Democratic Republic of Congo: New wave of violence in Ituri puts civilians at further risk
MSF report details extreme needs of communities endangered by recent attacks, increased displacement, reduced humanitarian aid
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has witnessed a renewed spike in atrocities in Ituri province, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where our medical teams are providing care for civilians with horrific injuries. In a new report, “Risking Their Lives to Survive,” MSF underscores the extreme needs of many communities endangered by recent attacks, increased displacement and reduced humanitarian aid.
For decades, people in Ituri have been both direct targets and treated as collateral damage in a complex conflict characterized by violence, ethnic divisions and the participation of various armed groups. This conflict has also greatly hampered access to healthcare and the means for families to feed themselves, while the restricted provision of humanitarian aid has caused further suffering among communities that already get little international attention.
“The crisis here is characterized by repeated displacement, in which violence forces civilians to pick up and start their lives over, again and again. What is worse is that the stories patients and communities tell us represent only the tip of the iceberg.”
Alira Halidou, MSF country director in DRC
MSF calls on all state and non-state armed groups in Ituri to spare civilians as well as healthcare facilities, which are sanctuaries essential to the survival of local communities.
Violence in Ituri has displaced around 100,000 people since the beginning of the year, according to the United Nations. In January and February alone, it also reported an intensification of violence against civilians, with attacks leaving more than 200 people dead and dozens injured. In February, MSF’s medical teams treated children as young as four and pregnant women for machete and gunshot wounds following militia attacks in Djugu territory.
“These most recent attacks follow decades of violence and its devastating consequences for civilians, including women and children in Ituri,” says Alira Halidou, MSF country director in DRC. “The crisis here is characterized by repeated displacement, in which violence forces civilians to pick up and start their lives over, again and again. What is worse is the stories patients and communities tell us represent only the tip of the iceberg.”
Hindering access to healthcare
Only a small proportion of people can access healthcare in Ituri, where health facilities also fall prey to attacks. In Djugu territory, the Fataki general hospital was obliged to suspend its activities and evacuate patients mid-March following armed group threats. This closure affects thousands of people left without access to medical care.
In Drodro health zone, also in Djugu, nearly 50 per cent of healthcare centres have been partially or fully destroyed and have had to be relocated. When violence escalated this time last year, a patient was killed in her bed in an armed attack on Drodro’s general hospital.
Read the report here
Not only do these attacks make patients reluctant to go to medical facilities, but they also put medical staff at risk. One doctor interviewed for the report recounted how, when a health centre was forced to shut down for two months, he still went in to perform cesarean sections.
“It was dangerous and I was risking my life, but we didn’t have a choice,” says the doctor. “We had to sneak there with the women, otherwise they would have died.”
Supporting people most at risk
More than half of the 39 people who were survivors of violence and treated at Salama clinic in Bunia, up until mid-March 2025 were women and children. One mother, whose four-year-old was injured, lost her six-month-old baby and her husband during an attack by machete. Two sisters aged four and 16 took machete blows to the head and arms, and their mother (eight months pregnant) was also severely injured by multiple machete wounds. We treated a nine-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the abdomen who had witnessed assailants attack and kill his mother and two siblings, by machete.
When civilians seek refuge in displacement camps, they are still not safe. In one instance in September 2024, MSF treated five civilians with bullet wounds following an attack on Plaine Savo camp, in Fataki health zone.
When there is an upsurge in attacks against civilians, the number of survivors of sexual violence coming to MSF facilities also increases. Women in particular face attack as they go out in search of means to feed themselves and their families. In Drodro, in 2023 and 2024, around 84 per cent of the survivors of sexual violence MSF treated were attacked while working in fields, collecting firewood or on the road.
Exacerbating unmet needs
Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health, and those of MSF and other humanitarian organizations, people’s needs very much exceed the resources available. Food insecurity worsened sharply in Ituri in 2024 and is now chronic for 43 per cent of the population. Poor hygiene conditions and dilapidated shelters in displacement camps mean diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases spread easily, affecting children under five the most.
People in Ituri must be guaranteed safe access to healthcare and must not be forced to risk their lives in search of food and other needs.
