The Red Cross is tending to those wounded in the violence flared up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

22-year-old Mariamu Kashindi is a mother of three, and she was injured in the violence that has intensified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She was admitted to the International Committee of the Red Cross hospital in Goma for treatment with two of her children after being wounded in the violence. She lost contact with her son while escaping, and is now attempting to reach him.

A prolonged, difficult humanitarian crisis is occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The eastern regions of the country are still suffering from armed conflicts. The situation rapidly deteriorated in January, when armed clashes in the area escalated. 

The Red Cross is operating and tending to the wounded

Jolie was shot when she was escaping towards the city of Goma as an internally displaced person. She arrived at the Ndosho hospital, where the Red Cross is tending to the wounded. She lost her baby Monique, who is only one month old, in the chaotic circumstances.

“I haven’t been able to stop crying. The physical pain is not the worst, but the psychological stress of not knowing where my baby is. Fortunately, my neighbours brought my baby back to me, healthy and unharmed. This makes me feel better now,” says Jolie. 

People escaping and injured in the violence have flocked to the city of Goma. The International Committee of the Red Cross is providing help in the area. In Goma, which is at the centre of the fighting, three surgical teams of the Committee operate and tend to hundreds of patients. A Finnish surgeon sent by the Finnish Red Cross is also providing help. The Committee has helped to restore electricity to the city and safeguard the availability of water and medicines. 

There is a great need for surgical operations, prostheses and physiotherapy in the area, as many who have been injured in the violence have lost limbs. Hundreds of prostheses have been made in the Ndosho hospital in Goma alone even before the conflicts escalated.

The Red Cross has provided help in the country for a long time

In 2024, more than one in five people, i.e. over 25 million people, in the DRC needed humanitarian aid, a significant part of them being women, children and disabled people. It is estimated that up to half a million people have fled the recent violence, which raises the number of internally displaced people in the DRC to over eight million. Some have escaped across the border to Rwanda. 

“The safety situation in the area is very difficult but, despite this, the Red Cross Committee operations continue. The people who live in the area suffer the most from the situation. Many of them have been forced to flee the situation multiple times,” says Head of International Disaster Management Marko Korhonen from the Finnish Red Cross.

In addition to health and hospital services, the International Committee of the Red Cross provides the internally displaced people within the country with shelter, food and clean water. Last year, the Committee supported 40 health stations and hospitals by providing them with training, supplies and improvements to buildings and infrastructure. More than 165,000 people received support to improve their food production, while 66,000 people received food aid. In January, the Committee distributed clean water to 250,000 people.

The Finnish Red Cross supports the work of the Committee in the DRC with the humanitarian aid provided by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Disaster Relief Fund.