“The health system is ruined. Malnutrition is rising. The risk of famine persists,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “We are ready to scale up our response – but we urgently need systematic and sustained access to the population across...
Since 26 January, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and 2,880 injured in attacks by the M23 and their allies “with heavy weapons used in populated areas, and intense fighting against the armed forces of the DRC and their allies”, the High Commissioner said, as UN Member States weighed setting...
Escalating fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese troops has caused thousands of people to flee, with many heading towards the provincial capital, Bukavu – where UN humanitarian agencies in the east are now located following the fall of Goma. Local aid partners report that a bombing on Thursday resulted in...
“Goma airport is a lifeline,” said Bruno Lemarquis. “Without it, the evacuation of the seriously injured, the delivery of medical supplies and the reception of humanitarian reinforcements are paralyzed.” Growing casualties The M23 armed group, supported by Rwandan troops, seized the airport last week as its fighters swept through Goma...
Fighting escalated sharply in late January, as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized control of parts of North Kivu, including areas near the regional capital Goma, and advanced towards South Kivu. Before the latest violence, mpox cases had been stabilizing, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a speech to the agency’s...
Vivian van de Perre, Deputy Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), provided a detailed briefing from Goma, highlighting the dire humanitarian situation and the need for “urgent and coordinated international action” to stop the fighting between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and Congolese forces – as they battle...
Following the coup, President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained and the country was plunged into a humanitarian and human rights crisis that has only worsened amid an intensifying civil conflict. “Secretary-General António Guterres condemns all forms of violence and calls on all parties to...
Jean-Pierre Lacroix briefed journalists at UN Headquarters on Friday, as the M23 rebel group and Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) continued their march toward the city of Bukavu, having taken control of the provincial capital, Goma, earlier this week. “We are concerned not only as far as the eastern DRC is...
In a briefing on Friday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reported that more than 1,600 men, women and children have fled. Two-thirds are seeking refuge with host families and over 500 sheltering in three newly established displacement sites, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Children at risk The situation...
The rebels have already seized the provincial capital, Goma, and reports indicate that they are closing in on the key city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province. The hostilities are occurring in a mineral-rich region that has been volatile for decades amid a proliferation of armed groups, which has...
The internet also remains down in the provincial capital and only mobile phone networks are functioning, with M23 fighters apparently in control of “a significant portion of the city” after intense clashes with the Congolese army, UN agencies reported on Wednesday. Aid teams from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) “cannot move...
As fighting intensifies between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group and Congolese forces, UN chief of Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix underscored the critical state of the battle for eastern DRC’s regional capital Goma, describing the crisis as “volatile and dangerous”....