Doctors Without Borders

Photos: DRC 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

Displaced Again: People Take Shelter in Camps After Fighting in Goma

People in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were thrown into yet another terrifying humanitarian crisis when a rebel group known as M23 marched on the city of Goma in North Kivu Province in mid November. In the fighting that ensued, hundreds were injured and thousands of civilians fled. Though M23 has ostensibly withdrawn from Goma, more than 100,000 people are still living in precarious conditions around the city.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which was already running several health care projects in the area, rapidly established additional emergency services, treating war-injured patients and assisting displaced people. MSF is now active in six camps, where teams are providing primary health care, screening and treating malnourished children and people suffering from cholera and other communicable diseases, vaccinating against measles, and offering support to survivors of sexual violence.