Fighting continues around Ntamugenga. Sister Agnieszka Gugala and more than 5,000 civilians are trapped. There have been casualties. Urgent evacuation and immediate medical attention to the injured is required.

On Sunday morning, North Kivu was again engulfed by heavy clashes between Congolese government forces and M23 rebels. Ntamugenga is in the middle of the fighting. Three shells exploded on the grounds of the Sisters of the Angels mission, injuring women and children who were hiding there. According to reports, the village, where we have been funding the work of the hospital and nutrition centre run by the Sisters of the Angels for eight years, is already in rebel-controlled territory.

“It was calm in the evening and at night, but now the exchange of fire is starting again.” This is the latest information from Sister Agnieszka, given to us just before noon on Wednesday. “There are no longer any doctors in the hospital. The patients in the most serious condition, including the two girls who were shot, have been successfully evacuated. For the time being, however, there is no hope of Red Cross negotiators reaching our village,” says the hospital director. Instead of the humanitarian corridors needed to evacuate civilians, there is again an exchange of fire on the road in front of the mission.

“Aid at the hospital is limited only to giving malaria drugs to people with symptoms. There are about 5 000 people camped out around the hospital. There are 500 in our mission, watched over by just two nurses and one midwife. Pregnant women requiring a C-section can find their lives and those of their babies at constant risk.”

“The situation is critical. It is difficult to estimate the number of dead because many of the bombed houses cannot be reached. The road is blocked and we are cut off from the world,” says Sister Agnieszka.