Armed gangs and the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, there has been an increase in armed attacks by rebel groups, which in February alone forced at least 250,000 people to flee their homes and move to the outskirts of Goma, capital of North Kivu province and one of the largest cities after Kinshasa.

Humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm to the international community about the severe consequences on the civilian population, "caught in the crossfire and desperate for humanitarian aid," as stated by Amnesty International's director for Eastern and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah. Away from the country's capital, Kinshasa, eastern Congo has long been overrun by more than 120 armed groups seeking to seize gold and other resources in the region, carrying out massacres.

The continued fighting and the withdrawal of the UN mission.

According to the United Nations, a total of about seven million people have been displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to violence and conflict; Médecins Sans Frontières has called the current situation very worrisome, saying that medical units present in North Kivu have witnessed a large influx of war wounded in the last period.

Recent clashes pit the M23 (March 23 movement) rebels against Congo's regular army supported by armed pro-government militias known locally as Wazalendo (patriots in Swahili). Although M23 has claimed to target security forces and not civilians, it has besieged several communities and about half of North Kivu province is under its control, increasingly encircling Goma. Fighting intensified after a pause during the Dec. 20 elections that returned President Felix Tshisekedi to power for a second term.

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has accused Rwanda of providing military support to the rebels, and although Rwanda denies the allegations, U.N. experts have said there is substantial evidence of the presence of its forces in Congo. Indeed, the conflict has roots in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and involves ethnic hatred between Hutus and Tutsis.

It should also be mentioned that the new Congolese government asked the UN regional peacekeepers to leave Congo after the government accused them of failing to resolve the conflict. The MONUSCO mission (the specialized U.N. mission for stabilization in DRC) arrived in Congo in 2010 after taking over from a previous U.N. peacekeeping mission to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel and support the Congolese government in its stabilization and peacebuilding efforts.However, frustrated Congolese say no one is protecting them from rebel attacks, leading to protests against the U.N. mission that have sometimes turned into deadly violence.

The humanitarian crisis in numbers

In February, many of the people fleeing the latest armed clashes arrived in Goma. Goma has a population of about two million but has few emergency resources: inadequate shelters, poor sanitation facilities and limited employment opportunities, exacerbating the vulnerability of people forced to flee and of host communities. According to Richard Moncrieff, director of the Crisis Group with a focus on the Great Lakes region, many people have been trapped and out of reach of humanitarian aid. The situation requires urgent action to protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access," added the International Forum, an organization representing more than 120 international NGOs working in the DRC.

UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, highlights how the protracted situation exacerbates the humanitarian crisis: two years of continuous conflict in North Kivu has pushed more than 1.3 million individuals to flee their homes within the Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing the total number of internally displaced persons in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces to 5.7 million.

Nearly 300,000 people have arrived in and around Goma; an additional 85,000 have found refuge in the Minova region of South Kivu. By January, Minova was already home to more than 156,000 displaced people, most of whom were living in poor conditions.

Humanitarian partners on the ground also reported systematic incursions by armed groups into civilian facilities such as IDP camps, hospitals, and health centers, making it difficult to provide assistance to the most vulnerable. In 2023, 25 schools were occupied by non-state armed groups in Masisi and Rutshuru territories alone, while another 17 schools were attacked. In 2024, seven schools were destroyed by shelling. Hundreds of thousands of people have been identified as displaced behind the front lines in Masisi, Rutshuru, and Nyiragongo territories, lacking access to aid.

Protection of civilians is of paramount importance; millions of people are forced to flee their homes in search of assistance and safety due to armed attacks, human rights violations, and the proliferation of rebel groups. It is critical to intensify efforts to protect civilians by ensuring free and safe access to humanitarian aid and necessary infrastructure.

Translated by Flora Stanziola