As many as 250,000 people have been displaced in recent fighting in eastern Congo. Thousands of people have had to flee their homes and are in desperate need of shelter, food and medical care. Many are malnourished, and others are dying of hunger.

ActionAid has been able to resume the distribution of emergency supplies to some camps around Goma and is currently reaching 50,000 people with relief supplies including beans, maize flour, soap, blankets, plastic sheeting, water containers, mosquito nets and cooking utensils.

Women and children are particularly at risk with reports of women being raped and abused by soldiers.

ActionAid is calling for:

• an end to the war and a comprehensive peace agreement
• the protection of civilians particularly women and children
• the protection of relief camps to ensure an adequate humanitarian response
• all victims of the war be adequately compensated and rehabilitated.

Martin Adhola, ActionAid International, came face to face with men and women traumatised by the fighting – many had watched helplessly as their husbands were murdered and sons taken away to join the fighting.

"Though they had gone for days without food or any decent shelter, they only asked us when lasting peace would come," said Martin. "Many had left their homes full of food and crops in their field. Staying in a camp without food was ‘a dehumanising condition’," he added.

Our response
ActionAid together with its partners has distributed jerrycans in the Mugunga 1 camp and provided non-food items, such as sanitary kits, in the camps around Goma town. As well as distributing much needed supplies, ActionAid has also worked with local groups on radio shows and local TV, calling for an end to the violence.