Just 20 km from Goma, capital of the North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fighting rages around the town of Sake. The escalation of violence is forcing people to move, worsening their already dire situation. We spoke to two of the families displaced by the recent violence.
Sandrine and Vianney
Sandrine rushed home after a day of work in the fields. His village, north of Sake, had been emptied of its inhabitants. This 32-year-old mother of eight learned that a bomb had fallen on the nearby military camp. Sandrine took her children and fled.
“I could only carry one jar of my children’s clothes and four dollars, which I quickly spent on food,” she says.
In recent weeks, fighting has intensified around Sake, a town so far spared from the ongoing conflict in Masisi territory. Heavy artillery and mortar fire was heard throughout the city. Some 135,000 people fled to Goma in the first week of February alone.
Sandrine arrived at the Rusayo 2 site for displaced people, located east of Sake. The young woman has nothing left.
“We are afraid of starving,” she said. “We also hear gunshots every day. We have nothing to eat and food in the markets is too expensive to buy. We have nowhere to sleep: we had to abandon everything, including our mattresses. »
Vianney arrived from Kitchanga with his wife and three children. After taking refuge with a family in Sake, this 32-year-old carpenter had to flee the city. He has just been accommodated in a hangar in Rusayo 2 with 89 other families.
“We had nothing with us when we fled because transport was too expensive,” he says. “Here we have to maintain good relationships with the families around us because we share most of the things we need during the day. »
Barely surviving
According to an assessment by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), around 170,000 people have settled in the two Rusayo IDP sites. More than 20,000 of them arrived in the week of February 12.
Crowded into sheds or makeshift shelters, these families lack everything. To feed her children, Sandrine sells firewood that she collects in the surrounding woods. She earns a meager sum for each packet (around USD 0.20), although this activity could cost her her life.
“When we go into the woods, there are soldiers and gunshots every day,” she explains. “Many women were raped. I was attacked less than a week ago while looking for wood with another woman. I still go there every day. It’s the only way we can survive.
During her stay in Sake, Vianney’s wife was responsible for earning money to allow the family to survive. She left every day at 6 a.m. to collect wood to sell and did not return until 4 p.m. Vianney stayed at home to look after the children.
“I was afraid to go into the woods myself because there are soldiers who always stop men and ask for money,” he said. “I also wanted to stay at home in case aid agencies came to register us. We could not miss this opportunity.
For the moment, the whole family remains in the shed, and Vianney’s wife has still not been able to start looking for wood. She first wants to know the region better.
Access to water is a major problem for displaced families. According to the World Health Organization, a person should receive at least 15 liters of water per day in case of emergency. The 127,500 people living on the Rusayo 1 site, however, receive a little more than 3 liters of water per person per day.
“My wife often queues for up to three hours to access a water tap. But they often hear gunshots, and she ends up coming back empty-handed,” says Vianney.
What awaits us?
The future of these families depends on how the conflict evolves. Vianney hopes to be able to return home and is already thinking about what to do next. “While we wait for the war to end, we will look for places where we can return to work,” he said. “I could help people rebuild their houses since I am a carpenter.”
Sandrine, for her part, has lost all hope of returning home and is counting on humanitarian aid to help her rebuild her life. “I would like to leave the site to sleep elsewhere and open a business, but I can’t afford it,” she says. “It’s very difficult here. I haven’t received any help since I arrived. I was only registered today, more than two months later.
Stuck in this precarious and dangerous situation, Sandrine cannot send her children to school. “They don’t even have food, how can they study?” she asks. “They stay with me to help me collect wood, even if it scares them. »
The international community must act
Since November 2023, clashes have displaced more than a million people across North Kivu. With more than 2.5 million internally displaced people in the provinceNRC continues to meet catastrophic needs with insufficient resources.
The international community must step up its efforts and provide adequate support to the humanitarian response in North Kivu, as well as other ongoing crises in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Distributed by APO Group for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
