Humanitær årsdag: Tænk lige at være “humanitær” i DR Congo

In 2011, for instance, an estimated 140 cases of violence involving aid workers were reported.

The two provinces account for 65 percent of the 2,6 million displaced persons (fordrevne) in DR Congo – up to 86 percent of them caused by armed violence (svarer næsten til halvdelen af Danmarks befolkning, red.).

Official figures indicate there are an estimated 967.000 displaced in North Kivu and 712.000 in South Kivu. They have few basic services and little protection.

Eddy Mbuyi (29), a national field officer with Oxfam International, tries to help those who have been affected by conflict, something of which he has deep experience:

In 1997, when only 13, he and his family had to escape from Goma (capital of North Kivu Province) when Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, at the time headed by Laurent Kabila (a former DR Congo president), overran the town.

“I walked together with my family through the Virunga national park from Minova, through Sake. It was a bad experience to have as a child,” Mbuyi, who has worked in Goma for the past seven years, told IRIN.

Gloria Ramazani (23) began doing charity work when she was only 17, documenting the lives of children who had been affected by the violence in Masisi.

Having grown up in North Kivu, she knows only too well the effect the violence has had on the lives of locals.

“I am not exaggerating (overdriver) when I say I have never known peace since I was born. My family got displaced when I was only six years old [1996] when Laurent Kabila waged a war to overthrow the government of Mobutu. I know what it means to be displaced,” Ramazani, now an external relations officer with the UN Refugee Agency, told IRIN.

The violence, coupled with a near absence of state institutions, means the region lacks basic services. Health facilities are struggling to cope, and schools are run down.

“Overwhelmed”