Save the Children International, SCI, has said that the restarted fighting between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, FARDC, and M23, a non-state armed force, has unsettled about 150,000 people, over half of this number being children since 2nd February, 2024.
SCI also added that the increasing violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has mandated at least 78,000 children to run away from their homes in the past week.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has long endured constant cycles of influx of refugees, conflicts and unrest, with over 25 million people in terrible need of humanitarian aid to survive and more than seven million displaced.
In a statement issued on Friday, SCI had said that the current wave of violence is coming after a tumultuous year of heightened conflict outbreaks in 2023, when escalated fighting in the east of the country between different groups dislodged more than 1 million people, including about 500,000 children.
The statement also added that by the 2023’s end, North Kivu alone had more than 2.4 million people internally displaced, according to reports by the UNHCR.
On the other hand, local media sources have said that 19 people have been killed and 27 others injured in the violence.
Just recently, on 7 February, a local market was targeted and hit.
Ammunitions had also landed inside a school courtyard and nearby a hospital.
