DRC: In Goma, MSF continues to receive casualties and appeals for humanitarian access

Fighting between M23, the Congolese army and their respective allies reached Goma’s city centre earlier this week putting the city in a state of panic, with a devastating impact on the population. For several days, Goma has been cut off from the rest of the world, and victims of the fighting continue to stream into medical facilities whenever they can.

Unfortunately, neither humanitarian nor medical facilities have escaped the violence.

“At Kyeshero hospital, a bullet pierced the roof of the operating theatre during an operation," said Virginie Napolitano, MSF's emergency coordinator in North Kivu, speaking from Goma. "Several of our stocks of equipment and medicines have been looted, jeopardising our medical assistance inside and outside Goma. Armed looting has also affected our colleagues in Goma. One of them was wounded by gunshot in his home during an attack. Other organisations and medical facilities have also come under fire. This is totally unacceptable."

Despite the situation, an MSF team continues to work at Kyeshero hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the influx of wounded, in support of Ndosho hospital, where teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are working.

Since Thursday, 142 patients have been treated. On Tuesday alone, MSF received 37 injured people, half of them civilians and most of them women. Most of the injuries were caused by shrapnel, while other patients suffered gunshot wounds.

Since Friday, the population has had to cope with continuous water and electricity cuts. The supply of meals MSF provides to patients and their families is currently threatened as insecurity, the risk of looting and the closure of roads are preventing its teams from replenishing food stocks, which only last two to three days.

For several days now, worsening insecurity and intense fighting have forced MSF to temporarily reduce the number of active teams in Goma and in the IDP camps on the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, medical and humanitarian needs in and around Goma have kept on growing. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have joined the 650,000 who have been living for more than two years in camps around Goma, where fighting has also raged, emptying several of these camps of their inhabitants.

"The impact of this fighting on the civilian population is enormous. In addition to the wounded and dead, we are receiving devastating reports from IDP camps where our teams can no longer go," said Stephan Goetghebuer, MSF's head of programs in North Kivu. "In the Kanyaruchinya IDP site, the health centre we support continues to operate, but the team has seen two children die this week because they could not be transferred to any hospital."

MSF is preparing to send teams back into Goma to assess the response capacity following the looting of the past few days, with a view to replenishing stocks and scaling up emergency care as soon as possible. A potential crossing point is the Great Barrier separating the Democratic Republic of Congo from Rwanda, provided that the movement of equipment and humanitarian teams between the two countries is facilitated and guaranteed.

As the situation continues to deteriorate, MSF urges the warring parties to do more to protect civilians, to respect the most basic rules of international humanitarian law, in particular respect for the medical mission, and to guarantee humanitarian access to provide essential medical assistance to the population.

Apart from Goma, MSF teams are still present in other conflict-affected areas of North and South Kivu.