Democratic Republic of Congo: Amid violence, displacement and an Ebola disease outbreak, the people in Plaine Savo are struggling to survive
Displaced families face extreme living conditions, limited healthcare and rising risks as Ebola disease threatens the camp.
Around 76,000 people are currently living in the Plaine Savo internally displaced persons site, near Fataki city, Ituri province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Residents are unable to leave due to the threat of violence outside the camp and are forced to live in dire and undignified conditions, deprived of the most basic and essential services.
“Our houses were set on fire,” says Antoinette, an internally displaced person at Plaine Savo, sitting before the makeshift shelter she has been sleeping in for the past eight months. “The day we left, there were gunshots everywhere. People fled without taking anything with them. Some were killed, others raped or abducted. Until today, we do not know where those who have disappeared are, whether they are dead, imprisoned or still alive.”
“We have almost nothing to eat and the children are suffering. Life here is very hard.”
Antoinette, an internally displaced person
Last December, the nearby village of Bule, where Antoinette used to live, became the scene of violent clashes between the armed group Convention pour le révolution populaire and the Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fighting emptied the town of its people. This is the second time Antoinette was forcibly displaced in the last two years.
Most of the people who fled, settled near a Ugandan army base — present in Ituri as part of a cooperation agreement with the Congolese government — assuming they would then be protected. She remembers her first days in what would soon become a camp of an estimated ten thousand displaced people.
“When we arrived here, we spent about two weeks with no shelters, nor plastic sheeting, exposed to the rain. We finally built small huts with pieces of wood, plastic and straw,” Antoinette says.
Since then, living conditions have barely improved: the site is overcrowded and encircled by armed men who, until recently, have prevented the people from leaving to reach their fields, markets and water sources. However, most are still afraid to take the risk of leaving the site and therefore remain deprived of all means of survival. Insecurity and access restrictions also severely limit the presence of humanitarian organizations. Since December, only two food distributions have taken place.
“The supplies are finished and we are still waiting for the next one,” says Antoinette. “We have almost nothing to eat and the children are suffering. Life here is very hard.”
Our response in Plaine Savo
In February, MSF set up a health post to provide essential healthcare to the community. It was then one of the very few humanitarian organizations present at the site. Alphonsine works there as a nurse supervisor. She used to work in Bule, before having to flee due to violence. When she first arrived in Plaine Savo, she remembers how diarrhea, scabies, typhoid fever and parasitic infections spread rapidly – largely due to the lack of clean water.
“There were illnesses and deaths,” says Alphonsine. “Since MSF has been here, the number of deaths has really decreased.”
Today, the health post provides primary, pediatric, maternal and mental healthcare and treats cases of sexual violence and acute malnutrition that arise every day.
“To preserve the lives, dignity and safety of displaced people in Plaine Savo, as well as to help better protect them against Ebola disease, the response must be urgently scaled up.”
Trish Newport, MSF emergency coordinator
The level of violence that the people living in Plaine Savo are exposed to is reflected in its medical records. In the last six months, an average of 60 survivors of sexual violence were treated there every month. Seven people wounded by gunshots or bladed weapons were treated every week. In most cases, people were assaulted or injured while attempting to leave the site. An average of nine people with malnutrition are also admitted every week at our health post.
“Getting the right nutrition is difficult because people cannot go to the fields and cultivate,” says Alphonsine. “If safety was better, the community could farm and we would not face hunger.”
For the most severe cases requiring surgery, like gunshot wounds and for pregnant women, MSF transfers patients from Plaine Savo to the MSF-supported Fataki general referral hospital — approximately 15 kilometres away.
“There used to be a lot of maternal deaths in the camp because we could not evacuate the mothers to the hospital,” Alphonsine says. “But we have not recorded any since the MSF vehicle can take them to Fataki at any time.”
How MSF is responding to the Ebola disease outbreak
The Ebola disease outbreak, declared by national authorities in May, has dramatically worsened the health situation in Ituri. Over the past months, 36 confirmed cases have been transferred and admitted to the 24-bed Ebola treatment unit MSF set-up at Fataki general reference hospital – and which will be soon extended to 32. But the transmission risk for staff forced our teams to stop providing surgical support to the hospital — a sad consequence of this outbreak on the wider health system.
So far, three confirmed cases have been detected in Plaine Savo. Thanks to the mobilization of the community and with MSF support, all were referred early, diagnosed and treated in Fataki hospital. But the threat of Ebola is still looming and everybody is aware of the disastrous consequences it could have if the virus were to spread more broadly in the camp.
“We are very afraid. Some of us have family members who have died in Mongbwalu and Bunia,” says Alphonsine, referring to Ebola disease hotspots. “Shelters in Plaine Savo are crowded and often not even separated by half a meter from each other. If the disease arrives here, people could die en masse. That is why we are raising awareness in the community.”
Ebola disease is transmitted through direct contact with sweat, excrement or other bodily fluids. To prevent it from spreading, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene is crucial. Since February, MSF teams have built 311 latrines increased the amount of water trucked into the camp and dug nine new boreholes.
But the number of latrines and the amount of drinkable water available per person each day remain critically low. Timelier non-food item and food distributions, and protection activities to shelter people in the most vulnerable situations from abuse, are needed.
“This is the worst humanitarian situation I have seen in years,” says Trish Newport, MSF’s emergency coordinator. “To preserve the lives, dignity and safety of displaced people in Plaine Savo, as well as to help better protect them against Ebola disease, the response must be urgently scaled up. This means more institutions in the area with a greater capacity to intervene.”
