A forgotten conflict - internal displaced people in tanganyika for MSF

„Our children and old people are dying. We need the government to take action so that we can go back to our villages“. says Kisompo Selemani chief of the Twa at Kilunga refugee camp.

The DRC has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people worldwide. According to the UN, nearly half a million people were displaced in the southeastern province of Tanganyika between July 2016 and March 2017. Villagers fled their homes there to escape intercommunal fighting between Twa pygmies and Luba, a Bantu-speaking ethnic group.

Around 250,000 internally displaced people are now living in refugee settlements in and around the city of Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika province. The majority of them have limited access to healthcare, and face extreme shortages of food, water, and shelter. The mortality rate for children under five is equivalent to that expected during the acute phase of an emergency. But people here have been living in these conditions for months.

MSF undertook an assessment in April and found that the mortality rates of children under 5 are those we would expect to see in the acute phase of an emergency. However, people have been living in these conditions for months.

I documented the life of these refugees while accompanying Doctors without Borders, who are currently providing emergency assistant in several camps in Tanganyika.

For MSF - Doctors without Borders

Kalenge refugee camp in Tanganyika, eastern DRC. Recent violence in May 2017 has displaced thousands of people. Among them are many children who have been separated from their parents when they fled. The DRC has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people worldwide. According to the United Nations, nearly half a million people were displaced in Tanganyika between July 2016 and March 2017.

"They attacted our village during the night. My husband was killed by the Pygmeans" Agnes Bade (Bantu), 22, and her child were displaced from Luseyi to Mukuku refugee camp. As a result of the violence, there are significant mental health needs among the victims, as MSF explains.

Kalenge, refugee camp. In this overcrowded camp, displaced people live in shelters made of straw. This, coupled with inadequate site management, has resulted in fires breaking out and spreading rapidly.

Pungu Asani, 55, lives with his wife and their 14 children in Kalonda refugee camp. Due to intercommunal figthings between Pygmeans (Twa) and Bantu, they were displaced from their home village Kibige. The DRC has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people worldwide. According to the United Nations, nearly half a million people were displaced in the southeastern province of Tanganyika between July 2016 and March 2017.

A Bantu woman and child in one of the rooms of the Circle Filtsaf primary school in Kalemie, where they found shelter after escaping the violence in their home village of Tabacongo. They arrived here at the beginning of May and are waiting to be relocated

Mukuku refugee camp, Kalemie, DRC

Ngoyi Andre, 30, was displaced from Tabaconga together with her children to Kalemie. She and other IDPs are staying around Circle Filtsaf primary school in Kalemie.

A woman and her children sell items like cigarettes, torches and yuca (cassava tubers) in their small shop at Kilunga refugee camp. Many of the refugees only can afford to have one meal a day made out of Yuca flour and cassava leaves.

Mukuku refugee camp, located close to Kalemie, Tanganyika, DRC Congo 20.05.2017: Violence outbreaks in May 2017 have displaced thousands of people. The DRC has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people worldwide. According to the United Nations, nearly half a million people were displaced in Tanganyika between July 2016 and March 2017.