Congo: Hospitals overwhelmed with wounded, dead bodies in the streets – UN

The United Nations and other aid agencies on Tuesday reported that dead bodies are scattered in the streets of Goma, and hospitals overwhelmed with patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds.
This is coming a day after Rwanda-backed rebels marched into the biggest city in eastern Congo.
DAILY POST recalls that the M23 rebels entered Goma on Monday in a major escalation of a three-decade conflict.
They are continuing to face pockets of resistance from the army and their backers.
Spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, Jens Laerke, citing reports from staff in the city, said that small arms fire and mortar fire continued on Tuesday in the streets, where many dead bodies could be seen.
“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.
He said there were also reports of rapes by fighters.
The World Health Organization’s, WHO, emergency response coordinator for Congo, Adelheid Marschang, at the same briefing, stressed that hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital with gunshot and other wounds.
“We are hearing reports of health workers being shot at and patients including babies being caught in crossfire.
“Already at the weekend, the UN agency had counted 600-700 people wounded across Goma hospitals,” 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 mortars and shrapnel.
According to the regional director for Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, Patrick Youssef, while the hospital was overwhelmed, they were still receiving calls from desperate injured people who struggled to access healthcare.
“Very disturbingly, we have seen a significant increase in the number of severely injured children. Patients are waiting in the corridors for lack of beds while the hospital car park has been converted into a triage centre,” he added.
Congo: Hospitals overwhelmed with wounded, dead bodies in the streets – UN