Just 10 kilometers outside of Goma thousands of people are fleeing the fighting in the surrounding regions and are setting up camp in places like this. Click on the links below the photograph of Mugunga Camp to see a series of images capturing the growing tragedy of internally displaced people on the move in North Kivu (the provence where Goma is the capital). If you'd like to read a first hand account of what's happening in Mugunga click HERE for a post by Eric Nguyen who is in Goma right now building on the IT / networking efforts of Melissa Ho who was a part of the August Goma Team from First Pres. The estimate of the number of people who have fled their homes because of fighting between rival militias and the Congolese Army is now running as high as 600,000 people. The combatants include Laurent Nkunda's Congolese Tutsi militia who are fighting the Interahamwe (Rwandan Hutu rebels in the DR Congo since 1994), other warloards and the DR Congo Armed Forces. 18-19,000 UN Peacekeepers are in the Congo trying to create pockets of safety so that humanitarian workers can reach these people.
In an email this past Thursday (2 days ago) Lyn Lusi sent the photograph above and writes,
This is what happens to civilian victims of conflict: the UN negotiated a 'humanitarian corridor' to go up to Masisi centre and Jospeh Ciza (the Head of nursing at HEAL Africa) took the ambulance and emergency medical supplies. In Masisi hospital, he found this poor man who was shot last Saturday (six days ago!). The staff there had no dressings or supplies of any sort. Ciza brought him back to HEAL Africa in the ambulance. Despite the appalling smell, he does not have gangrene, thank God. Please pray for his recovery. This man is the lucky one. What about all the others...?
The rainy season is starting and at elevations above 5000 feet (Goma is at 1500 meters, around 4500 feet) it is getting wet and cold.
Please pray for peace in eastern Congo.
Tim
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