Far from the cameras, a humanitarian crisis is affecting the southern part of DRC’s North Kivu province (in the East of the country), with almost nobody helping or doing something on the ground to change the situation. For years, this area has been plagued with armed violence, massacres and banditry. In the past months, these armed clashes have intensified between the congolese army (FARDC) and rebel groups (e.g. ADF or FDLR), further aggravating the dire humanitarian situation, leading to significant numbers of displaced people and worrying signs of malnutrition, sexual violence and gunshot wounds among them. More than 687,500 displaced people now live in camps, which are at limit, or are hosted by local families.
In addition to this critical situation, these territories – often referred to as the ‘Little North’ of North Kivu – suffer from a glaring lack of assistance from almost nobody due to insecurity and difficulties in movement around the region. The government, in this case, has literally abandoned them.
Few NGOs manage to have access to this area, MSF is one of them working on the field. They had treated more than 11,220 malnourished children, 2,310 victims of sexual violence and 1,980 people with weapons injuries from January to September 2019. The crisis, violence and abandoned continue nowadays.