Update on North Kivu situation January 2025

The origins of the conflict in North Kivu have several beginnings. The first is colonial – the line drawing of the European powers at the end of the 19th Century held European squabbles about who got what above the dangers and consequences of ignoring historic land issues and both lumped peoples together and separated ethnic or social groups between different ‘countries’, newly drawn on the map. This left the historic Tutsi people divided between Rwanda and DRC. 

The flash points that fuelled the present conflagration began when the genocidaires from 1994 crossed over to North Kivu and made it their base for an ongoing campaign against the Tutsi and the Rwandan government. The ineffectiveness of any attempts to deal with the presence of so many genocidaires by DRC or the UN led to an invasion by Rwanda which further embedded hostility against Rwanda and the Tutsi in DRC. 

For the last 30 years various iterations of Tutsi self-defence armies have emerged, (most recently as the M23 which captured Goma where Comfort Congo are based), whilst the genocidaires, now operating as the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), continued to carry out multiple documented atrocities in North and South Kivu. Armed groups numbering over one hundred different armies have sprung up over those three decades in the area as a result of the instability. The fighting is over land, minerals, ethnic feuds, and thuggery. Anecdotal evidence from survivors we have testimonies from suggests that many, probably most, if not all, of those groups carry out rape, killing and looting. 

Streets of Goma 2024

The present situation at the time of writing is that Goma is in the hands of the M23. Electricity, water and internet are all broken, but there does not appear to be widespread fighting as most government soldiers have laid down their weapons.

Our greatest concern has been the safety of our dear friends and partners, the Comfort Congo team and the project members, as well as the security and integrity of the Central Hospital of Rusayu (CHR) and the many Comfort Congo schools in the conflict zone. We are deeply grateful to God that, in the takeover of Goma, our partners are all safe and the hospital secure. We know that many of our supporters have been praying to this end, and we thank you so much for this.

Comfort Congo staff with the Street Kids Rescue Project members, 2024

However, the challenges facing Comfort Congo are immense. The UN estimated last week that there are now 4.6 million displaced people in North and South Kivu and that number has only grown higher over the last week. The greatest number of those are camped around Goma. Some are at the Village of Hope where the Comfort Congo Child Soldiers rehabilitation project (Children of Liberty) is based, others are camped in Comfort Congo schools and others around the hospital (CHR). The hospital, which has been dealing with up to 56 rape cases a month recently, is one of the few places where those with no money can find treatment and this puts huge pressure on the resources of the hospital, especially in terms of medicines and staff endurance.

Living conditions in an Internally Displaced Peoples Camp

Comfort Congo has also been feeding 2000 orphaned and malnourished children and, with the arrival of several hundred thousand newly displaced people fleeing with nothing, the demand for life-sustaining food will increase. For project members and graduates such as the Children of Liberty newly graduated last month the turmoil makes life very difficult. Very quickly those who had been supported into income generating activities, including the rape survivors in the Heshima project, Comfort Babies Congo and the Children of Liberty can find sources of goods unavailable and trade at a standstill.

Comfort Congo are providing emergency feeding in IDP camps in North Kivu
A young girl in an IDP camp near Goma, 2024

Over the weekend, we heard from Dieudonne Mugongo with an update about the situation in Goma:

“I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. Here in Congo we are in bad trouble. As you know God has been good to us – this is a new day God has created, we rejoice in Him. Yes. All the camps of refugees have been attacked. Many teachers at the schools have been displaced. The hospital at Rusayu – the mattresses were taken and other things like medicines. We have taken other things from the hospital to Goma to keep them safe until peace comes maybe in some weeks, we don’t know when. But what we know is many things were taken by rebel soldiers. Even Comfort Pharmacy had everything looted by defeated government soldiers and Wazalendo. We glorify God because the bomb doesn’t destroy the hospital, it landed just some metres after the hospital. We are here, all of us, we are safe but in God may bring peace.”

 

So our main prayers at present are:

Praise God that the Comfort Congo team and projects are safe and secure

Ask that this covering of God over the team and projects would continue

Pray that the staff at the hospital (Central Hospital of Rusayu) which is in the midst of the camps would be strengthened and resourced to deal with the heavy demands of the displaced

Pray that there would be food for the children that have none

Pray for those that have been traumatised by the war that they would know the supernatural peace of God

Pray that God would raise up leaders who know the way of peace.

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