In the context of the crisis in Eastern DRC, MSF is witnessing an escalation of violence to the north in Ituri province, where the situation has become increasingly tense. The horrific injuries that MSF sees at Salama hospital in Bunia represent only a small percentage of the impact of this violence.
In February 2025, a series of attacks in Djugu territory left more than 100 people dead and dozens injured, many of them women and children.
MSF has treated children as young as 4 years old with multiple machete wounds to the head. One mother, whose 4-year-old was injured, lost her 6-month-old baby and her husband during an attack and suffers deep psychological trauma. Two sisters aged 4 and 16 took machete blows to the head and arms, and their mother (8 months pregnant) was also severely injured by multiple machete wounds to the head and spent days in intensive care. We also treated a 9-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the abdomen who had witnessed assailants attack and kill his mother and two siblings, by machete.
For years, civilians in Ituri have been caught in cycles of intercommunal violence.