GENEVA (Reuters) – Hospitals are overwhelmed in east Congo’s city of Goma, treating hundreds of patients with gunshot, mortar and shrapnel wounds while many dead bodies lay in the streets, U.N. and other aid agencies said on Tuesday.
Rwandan-backed M23 rebels marched into Goma on Monday in a major escalation of the three-decade conflict, but continue to face pockets of resistance from the army and their backers.
On Tuesday, heavy small arms fire and mortar fire continued in the streets, where many dead bodies could be seen, said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, citing reports from staff in the city.
“The humanitarian situation in and around Goma remains extremely worrying,” Laerke told a Geneva briefing. “Hospitals in Goma are reportedly overwhelmed, struggling to manage the influx of wounded people,” he added, saying that there were reports of rapes by fighters.
Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital with gunshot and other wounds, said Adelheid Marschang, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency response coordinator for Congo at the same briefing.
“We are hearing reports of health workers being shot at and patients including babies being caught in crossfire,” she said.
The Red Cross said that one of its hospitals had received over 100 patients within 24 hours with head wounds and chest trauma from mortar and shrapnel, and that patients were waiting in the corridors for lack of beds.
“Very disturbingly, we have seen a significant increase in the number of severely injured children,” said Patrick Youssef, regional director for Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Rachel More)
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