Since the offensive of the M23 rebels, the national road N°2 which crosses the province of North Kivu is almost cut off. Result: the goods trucks hardly pass and the supply of Goma is disrupted. Moreover, a few market garden products are beginning to run out to feed the inhabitants of the provincial capital, the 15,000 families displaced at the gates of the city.
With our special correspondent in Goma, Coralie Pierret
Yvette and her husband are building their house at the gates of Goma, on one of the Kanyaruchinya IDP sites. Coming from the village of Rugari, they fled on foot the latest fighting between government forces and M23 rebels at the beginning of last week. Since then, this mother has struggled to feed her 7 children.
” A lot of things are missing here. Vegetables, beans. We don’t have enough money to buy it, it’s expensive. You can’t even imagine what we eat. It’s unbearable. »
Fruits and vegetables have difficulty reaching Goma and the price of basic necessities has increased for 15 days, explains Delliance Matata, president of the Congolese Association of Customs Commissioners (ACCAD).
” The war we are going through is in the territories of Rutshuru, where the population was farming and harvesting the products that fed Goma. Today almost all the fields are occupied by the rebels. There is therefore no more agricultural production and Goma is suffering as a result. Second consequence, imported products. The territory of Rutshuru alone is full of at least four border crossings and all these corners are now occupied, not to say blocked. “, he specifies.
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According to this expert, 70% of the products consumed in Goma are imported from abroad, mainly from two neighboring countries, namely Rwanda and Uganda.