Published on :
Officially, since January 6, the M23 has ceded control of the Rumangabo military camp, regarding forty kilometers from Goma (North Kivu), to the regional force of the Community of East African States (EACRF ). A week later, according to several witnesses, the combatants of this movement have not withdrawn far from the camp and some are located barely three kilometers from the camp. The situation creates confusion in the area and arouses distrust among the displaced who are slow to return to their places of origin.
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi
After his forties, this resident of the Kisigari group can no longer stay in this camp for displaced people in Kanyaruchinya, regarding twenty kilometers from Goma, but he has no choice.
He has been in this camp for two months, he and his five children, two of whom are sick with cholera. “ There are several cases of illness here. Some do not resist and some die. If you’re lucky and God help you, you’ll survive. We suffer here ».
After the announcement of the disengagement of the M23 from Rumangabo, he had tried two days later to settle there, but he did not stay there. ” We had gone there because we were starving. When we arrived, the M23 was still there. We’ve been scared. We said to ourselves that by returning definitively, perhaps we would risk being confronted with other difficulties. ».
Jeanine had tried to return to Kibumba, still in search of food for her family who remained in Kanyaruchinya. ” I am a witness. When I got there, I saw an armed M23 fighter pulling some potatoes out of the ground. I was afraid. Even my house was looted. Now I can’t go back to Kibumba if the M23 is still there ».
For its part, the M23 denies prohibiting the population from returning to Kibumba or even Rumangabo.