Hospitals in eastern Congo are crowded with wounded and exhausting their supplies
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Hundreds of wounded people have poured into overcrowded hospitals in Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, as fighting rages on between government forces and the Rwanda-backed rebels who say they captured the city of around 2 million people.
“They will get infected before we can treat them all,” said Florence Douet, an operating room nurse at Bethesda Hospital, as she attended to patients with varying degrees of injuries.
Since the start of the M23 rebels’ offensive on Goma on Jan. 26, more than 700 people have been killed and nearly 3,000 have been wounded in the city and its vicinity, officials say. Bethesda hospital alone said it receives more than 100 new patients each day, overstretching its capacity of 250 beds.
Bethesda is one of several hospitals in Goma that The Associated Press visited that has inadequate personnel and supplies. The city hosts many of the close to 6.5 million people displaced by the conflict, which is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
As more people arrived at the hospitals with gunshot wounds or shrapnel injuries, many were forced to share beds while others lay on the floor, writhing in pain from their wounds as they waited for medical attention.
“This is the first time I’m experiencing this," said Patrick Bagamuhunda, who was wounded in the fighting. “This war has caused a lot of damage, but at least we are still breathing.”
The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma. They are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology.
Unlike in 2012, when the rebels first captured Goma and held it for days, they say they now plan to march to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, which is 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) away, describing the country as a failed state under President Félix Tshisekedi.
The fighting in Congo is deeply rooted in ethnic conflict. M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide.
Medical workers at Kyeshero Hospital in Goma say they are treating an increasing number of patients with bullet wounds.
"We removed 48 bullets yesterday,” Johnny Kasangati, a surgeon at the hospital, said on Friday as he examined a patient under a tent.
Kyeshero is also severely overcrowded, hitting more than 200% of its capacity on some days, according to Joseph Amadomon Sagara, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which runs the hospital.
In the past, hospitals in Goma could transport wounded patients by boat to South Kivu's main Bukavu city 180 kilometers (111 miles) away, but transport across Lake Kivu was suspended during the rebellion and roads have been mostly amid by clashes.
The fighting in and around Goma has also disrupted supply chains, leading to shortages in medical supplies that aid groups rely on. Some of it previously entered the city through its international airport, which is now under rebel control.
“Goma was cut off from the world. It was a total blackout," said Virginie Napolitano, Goma's emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.
The aid group's stockpiles, along with those of other groups, have also been looted amid the chaos.
"We’re getting by with what we had in the cabinets, but I don’t know for how long,” Napolitano said.
Congo's government has confirmed 773 deaths and 2,880 injured persons at morgues and hospitals. The toll could be higher, it said, citing fears of finding mass graves and more bodies.
The Maternité de la Charité Hospital in Goma was among those struggling to find space for the dead.
“We had 66 bodies here. Fifty-six were transferred to the provincial hospital, where the morgue has more space than ours," said Jules Kafitiye, the hospital's medical director.
"We need to avoid decomposition due to disease,” he added, pointing to a tent where bodies were being stored.
Scores of bodies lay on streets and in hospitals in Goma after the city's capture, raising fears of disease outbreaks in the region, which is also facing mpox and cholera outbreaks.
The U.N. health body warned last week that repeated mass displacement in Congo has created ideal conditions for the spread of endemic diseases in displacement camps and surrounding communities, including cholera, which saw more than 22,000 infections last year, and measles, which affected close to 12,000 people. The region also battles with chronic child malnutrition.
“There’s a fear for the disease to be spreading widely in communities,” said Dr. Boureima Hama Sambo, the World Health Organization’s representative in Congo. “But at this point, we cannot say because we have not been able to get there.”
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Associated Press journalist Justin Kabumba in Goma contributed.
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