With the intense fighting around Goma at the end of January and the takeover of the city by the M23/AFC, most of the IDP camps and sites - where hundreds of thousands of people had been living - have been largely emptied and dismantled. While several factors explain this, many people who used to live in the camps located west of Goma have reported that the M23/AFC gave them evacuation orders to leave the camps and return to their areas of origin, which the armed group now considers safe.

In just a few days, the mass exodus from the camps has put hundreds of thousands of people on the road, heading back to their villages of origin or settling elsewhere in the region.

This situation has led MSF to adapt its emergency response.

During the first days of the offensive and the capture of Goma, MSF teams concentrated on treating the wounded in the Kyeshero and Virunga hospitals and on providing emergency assistance in the camps: water, food, sanitation, etc.

As the population began to leave, MSF adapted its response. We sent teams to assess the situation in areas further away from Goma, to the north and west of the city, to see if the local health facilities would be able to cope with the influx of people in need of care.

It soon became clear that many of the facilities had been abandoned, looted or destroyed. And that several areas of passage or resettlement were facing security risks for the population, including the presence of unexploded devices.

While maintaining medical activities in Goma and part of its support in the still-occupied camps, MSF extended its operations to provide emergency support to health centres in Sake, Kibumba, and Makombo. The aim is to rehabilitate these centres and provide a minimum level of essential care to people passing through or settling in these areas.

There are many needs to be met. In addition to standard outpatient consultations, the teams must treat patients suffering from cholera (the number of cases has increased as a result of the living conditions in recent weeks), malnutrition, Mpox and victims of sexual violence and provided mental health consultations.