More than 2.6 million people have been forced from their homes in the DRC because of intensified fighting.
Saskia Houttuin
Bukavu, Democratic Republic
of the Congo -
For six days Irene Kabisha has been waiting for the man with the megaphone to
call her name and provide her with food.
Together with hundreds of
other displaced people from eastern DRC's Shabunda district, she's in line for
her share of United Nations emergency rations: 60 kilos of flour, 18 kilos of
split peas, a jar of palm oil, and a can of salt. Some of them hide from the
boiling sun under brightly coloured umbrellas, tired from waiting since the
early morning.
When a bridge in a
neighbouring village collapsed, 26-year-old Kabisha was compelled to walk to
the food distribution centre in Mulamba, a day trip through DR Congo's green
hills. These hillsides, not far from the broken bridge, quickly turned into a provisional
marketplace.
A day of pulling cassava
plants earns Kabisha a plate of rice or beans. Occasionally she transports
a large cart full of fruit and vegetables, her youngest child riding on
top.
Kabisha is one of more than
2.6 million internally displaced people(IDPs) in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre's (IDMC) latest report released in May, armed
conflict in eastern Congo intensified "dramatically" during 2012,
driving up the number of displaced people to record levels.
