Up to 100,000 people, around 60 per cent of which are children, have fled their homes due to heavy fighting between armed groups in North Kivu last week. Around 250,000 people are believed to have been displaced in the last two months, bringing the total number of internally displaced to around one million or 20 per cent of the entire North Kivu population.
The condition of newly displaced children and women is desperate. Thousands have had very little to eat since fleeing. Their access to clean water and health care has been minimal. Hundreds of children are presumed to have been separated from their families, forced to fend for their survival on their own. The school year that had just started has been disrupted for tens of thousands of children – the second year in a row.
The consequences could be fatal for scores of children, both those displaced and those hosting the displaced. Cholera and measles epidemics are at serious risk of breaking out. Both diseases are easily communicable and flourish when large populations are on the move….
Information gathered from wow.gm.
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