us out when UNHCR decides it cannot help us,” warned Emmanuel Hakizimwami, also a father of four. Life in the camp is hard for everyone.

“Here we fight to eat just one time”

“My children ate in our village three times a day,” recalls Antoinette Semucho, a 25-year-old mother of two. “Here we fight to eat only once,” said a woman whose village was occupied by the M23 rebels through tears.

“What will happen to us if there is nothing” from the UNHCR, he wondered.

In the sweltering heat, 10-year-old Innes plays with her brother. The girl is so thin that her bones stick out of her skin. Other children show similar signs of malnutrition.

Something similar happens in the village of Ntamugenga, in a valley dominated by a hill controlled by M23 fighters.

7,200 families live in four places, but the front line is 500 meters from the village. Banana plantations are the only thing that separates the Congolese army from the rebels.

But whoever dares to find food there risks his life.

“For the rebels, anyone approaching the camps is considered a soldier or informer and therefore an army spy,” said village head Celestine Nyamugira. “Sometimes they shoot without warning,” he added.

Esperance, a 32-year-old mother of three, described how she and three other women struggled to find food.

“The militants took what we had collected and beat us in the chest,” he recalled. They ended up in the hospital.

Nyamugira believes the government will have to make bold decisions if it is to emerge from the crisis.

Only then, he said, will people be able to return home and prevent starvation of children and the elderly.

(According to AFP)

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