What is the situation of the right to health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Members of the PHM DRC speak out

PHM draws attention to the humanitarian crisis, violations to health rights in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The recent violence in the DRC has left behind a devastated city of Goma where many men, women and children are struggling for survival and facing terrible physical wounds as well as deep psychological trauma.

It is estimated that over 480 thousand people have been forcibly displaced, and are desperately seeking protection amid the conflict in the eastern region of DRC. Hospitals are saturated, lacking health personnel, medicines, supplies and equipment.

PHM demands to Stop the war, respect for international humanitarian law, the fundamental right to health and to bring relief, humanitarian aid to victims. PHM members in the DRC are speaking out on the situation, these are the transcripts of the videos posted by the Local PHM and originally published in french.
 

Erick Kambale, PHM-DRC, on the background of the conflict in the DRC

Hello, good evening. Wherever you are. Thank you, uh, Madam Chair, for the floor.
I must clarify the concept of conflict with you. But I must also denounce with you the complicity of the European Union in the massacre of the Congolese in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the plundering of resources.

The conflict did not arise today, the conflict has existed since Belgium discovered the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congolese have suffered precisely to enrich the Belgian.

This colonization, this conflict exists and during independence or after independence the same thing continues but in other forms. Instead of coming to seek normally from the government of the Republic of the Congo.

The world prefers to hire armed groups to steal and plunder our raw materials. So, the conflicts as you understand them are economic.

Economic because these are conflicts that have their origins in minerals, in raw materials, especially strategic ones.

And who are the ones who bring about the conflict? I was just about to say it in another way, it is precisely the government, the government of a powerful country, but also the multinationals that are companies from that country. Today, we are going to learn more advantages on this point.

And as you know, in every conflict, there are always consequences. For the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are deaths, there is poverty, there are the costs of the Republic's development, there is theft, there is looting. And it is the Congolese who pay, it is the multinationals, it is Europe that benefits.

So, I think the European Union's responsibilities have been established. The European Union finances Rwanda.

The European Union even finances the Rwandan army to the tune of 40 million dollars. Why?
Because right next to it, the European Union is signing a document, it is signing a 900 million dollar contract to search for strategic materials or ore that can only be found in the Congo and not in Rwanda.

So the complicity of the European Union is now visible. Rwanda is attacking the Congo. Rwanda is plundering the Congo's minerals and Rwanda is committing massacres with the complicity of Vignolet. European.

So Rwanda is working by proxy and when it comes to You understand that Rwanda by proxy is plundering the wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and massacring people for the benefit of multinationals and great powers.

And this is not visible. It is not the United States and the European Union that are already in the same bag. This is why we are going to recommend it. This is why we demand sanctions against all those involved in this conflict.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of troops and multinationals that find themselves in conflict zones. We demand the protection of the Congolese people and state. We would ask for the traceability of the minerals. But this system has been in place for a long time.

So why isn't it being applied? It isn't being applied because the multinationals are looking for cheap minerals. And that's what people say.

So, we are going to recommend sanctions against all these companies, against all these states that are involved in the massacre and plundering the wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We recommend the implementation of support mechanisms for the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure its sovereignty.

Nzanzu Kyalima, PHM-DRC, on Manutrition in Goma

My name is Jean-Pierre and I am a PHM member in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also of the CPP in the Virunga district of Goma. And I am here today to talk to you about the situation in the city of Goma, particularly with regard to malnutrition.

We are witnessing a very, very difficult situation for the population in Goma, where children are developing acute nutritional diseases. Given that the health center no longer has a plan in place, it no longer has the means to take care of these children.

You know, after the entry of the M23/AFC rebellion, we witnessed the massive displacement of the population, but there has also been a loss of children, there are children who do not know where their parents are. There are also children whose parents have already been taken, especially children of soldiers, and have been taken to the military training center where the children are not looked after by anyone.

That is why we are here asking for humanitarian aid. Where you are, it is in the very nature of humanity to come to the aid of the people of Goma, especially its children, who are currently suffering from malnutrition. Thank you.

Mbula, PHM-DRC, on the children of Goma

Yes, as far as the humanitarian situation is concerned, the city of Goma is in total chaos because since the arrival of the M23 terrorists, we have been experiencing several cases and it is so serious because since their arrival, it was around Sunday around the 26th.

So, since that day, we have been witnessing several incidents at all levels, almost in all directions, and especially in the area of our fathers, those who took refuge in the church of Notre-Dame des Catholiques.
They went there with several prisoners, but the M23 came to take all these people and all the elderly aged 15 and over. We went with them but we left the children in the street. Their children under 6 months old stayed in the street and these are the cases that we are currently assisting in the city of Goma and nobody is talking about them.

So far, they are still in the street and I, with our group, have organized ourselves and are hiding around 7pm because we live in Goma, first of all, it is in terror. We went to drop something off, it's organized and we buy juice, biscuits and something and throw it away around 7pm and flee because if you stay there and the M23 are watching you, you're finished.

So that's the situation we're going through and it's very difficult, it's very difficult really, er, to see your children going through the night and spending the night there, that humanitarian aid. And the airports are closed so we can ask for help from outside.

And it is difficult for all people of goodwill to help these people because we are really really under attack at all levels and no one can help these children since these M23 are terrorizing us. We are really terrorized. We, the people and the population with, um, the actors, um, who can help these children to find themselves better. That's why we're asking for something to be done and it's very urgent.

We don't know, um, who, um, we can call, but our government starts with our government and everything that goes with it and we are totally neglected. This is the case of these children, it's so very urgent because they are not only neglected, but there are also several people who can also take advantage of them. Who can take advantage of them in a negative way.

