Several thousands of newly displaced people have also arrived in Kitchanga (85 km north- west of Goma) over the last few weeks. In November, MSF started running a mobile clinic in Kilolirwe, near a camp where about 15,000 displaced people are living. MSF is offering free healthcare to both the displaced and the local people, but cannot have a permanent team in the camp due to insecurity.

The population of Rutshuru, about 50 km north of Goma, has almost doubled following new displacement between October and December 2007. Tens of thousands of people have fled fighting in the region and sought refuge in Rutshuru and Kiwanja.

MSF has been running cross border mobile clinics from Kisoro, Uganda, to three locations in eastern DRC – Jomba, Chengerero and Bunagana. . Staff continue to assist approximately 13,000 people who have fled to Nyakabanda camp in Uganda, roughly 15km from the border with DRC. The MSF teams have built shelters, latrines, and have improved access to drinkable water.

In the camps near Goma, hundreds of people are still arriving every day. Over 45,000 people are now living in the camps, which only increases humanitarian needs. Although the camps are easily accessible, humanitarian aid is still insufficient and people living there complain about the lack of food.

Disease

“I fled to Goma when my triplets were two weeks old. People were treating me bad because of what happened to me. In 2006, armed men came to the village. They came to loot, everyone had to stay in their house and so did I. I was alone at home with my three children, as my husband had died. An armed man came to my house and he raped me. After this I was sick for nine months. I could hardly work and needed medical care.

Unfortunately there was no clinic and the only thing I did was buying some medication at a dispensary. I gave birth to triplets. Everyone in my village knew that I was raped. People were mocking me, raped women have a very hard life.

Life in Goma is better, since there is more access to healthcare for my children. There was no health care whatsoever, not for me after the rape, and not for my babies. Part of the travel we did by foot, part by car. This was before all the disturbances, otherwise we would have never made it. Imagine being in that area with three boys and three babies, we would have died in the forest!

Here we are staying with a woman of my church, she is helping us, although she doesn’t have much herself. No I have never been to an STI clinic and if you can help I would be very happy.

Marceline*, from Walkale District, Goma camps, November 2007

Access to health care for people in North Kivu was already weak, but is even more limited today. The fighting has forced several aid organisations to suspend their activities, and health centres are not getting any supplies, or are deserted by the medical staff.

In North Kivu, MSF is offering free health care in hospitals in Rutshuru, Nyanzale, Masisi, and Kitchanga. The MSF teams are supporting several health centres and are running mobile clinics in Masisi and Rutshuru Districts.

In Masisi, between 650 and 800 consultations are being carried out each week in a health centre and hospital, mainly for respiratory infections, malaria, and worms. More than 100 new patients are being admitted to Masisi hospital every week. MSF has increased the capacity of the hospital from 70 to 170 beds.

MSF is running Rutshuru hospital and a referral centre in Nyanzale. The organisation has also rehabilitated three health structures in Binza health zone, to the north of Rutshuru, where over 10,000 consultations have been carried out since the beginning of September.

With thousands of displaced people constantly on the move, MSF has dispatched medical teams to establish mobile clinics in schools, abandoned health centres, or tents, to provide basic health care and refer severe cases to Rutshuru hospital. MSF’s mobile medical teams have conducted more than 1,500 consultations in Kabaya, Kinyandoni, Rugare, Katale, and Karembi.