The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Thousands affected by flare-up of violence in Maï-Ndombe province – African Business

In August, inter-communal violence flared in the territory of Kwamouth, an area located half a day’s journey by boat north of the capital, Kinshasa; in the past month, MSF has been the only aid organisation on site, providing medical care and assistance to people displaced from their homes; with clashes moving eastwards, MSF is also deploying emergency teams close to the town of Bandundu, where violence remains worrying.

Recent weeks have seen an increase in inter-communal violence in Kwamouth. People were chased and shot to death, houses and villages were burned to the ground and roadblocks put up to intercept perceived enemies. Thousands of people fled their homes to cross the Kwa river to shelter in Bolobo territory improvised sites.

“When we arrived in the area, we found thousands of people living in deplorable conditions, without shelter, access to drinking water or sanitation,” says Dr Dieya Papy, medical officer in MSF’s emergency team. “The area has a high prevalence of malaria and people’s living conditions were clearly putting them at risk of getting sick. We had to move quickly.”

Responding to immediate requirements

MSF’s emergency team arrived in Kwamouth on 24 August to respond to people’s most pressing needs, while calling on other aid organisations to join the response. In the midst high tensions, the small team did its best to assist those who had fled further away.

“Our priority was to transport the seriously injured to Kinshasa and to improve living conditions on the sites as best as we could, by installing latrines and water points and distributing essentials such as mosquito nets, soap and water disinfection tablets,” says Dr Papy. “People’s access to healthcare was extremely limited in the area, so we did donations to local health facilities and launched mobile clinics at the sites for displaced people in Simbambili and Sokoa.”

MSF staff have provided more than 700 medical consultations via mobile clinics over the past three weeks. They were assisted by two nurses from Ministry of Health. They also transported severely injured people to Kinshasa’s hospitals by road and boat.

Traumatized patients by violence

Besides people’s immediate medical needs, the violent events have also left many people psychologically traumatised.

“When I heard the shots, I ran away with my sister to our aunt’s house,” says 11-year-old Astrid [not her real name]. “But when we got there, men threatened us with their guns. They wanted us show them the houses that were inhabited by the people they were chasing. They said they’d kill my little sister if we didn’t. We pointed to the house in front. They went there and killed two children.”

Joel-Christopher Bolombo, a MSF psychologist, has been providing mental healthcare for traumatised patients in Kwamouth since he arrived there three weeks ago. “Some patients have nightmares, develop a mistrust of other communities that they did not have before, or show signs of depression or feelings of guilt,” he says. “In addition to providing traditional medical care, it is essential to help them express their

You can express your feelings through drawings and words. This type of event leaves patients with invisible wounds that need to be addressed too.”

Violence spreads into Bandundu

Mid-September saw Kwamouth’s security improve enough to allow many of those displaced to return home. Meanwhile, violence and clashes moved eastward towards Bandundu.

“Last week, we sent a mobile team along the road to Bandundu to assess the needs, and we immediately found seriously injured people that we transferred to Kinshasa,” says Dr Papy. “The situation in this area remains extremely tense. We witnessed villages being burned to the ground and people being killed in an extremely worrying pattern. We have therefore decided to reinforce our presence in Bandundu to provide assistance to displaced people and respond to medical needs.”

Although security in Kwamouth town has improved in the last week, violence and tensions continue to flare up. On 20 September, a terrorist attack was committed near the town. Following the attack, MSF staff helped treat the wounded at Kwamouth’s general hospital.

“At this point, we will leave a team in Kwamouth to be able to respond to any new flare-up of violence and needs,” says Dr Papy.

This is not the first time that MSF has launched an emergency response in Maï-Ndombe province following inter-communal violence. Following clashes between the Tende and Nunu communities in Yumbi in December 2018 – which caused the deaths of hundreds of people in just a few days – an MSF team treated the wounded in Yumbi’s general referral hospital and ran mobile clinics to provide people with medical care and psychological support.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).