More than 250,000 people have been displaced in the east of the country as a result of fighting between the rebel forces and government militia.

They join more than one million already displaced, raising fears of another humanitarian disaster.

MAF’s base in Bunia is 370 miles from Goma.

We have not been called upon to assist with any aid directly related to the current fighting. Most of the aid is being brought in by road or by larger aircraft.

But our team continues with regular flights around the Goma area for our partner organisations who have been working there for several years with medical aid, trauma management, training, orphans and women’s centres.

Several flights have carried medical supplies and a medical team to the affected area.

Dave Jacobsson shares, ‘It was very sad to see the IDP camps from the air on the edge of Goma and destroyed, looted villages and homes in the area.’

The medical team spent 10 days on the ground running trauma management training with over 500 area pastors along with medical work and mosquito net distribution.

Flights have also been assisting several relief agencies in delivering food and medical supplies to refugee camps in the northern region in response to the Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) raids on villages there.

Rebels have been killing, burning buildings, looting, and abducting children and women since mid-September.

Dave’s wife Donna says, ‘The general mood is one of anxiety and concern – the unknowns and uncertainties of the future, what will happen next? Yet life goes on here, the Congolese are resilient and amazing in being able still to wake up and carry on.’

By courtesy of MAF