“If the situation persists, even this camp’s residents will have to leave for Goma city,” worried one resident, Kadibanga Batungi.
“These people cannot accept living here with the M23 nearby. The presence of the displaced from Nzulo comforted us, but as they have just left, we shall probably all leave too,” he said.
An already crowded camp has received about 500 displaced people from Minova since violence intensified in the area, said camp secretary Aristide Sadiki Bichichi.
“They lead a more difficult life than us,” said Sadiki Bichichi.
Aid agencies have found it difficult to intervene in the surrounding area because of the risk of being bombed.
Left to their own devices, some in the Sam Sam camp vented their anger.
“We left our households, our children, our property. We don’t know what the government is doing,” said David Bonzi, a displaced person from the neighbouring territory of Masisi, now partly occupied by the M23.
In downtown Goma, where the distant sound of weapons echoes out now and then, a sense of apparent normality still reigned.
Shops and services remained open, while police and soldiers kept watch at street corners.
Despite the diplomatic tensions, the border post between the DRC and Rwanda has remained open, with many of the two neighbouring states’ nationals able to travel in both directions.
© 2025 AFP