Well, you see the situation we're going through, it's so difficult and we're seeing all these kinds of negative things.

Billy Mwangaza, PHM-DRC, on the current situation in Goma

The humanitarian situation in Goma is disastrous. This is the first time Goma has experienced this situation. The health situation has turned red. I'm talking about three contexts that are very complicated at the moment. We have health structures, medicines and inputs that are almost non-existent in Goma.

When the M23 took Goma, many health facilities were looted. For example, the health facility in uh, that's the one that has and that's it. The facilities were looted. The medicines and equipment were taken. But these structures were created to meet the needs of the population. This is a context that should alert us.

In the same context, more people are injured. Some facilities are saturated with injured people, even though there are no inputs and no medicines. Take the Ndosho health facility, for example. Which is overflowing with wounded? We've even been forced to put the wounded in building sites, to put the wounded in offices, i.e. to ask staff and administrative staff to evacuate their offices to put the wounded there.

They've even done away with beds in rooms so that the wounded can be crammed in. But these wounded receive almost no medicine, because there's no medicine, there's no intravenous, there's no spikes, there's no gloves. This is a context that alarms us. Medicines are almost non-existent in health facilities. The second context is the problem of drinking water, access to drinking water. This story alarms us.

It alarms us because we understand that with the absence of water, with the lack of water in the community, we risk witnessing a resurgence of water-borne diseases, in particular arresting diseases, cholera, but also epidemics that can resurface. We have already alerted the Bouhimba 94 health center until last week, 94 of diarrhea.

In other words, it can spread rapidly because the population has no access to drinking water. A 25-liter can of water used to cost 50 to 100 francs before the M23 took over the town. Today, in Bido, it costs between 1,000 and 2,000 francs.

With a population that has no means, with a population that is forced to stay at home because there is terror in the streets, with a business that almost no longer exists in the city of Goma because the bank hasn't opened until today. This is a situation that should alarm us. In the same context, with the displacement, with the elimination of cases of displaced people, in other words, all the displaced people have been asked to leave the camps. But where are they going to go?

So they took refuge in schools. They've taken refuge in churches and on the streets. Personally, with some health activists, we've helped a lot of children in the street. Children as young as 6 months old, children as young as 10 months old, children as young as one year old who are on the street because their parents and their parents and their brothers over 17 years old have been forced into military service. They've been abandoned in the street.

And the soldiers who have to provide for them are also worried. This is a situation that should alarm us. These children need to live. They have a right to life. They need your protection. They need your support. There's a third context that alarms us from a humanitarian point of view. It's the context of sexual and gender-based violence.

Already today, we're talking about more than 750 cases of sexual violence since January. This is an alarming figure, which is really in the red. These cases of sexual violence are committed by M23 soldiers, but also by certain disordered young people. Because the government in place, i.e. the 23 children, are not in a position to protect these young girls.

These young girls abandoned in the street, these young girls who have to fetch water more than as many kilometers away. Sometimes at 4 or 5 in the morning. Young boys who are abducted every day because they went to fetch water. And they're raped too, boys and girls alike. These young girls who have been raped don't even get any treatment, because there's no medicine in the hospitals. They are forced to fall victim to unwanted pregnancies.

They have to fall victim to STIs, sexually transmitted infections and AIDS. It's a really complicated context, but one that requires our efforts, our support, our donations to set up a mobile clinic to provide care for these neglected populations.

A mobile clinic to temporarily replace these looted facilities. A mobile clinic that can offer free care to this neglected population with no means. nothing. And it's urgent, otherwise society society will continue to continue to worsen. Secondly, we need to see how we can set up a listening system.

A listening system for cases of sexual and gender-based violence. To try and follow up these people who have been traumatized. Not only for these two cases, but also for these families. People traumatized because they've lost their loved ones. You witnessed the death of your You witnessed the death of your father. You witnessed the death of your mother. Your mother or sister has even been raped in your presence.

All these people need psychological support, and all these wounded. These injured people, who are flooding the hospitals, need psychological support to recover their true health, to recover their behavior in society. Otherwise, we're working on a society that will be the bomb of tomorrow. Thirdly, we need your donation because we have to help the hospitals, the health structures.

To assist you with medicines, inputs, cobs and other materials that you have. You've sent gloves, you've sent protective equipment. You even have health professionals who want to come and help. They are welcome because many health professionals in the city are dead and others are afraid to stay.

We simply ask you with solidarity between the people to come to solidarity with the people of Goma who need you to give your donation to help the people of Goma recover their health, live their right to health and live like you. Some right-to-health activists want to do something, but in what context?

They are forced to flee their homes because they are identified as mass mobilizers. And these people want to get them into their military uniforms, in other words, into their training camp. They are forced to live in placements in the city every day, and others are even forced to leave the city. We will resist. We will resist and we are resisting. We need you to help us. To continue this resistance, because Congo deserves better.

Because the Congolese people deserve better. Because we say no to whoever comes to destroy this health, this peaceful health of the population. The dead have been buried. There were many of them. Many people have died. Some say 3,000. But the figures we've acquired from people who took part in it, tell us of over 6,000 dead.

It's a disastrous situation, one that threatens to plunge us into health chaos. There is a link, a real link, because these families who have lost their loved ones are going to live in increased poverty because their dead father was working somewhere. We weep. Crying with us means giving your donation to help the population.

Cry with us, and help organize a mobile clinic to help these people who no longer have access to healthcare. Crying with us means giving your donation to help these girls who are raped here and there to be taken care of and cover their health with dignity. Crying with us means helping to prevent even children from becoming malnourished. Thank you for your support.