Severe shortages of food and water are threatening the lives of thousands of people fleeing Eastern Congo amid escalating violence, according to World Food Program.
The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Congo said basic services are largely paralyzed in Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for more than 6 million people displaced by the conflict.
The camps for displaced persons on the outskirts of Goma, which previously housed more than 300,000 people, have emptied due to the advancement of the Rwanda-backed rebels.
Several WFP warehouses have been looted, and are in turn, limiting civilian access to food.
“People are really running out of food, clean water, medical supplies and that’s a big concern,” said WFP spokesperson Shelley Thakral.
“The supply chain has really been strangled at the moment if you think about land access, air access, when everything is closed down,” she added.
Their priority is to secure staff safety and then get back to operations “as soon as security allows us to,” she stressed.
The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma.
They are one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits estimated to be worth $24 trillion that are critical to much of the world’s technology.
The recent violence marks a sharp escalation in one of Africa’s longest wars, threatening to dramatically worsen a dire humanitarian crisis.
The rebels’ offensive has sent hundreds of thousands fleeing their homes, in addition to 1 million displaced who are already in Goma, and stretched hospitals to the limit, with hundreds of wounded coming in every day as civilians get caught in the crossfire.
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