The Internet also remains down in the provincial capital, and only mobile phone networks work, with M23 warriors who seem to be in control of “a significant part of the city” After intense clashes with the Congolesian armyUN agencies reported Wednesday.
Auxiliary teams from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) “cannot move freely to support hospitals, even ambulances cannot run. It is a situation that in public health is a nightmare, ” said Dr. Bourima Hama Sambo, representative of DRC.
‘Vulnerable people need us’
Talking to UN newsDr. Sambo added: “We just hope the situation will return to normal for government … vulnerable people really need us. “
The conditions in the provincial capital of Goma remain “serious”, he added, without running water, electricity cutting and civilians – including health professionals.
By repeating these concerns, a senior -peace -preserving official warned that the level of suffering among those caught in violence was “unimaginable”.
Vivian van de Perre, Deputy President of Protection and Operations in the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic Congo (Monusco) told the Security Council late Tuesday that “urgent and coordinated international action” was needed to stop the fight between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels And Kongolesian forces as they fought for control over Goma.
Massive displacement and fear
Before the M23 warriors shut their way into Goma, more than 700,000 internally displaced people lived around the provincial capital. But hundreds of thousands fled in anticipation of clashes between the Rwanda-backed rebels and DRC troops, which had renewed alarm about the further spread of deadly disease.
“When you have as many as 700,000 people living in camps, you can imagine the human suffering,” The Who Medical Officer told UN newsAt pointing to “a lot of ongoing [disease] Outbreaks ”in the North and South Kivu-two mineral-rich regions close to the Rwanda border, where dozens of armed groups have kept sway for decades.
Illness always present
Repeated Mass displacement in DRC has created ideal relationship with the spread of many endemic diseases In camps and the surrounding communities in KIVUS, including cholera (more than 22,000 cases and 60 deaths in 2024), measles (close to 12,000 cases and 115 deaths) and malaria as well as chronic malnutrition in children.
In August last year, WHO Head of Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also declared the MPOX outbreak as an emergency in the international concern for international concern.
Despite a “robust” first response to the MPOX threat from WHO and National Partners, which has been coordinated from Kinshasa and field offices in Goma and South Kivu, Dr. Sambo warned that MPOX patients had fled with at least one camp treatment center and now lived now in the host communities And with families.
“So we are that there is a fear that the disease is spreading far in society, but at this point we cannot say because we have not been able to get there and assess what is happening right now.”
