COHERE FUNDS DONATIONS TO COJESKI TO SUPPORT REFUGEES IN NORTH KIVU DRCONGO

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Report on the relief aid by COHERE to refugees in Goma, North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo

Meeting with some refugees at our offices in Goma, North Kivu/DRC

On Saturday April 5^th, 2025 we distributed cash to 10 refugees in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. The funds were donated by COHERE in order to assist refugees in difficult situation in Goma. The 10 refugees were selected basing on the gravity of their situation and we focused on those who were hit by bullets and lost either the led, the hand or sustained wounds. We also supported refugee community leaders who are being targeted and living is extreme fear, some are hiding and cannot managed to look for survival means. COHERE has organized online fundraising in order to assist refugees in eastern DRC who are affected by the war currently. We do understand the current situation and we humbly welcome different views, we know that Goma hosts currently a big number of the refugee population in North Kivu, we do not know the exact number but they should be in thousands of people. We only helped 10, this is was we could do, however what you do not know is how many people we helped indirectly especially those who also benefited from this money, and also our intention was not to solve the problem of the 10 refugees but to push them to move forward, we do not know how many may have survived for the next day because of that gesture. Background information If we were to argue about the localization of relief aid we could have observed that this is the best way to handle the situation. Currently most of the international humanitarian relief aid organizations left Goma and in other parts of both North and South Kivu, in most cases they closed all their activities and abandoned people they served. At this time only isolated and less funded community driven initiatives are fully responding the needs of the population. Refugees in Goma are exactly in this situation, where they only have to depend on the solidarity of the local population and as we have observed Congolese people in Goma have been generous towards refugees in their communities. The community support to refugees is without limit, from hiding them due to security risks, providing them with food, water, clothes, medical treatment among other basic needs cannot be over looked. Yes this is being done when the same population in Goma is severely hit by a serious humanitarian crisis, and the economy was shut down, in Goma everyone needs humanitarian relief, but still they can at the same time offer services to others. We estimate that Goma has a population of 2 million among them we estimated that about 30% of the current population in Goma are refugees from Rwanda and Burundi. In a particular way, refugees from Rwanda are facing security problems because Goma and entire North Kivu is controlled by M23 backed by Rwanda. And for this over the years Rwanda claims that all Rwandan refugees in North Kivu are members of FDLR just because they refused to return back to Rwanda and in the same way Rwanda claims that they should all be eliminated. On the other side Rwandan refugees argue that Rwanda is not yet safe for all of them and opted to remain in DRC for their safety.

Categories: Briefing Notes and Reports, Good Governance, Human Rights, Humanitarian Actions, Presse Release

COHERE FUNDS DONATIONS TO COJESKI TO SUPPORT REFUGEES IN NORTH KIVU DRCONGO

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