UN aid chief warns of worsening humanitarian crisis in rebel-held eastern Congo

GOMA, Congo (AP) — The United Nations’ humanitarian chief called Thursday for more international support for displaced people in Congo’s rebel-controlled east during his first visit to the central African country.

“What I saw here is that the needs are enormous. The people need medicine, food, and protection. They are facing huge problems and challenges, and they need support,” Tom Fletcher, the head of the U.N. humanitarian agency, said after visiting refugee camps in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu.

The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma in North Kivu province, followed by Bukavu in February.

In February, the rebels closed settlement camps, leading to the displacement of more than 110,000 people in just a few days, according to the U.N. and locals.

Maombi Pascaline, a displaced person living in Shasha, a rebel-controlled town near Goma, said she and her six children fled the M23 advance and found refuge in camps before M23 forced them to return home.

Residents listen to Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), during his visit to North Kivu’s town of Buhumba, Democratic republic of the Congo, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

“When they arrived, they told us to go back home because the war was over. They said that anyone who didn’t obey would be considered an enemy,” Pascaline told The Associated Press.

Kasiwa Rusezera, a 60-year-old widow living in Shasha, said he was also forced to leave a displaced people camp.

“When M23 arrived, they said they would burn down the camp that was sheltering us. Each of us was told to destroy our little makeshift shelter, which forced us to leave,” Rusezera said. “Today, we’re left with nothing.”

M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 4 million people have been displaced, including hundreds of thousands who fled homes this year.