Humanitarian catastrophe looms in east DRC as rebels push south

The advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels into Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) South Kivu province threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe in an area already housing thousands of displaced people, the provincial governor said.

The Tutsi-led rebels have been inching south since they seized eastern DRC’s largest city of Goma at end-January, gaining more ground despite mediation efforts.

About 3,000 people were killed in days of violence that preceded the capture of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, according to UN figures.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties and humanitarian operations in the city were hindered as nonessential aid workers had to be evacuated and warehouses were looted.

Provincial governor Jean-Jacques Purusi Sadiki said there had since been an influx of people fleeing Goma into South Kivu “creating huge humanitarian needs that we are trying to face”. The region was severely underresourced, he said.

Traffic was suspended between South and North Kivu, creating shortages of goods, he said.

“Our fear is that should M23 advance to this side, it will assist to a natural humanitarian catastrophe,” he said, speaking in South Kivu’s capital, Bukavu.

The escalation of the decade-old insurgency in east DRC has stoked fears of a broader regional war.

DRC’s vast mineral reserves, which are concentrated in the east, also play into conflict. DRC is the world’s top producer of tantalum and cobalt, a key component in batteries for electric vehicles and mobile phones. It is also the third-biggest global copper producer and home to significant coltan, lithium, tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold deposits.

Despite this, DRC is the world’s most aid-dependent country.

Humanitarian operations, which last year were 70% funded by Washington, has taken a big hit since US President Donald Trump imposed a pause on foreign aid last month.

The top UN aid official in DRC, Bruno Lemarquis, said several partners had already had to pause their projects.

“Finding alternatives will be extremely challenging,” Lemarquis said.

The fall of Goma’s airport makes it difficult to evacuate severely injured patients and bring in supplies, he said.

“Now that the situation has stabilised and security in the city has improved, we need to bring back staff, which isn’t something that can happen overnight,” he said.

Goma’s airport is still shut due to operational concerns and because of airspace management, which is under DRC authority, Lemarquis said.

The fall of Goma and the M23’s advance since is the latest in a series of Tutsi-led rebellions that emerged in DRC’s east after the official end of a string of conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that sucked in DRC’s neighbours and killed millions of people.

Rwanda has been accused by DRC, the UN and several Western countries of supporting the rebels with thousands of its own troops and weapons. It denies this and says it is acting in self-defence.

A ceasefire declared by the rebels for humanitarian reasons at the start of February rapidly crumbled.

DRC’s government said on Wednesday its troops had often been attacked in different areas since a joint summit of Eastern and Southern African blocs took place to defuse the crisis last week.

Reuters