URGENT Support Needed in Goma, DR Congo

The city of Goma is encircled. Electricity has been cut. The city is in the dark. Water and food are scarce and running out. Phone and Internet connection are intermittent at best. People in the displacement camps on the outskirts of the city are being bombed and are fleeing into the city. Those with means are evacuating the city via Lake Kivu, their only outlet. And there is an overall sense of siege and terror because the population does not know if the city will be occupied again as was the case in 2012.

The women and children in the Bulengo displacement camp are in dire need of support. The camp is exposed to bombings. The members of the Basandja Coalition have organized to assist the women. However, the need is enormous. Below are some of the urgent needs:

1. Transportation from the camp to the city

2. Tarpaulin shelters for the new location

3. Food and water

4. Sanitation

5. Security for the women and children

Any donation toward the above needs is greatly appreciated.

Background of recent developments:

Reports are streaming in from Goma that the town of Sake, which is 15 miles west of Goma may have been taken. People are fleeing into the heart of the city. Even those who are in displacement camps on the outskirts of Goma are packing up and heading into town - in essence, the already displaced are being displaced. One high-level official in Goma has shared with us that the only place left to go is in the lake. The city of Goma is encircled and being asphyxiated and starved with each passing day. The situation is urgent and dire! Electricity, water, food are rapidly becoming scarce with the city being cut off from sources of food. The infrastructure of the city is beyond over-taxed. As hard as it is to imagine, an already dire humanitarian catastrophe is rapidly getting worse. The United Nations and the diplomatic corps from other countries are calling for meetings at the UN in New York to address this urgent crisis.

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