BULENGO BRIEFING, DAY 9

With each passing day, the number of displaced persons continues to grow in various camps around the city of Goma. This is the case of Bulengo, one of the sites that hosts displaced people coming from different localities located west of the city of Goma such as Kichanga, Sake, etc. As of Monday, February 27, 2023, the camp registered 250 more blocks (based on 60 households per block).

The work of this Monday, the 9th day, consisted in gathering the heads of blocks and the hygiene committees to prepare the distribution. This is in response to the great need for toilet/sewer hygiene.

It took four hours to finish the tour of the entire camp. In the middle of the activity, we could hear detonations on the battlefield on the heights near the city. We ourselves were scared to death, but we had to keep going. A displaced woman in her late twenties wanted to share her difficulties with hygiene.

"It is true that we are beginning to have toilets and showers, but it is not enough. Three blocks with an equivalent of more than 200 people share one toilet door and three shower doors. It is not enough," she said, calling on various organizations to help build more toilets.

The head of the camp, who met in his tent while they were busy welcoming newcomers, called on the government to urgently intervene with food and non-food items for these displaced people who are arriving daily. "Every day that passes, they arrive. Especially during this period when fighting is intensifying."

A little farther on, in block 113, two men, from the top of their scaffolding, were in the middle of building toilets. But how do they manage to meet their needs? "It is the resourcefulness here," replied Tumsifu Justin, head of the said block. According to him, to evacuate waste, they often go into the bush. But this also has health consequences, especially since it is an area with "Mazuku", a gas reputed to be deadly due to the Nyiragongo volcano in the region.

After leaving the field, the facilitators went to the listening center where the psychologists are located. The psychologists listened to about ten displaced people. Among them, Mother Zawadi, in her forties and mother of 7 children. She arrived yesterday and fortunately, she gave birth to a beautiful baby, Shukuru (Grace).

The team returns from the field under a predictable rain. An S.O.S. is thus launched by the homeless people, some of whom live at the mercy of the bad weather. On the way back to the bus, we meet a big traffic jam on the road N° 4. This can be explained by the fact that since the day before, the mining town of Rubaya, near Sake, has been taken. The populations have emptied themselves from the surrounding sites, including sake, with the city of Goma as their destination. Like 3 weeks ago, there are still thousands of exhausted children, women, grandparents, and survival livestock, not knowing their final destination. Sad that the drama repeats itself.

Between fear in the belly and life of precariousness, the displaced cry for help from all sides. In the end, their most ardent wish remains the return of peace to their area, so that they can return to their former occupations.