A humanitarian crisis may be looming as fighting between the M23 and the DRC army lingers in the east of the country. This war has led to thousands of people displaced in the volatile eastern region of Goma, an army spokesman has said.
Renewed crisis picked up again in North Kivu province on Friday, ending about a week of relative calm since the group launched their latest offensive on October 20.
Battles have broken out around the villages of Kibumba, Rugari and Tongo, North-Kivu army spokesman Guillaume Ndjike said on Monday.
Kibumba is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Goma, which the M23 briefly overran during their first big insurrection in 2012. “They are attacking but we are containing them and taking initiatives to push them back,” Ndjike told newsmen.
A Tongo resident who did not wish to be named said by telephone that the army had left and that people were fleeing en masse. A witness in Kibumba painted a similar picture.
On Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kibati village approximately 15km (9 miles) away from Goma, said the Congolese government forces initially repelled M23’s attack on the town of Kibumba after more than a day of heavy fighting.
That has come against the backdrop of a looming humanitarian crisis, as displaced people sleep in makeshift camps in the area and complain about having little food for now.
“Meanwhile, community leaders on the other side of the front line have told us that about 60,000 people are stuck behind the front line in the territory held by the M23 rebel group and that they want a humanitarian corridor to be created so they can leave that area before the fighting gets closer to them,” Webb said. Hundreds have fled to Kibati in recent days.