“The frontline is getting closer to Kavumu Airport
A mother holds her young child after having visited a UN-supported medical clinic at an IDP camp in North Kivu.
No humanitarian access to the South
On a positive note, the Humanitarian Coordinator said that the road from Goma to Minova, the first South Kivu town conquered by the M23 in mid-January, is no longer closed.
“There were a few rather difficult days for our humanitarian colleagues because of the fighting,” he acknowledged. “But now access has been restored.”
Further south in the province, however, humanitarian access has been cut off.
“For quite some time, the road between Goma and Bukavu has not been accessible,” he said.
Alternative pathways, including via Lake Kivu, which borders the province and connects Goma in the north to Bukavu in the south, have also been cut off.
“There aren’t many alternative routes, the airport being the main access route,” he acknowledged.