Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people have fled Goma to escape fighting. DRC crisis: WHO fears infectious disease outbreaks Peace and security
The city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was “relatively calm” on Wednesday, UN agencies said, but aid agencies warned that chaos caused by the advance of M23 rebel forces could lead to a health emergency across the region.
Militants from the armed group M23 appear to control large parts of Goma, with the city’s internet down and mobile phone service limited.
Humanitarian workers from the World Health Organization (WHO) are unable to move freely around Goma to provide assistance to those in need. “From a public health perspective, this is a public health nightmare,” Dr. Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO representative in the DRC, told UN News. He expressed hope that the situation would return to normal, noting that many vulnerable groups needed support.
Conditions in Goma remained “appalling,” he said, with no running water, no electricity and civilians, including health workers, trapped.
Speaking to the Security Council yesterday, UN Deputy Special Representative for the DRC Viviane van de Perre described the “unthinkable suffering” being endured by civilians in eastern DRC and called for “urgent and coordinated international action” to stop the fighting between Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and DRC troops battling for control of Goma.
Mass displacement and the threat epidemics
Before the M23 offensive, more than 700,000 internally displaced persons lived in and around Goma. In recent days, hundreds of thousands have fled the camps to escape the fighting. Such a massive exodus in a short time has raised concerns about the possible spread of infections.
In an interview with UN News, WHO representative Dr. Sambo recalled the numerous outbreaks of infections that have been observed in North and South Kivu provinces in recent months. Cholera, for example, affected 22,000 people last year, killing 60, while measles claimed 115 lives. Cases of malaria have also been reported in the region, and children suffering from chronic malnutrition have been identified.
Last August, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. WHO and its national partners mounted a massive response, coordinated from Kinshasa and field offices in Goma and South Kivu. Today, as Dr. Sambo warned, patients in at least one treatment centre in a camp for internally displaced people have fled the escalating violence and are now living with host families.
“There are concerns that the disease will spread widely in communities, but at this point we cannot say for sure because we have not been able to get there to assess the current situation,” the WHO representative concluded.
UNICEF asks for additional funds
UNICEF on Wednesday urgently asked donors to provide an additional $22 million to provide emergency assistance to 282,000 children in eastern DRC.
“The extremely difficult situation in Goma is exacerbating a humanitarian crisis that was already reaching catastrophic proportions,” said Jean-François Bass, UNICEF Acting Representative in the DRC. According to him, the people of eastern DRC are now traumatized and exhausted by the ongoing fighting. “They do not have enough food and drinking water. Electricity, water and the Internet are completely disconnected. “It is difficult to convey in words the scale of the suffering that children and parents have endured,” the UNICEF representative added.