There are 1.6 million refugees in eastern Congo. The numbers in the refugee camps are multiplying rapidly, approximately 250,000 civilians have been displaced since August, when renewed hostilities broke out between the DR Congo government and rebel forces let by Gen. Laurent Nkunda’s. Violence peaked in late October

At Kibati camp, four kilometers north of Goma, where thousands of displaced people are living in tarpaulin and banana-leaf shelters, Oxfam’s Rebecca Wynn said: “The lull in the fighting has allowed us to assess what is needed and make plans to double our aid effort. The cease-fire has to hold if people are to get the aid they desperately need. At Kibati camp people have basic latrines and water pumps, but these are dirty and need to be maintained if we are to prevent disease spreading. The people here don’t have food and they are hungry. Some people are going into the banana fields around the camp which is very dangerous because there are drunk soldiers around. They’re risking their lives but they are hungry and desperate.”

In and around Goma, MSF teams are carefully evaluating medical and sanitation conditions. The organization is closely monitoring cholera cases and treating patients in cholera treatment centres. There have been 81 cases of cholera reported in the four camps around Goma in the past week. Cholera can spread fast in refugee camps which are often short of clean water and is deadly for half of the people who get it. Cholera is endemic in parts of North Kivu.

A U.N. force of 17,000 soldiers and police, the world’s largest peacekeeping mission, was unable to prevent the recent escalation in violence.
“We hear excuse after excuse from European countries about why they can’t help and they pass the buck to another country, another continent. Their inaction has very human consequences, as the thousands that fled Kibati and Kanyabayonga could tell them. 5.4 million people have died over the last 10 years. How many more must suffer before Europe will take effective action? The international community is failing in its Responsibility to Protect civilians in eastern Congo, European Ministers must seize the opportunity, working with colleagues from the United Nations and African Union, to push for a political solution, commit to military support to protect the people and ensure that the world does not look away from Congo as it has done so many times before.” said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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