Democratic Republic of the Congo: The humanitarian crisis in North Kivu is escalating

Increasingly precarious living conditions

Aside from the makeshift camps where people fleeing the fighting have squeezed together, a number of people from the area, who themselves live in insecure circumstances, have taken new arrivals into their homes.

The living conditions are precarious for those who have been displaced. Cécile Nabuko, who left her home for Sake, says, "We sleep like animals crammed together. But what can we do? When you've been displaced, you don't have time to sleep. You make do with wherever you can rest your head because you're not at home."

Humanitarians estimate that there are now more than 300,000 displaced people in Goma. Anne-Sylvie Linder says, "Some of them are at Bulengo or Lac Vert - where a site was prepared - as well as Rusayo, an outlying district in Goma where authorities have made several acres available. The Lac Vert site nevertheless poses a significant risk to the people there because of the potential for the release of dangerous methane gas."

The more or less daily arrival of newly displaced people to Goma and the surrounding area is taxing essential social services and making it more difficult for those in the area, whether residents or displaced people, to access what they need to survive. That includes food and water but also access to health-care facilities where the sick and injured are streaming in.