“We need guarantees from M23, Italy can mediate”

They are trying to obtain ” guarantees of security from the rebels of the M23 that control the south of Goma ”, to be able to “reach the wounded and take them to the hospital as soon as possible ”. And at the same time they address an appeal to the belligerent parts because they give space to humanitarian and medical action ”. These are the priorities of doctors without borders, as he tells the Adnkronos Marco Donada, deputy head of Msf mission in Goma and the only Italian of the remaining organization. ” The Italians here are seen as outside the games of countries that have connections with the Rwanda and who have become objectives in protests ”, he says. ” Certainly in Congo there is no negative perception of Italy, having never had a colonialist past in this country and for this reason our country could play a role of neutrality and mediation ”, says Donada, in Goma since May of 2024.

” The current situation is the acme of a crisis that has lasted for over a year ”, continues, ” But until two weeks ago it seemed unrealisable such an attack on the M23, also for the strong presence in Goma of men in weapons”. As events fall, MSF has ” reduced his staff ” and now ” We are refugees from Monday in our base in the Vulcan district near the border with the Rwanda. Going out is not sure, it takes a lot of caution ”. Today there ” The situation is quite calm ”, but ” Yesterday there was a battle 2 kilometers away, there were explosions, a rocket passed over our heads. The area is under the control of the M23 ” and is ” from them we must receive guarantees of security to be able to go out. There is a lot of tension, yesterday they shot against United Nations vehicles ”.

In the meantime, at the Kyeshero hospital, the MSF staff “continues the medical activity” and only hospitalized only ” 80s wounded, about 150 from the beginning of the crisis between civil and military “. But these are ” in particular women, the most exposed to the violence in the fields of displaced people while men were perhaps involved in the fighting ”. And perhaps in these they lost their lives. ” The Red Cross started the first inspections in the city and reported the presence of many corpses on the street ”, explained Donada. Like MSF, ” We try to supply our hospital and the one supported by the Red Cross with medical material, but it is a confused phase where groups of civilians and young people have taken the weapons abandoned in the city and are dedicating themselves to the looting, also of the warehouse of the pam and our warehouse of the pharmacy and medical material ”.

Now ” We have to understand what happens to Goma, where people live barricaded at home, understand how to move without putting anyone at risk, ” explains Donada citing the son of a Congolese colleague of MSF, who died after being reached by a loose bullet to Goma. ” He was not even allowed to bring the body to the morgue, the colleague was stopped, beaten and forced to return to the house, “he says.

Meanwhile, in Goma you are fighting again, the city has not yet fallen completely and is prey to “looting” that “continued all night”. He tells the Adnkronos Monica Corna, representative of the country of the Salesian NGO International Volunteer for Development (VIS) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and who has lived in Goma and has been working for over 20 years. “Here the situation is very unstable and precarious, there are some areas of the city where there are still ongoing fights as it has not yet been taken”, says the Italian Cooperant, according to which “the city is not officially in the hands of the m23 And this involves crime, instability and insecurity “.

The Vis cooperative tells of “looting of supermarkets and electronic electronic materials continues all night in every part of the city and which see street guys and part of the population implicated”. According to horns, the M23 rebels “shoot on sight and kill” who is surprised to steal.

Corna explains that “the electric current is not there and has not yet been restored”, while those who are on the border as you have a few minutes of internet connection thanks to the SIM cards of the Rwanda. “For the rest we are fine, I’m fine, we continue to be safe, but sometimes we cannot communicate between us and this is the most difficult part”.

“We try to leave the least possible of the house even if the stocks of food and water are decreasing more and more and this will soon represent a serious problem – he concludes – we hope that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible”.

Instead, he says he has’ feared for his life ” and that of his wife and son Roberto Solagna, Italian cooperative and contact person in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of the NGO Ai.Bi. (Children of children). So much so that from Goma, where he has lived since 2014, he decided to escape in Rwanda ” in a shower of bombs and bullets ”, as he tells the Adnkronos, taking advantage of the ” frontier that was still open ” and after ” The events precipitated ”. Now, he declares, ” The border with the Ruanda is closed and cannot be released anymore “, so the Italians who have not” taken advantage of the opportunity offered by the Italian embassy in Kinshasa ” remained there.

” They do not leave the house, he is not sure – continues Solagna – a Congolese friend of mine was injured in the leg by a loose bullet and was operated on. Fortunately he is fine ”. Among the remaining Italians ” there are those who work with the Red Cross in hospitals in the peripheral areas of the city of Goma who are submerged by wounded ”, he adds. The ” two hundred children ” that the Ai.Bi are also safe. He witnesses Goma, ” 50 to their families and others in the two orphanages ” in the city.

Solagna, the only Italian present in Goma for Ai.Bi. And in Africa with various cooperation projects since 2007, he declares to be ” in contact with the managers of the two orphanages. The children are ‘in hibernation’, sleep under the beds, do not leave their rooms, are in safe places far from the windows to avoid being affected by wandering bullets ”. Risk that the Veronese cooperative, a former computer consultant, also pointed to Kigali when, just 5 kilometers from the border with Rwanda, ” a bomb exploded a few hundred meters from us ”.

In the Rwandan capital, he specifies, ” The situation is sure, even if everything is precarious and you can never know ”. Arrived in Goma from Burundi, where he had gone in 2007, Solagna admits: ” I would never have expected a situation like the one we are experiencing these days ”. Although, he remarked, ” For two years now the security situation and the humanitarian situation has always gone worse “. For example, he quotes the fact that ” in recent months there has been a number of street children who had never seen each other. In each small corner of the city there are small curtains resting on the walls, with children aged 6 to 9 who live there ”.

Now ” The rebels of the M23 have conquered Goma and the city is under their control ”, continues Solagna, remembering that such a situation had already been created in 2012. ” The same group had managed to take control of Goma and some provinces of North Kivu. After a while everything returned ”, but now the rebels ” they feel betrayed and want to negotiate by placing the conditions “. On the future, the cooperative states that “if you find an agreement and stop shooting, you can resume a normal life”. And on his personal future, Solagna says: ” I would like to know if there is still our home. From Sunday various criminal groups have been plundering shops and houses … ”.

On the hypothesis of returning to Italy he concludes: “If the conditions do not allow us to return to Goma, we will have no choice if not to return to Italy ”, but the hope is that ” the situation stabilizes, my son can return to School, my Congolese wife to his family ”.