Fighting for peace in DRC’s Kivu region

(IRIN) – A year ago, Goma town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was temporarily home to tens of thousands displaced by fighting between government forces and various armed groups. Now, many have returned to their villages.

“It does not mean peace has come to Kivu region,” a military observer in Goma, capital of North Kivu Province, said. “Some villagers are relatively safer, but the general situation is still very volatile.”

Goma hosted about 140,000 displaced people (IDPs) in camps at the height of violence in North Kivu in 2008 and 2009, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. In early 2009, some started voluntarily leaving the camps and now 77,000 have left.

Read more