Children caught in crossfire of rebel assault overwhelm Goma hospital
Goma's only functioning paediatric surgery unit is struggling to cope with hundreds of wounded children after Rwanda-backed rebels launched an assault on the DRC.
Large numbers of young children – many of whom have suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds – have been treated at the specialist operating theatre at Bethesda Hospital in the western part of the city, which was seized by M23 in January.
The influx has overwhelmed the small facility, and several patients have died on the operating table.
'Before the M23 arrived, we performed routine surgeries like cleft palate repairs and treated injuries from road accidents,' said a doctor at Bethesda Hospital.
'We occasionally treated gunshot wounds from gang violence, but we were seeing around 10 children a week. Now, we can have 100 children arriving in a single day,' the doctor told The Telegraph.
'Some have severe cranial injuries, others have injuries to their chest or abdomen. These are critical emergencies requiring surgeries that can last two to three hours. And as we treat one child, more keep arriving in the emergency room.'
The doctor and his team are among the few surgeons left in Goma – a city of more than two million people – who are capable of performing complex surgeries on children.
Their surgical unit was built in 2021 by Kids Operating Room, a Scottish charity which sets up high-tech paediatric operating theatres in hospitals around the world.
It is entirely powered by solar panels, which allows it to continue functioning despite frequent blackouts caused by the fighting, but it was never meant to treat war casualties.
'These children are innocent. We are doctors, so we must do our job, but it's really very tough psychologically,' they said.
Since the M23 launched its offensive in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in late January, capturing Goma, Bukavu, and surrounding towns, the militia has been accused of numerous human rights abuses.
The UN has estimated that at least 3,000 people have been killed, and thousands more injured.
Reports of bodies in the streets, arbitrary executions, kidnappings, and gang rapes have flooded out of the cities. Locals describe an atmosphere of constant fear. One source in Bukavu told The Telegraph he 'never knows if he will wake up in the morning,' as the sound of gunfire fills the streets at night.
A document seen by The Telegraph details the surgeries performed at Bethesda Hospital in January and February, when fighting between the M23 and Congolese army was at its peak.
There seems to be no particular pattern to the injuries – they range from trauma to the face, skull, legs, arms, back, thorax, abdomen, and genitals.
Doctors have been forced to amputate the limbs of children as young as three. Most of the patients are under 10.
Three weeks ago, soldiers from M23 entered the hospital, the doctor at Bethesda told The Telegraph, looking for government soldiers that were being treated there.
'The M23 took them by force. They came at night and took the men. We don't know where they went,' he said.
The group also allegedly kidnapped male family members of patients, who are typically relied upon to assist with care in hospitals across parts of Africa. It is unclear whether they will have been recruited into the rebels ranks or killed.
Amnesty International documented similar kidnappings at two hospitals in Goma in late February and early March.
At least 130 men were abducted, according to the NGO, and taken to a stadium in the city where they were tortured. The M23 forced some abductees to lie on the ground and whipped them until they agreed to join their ranks.
Whilst some civilians were released, many remain missing.
Sultani Makenga, the military leader of M23, said in a recent interview that members of the Congolese army at the hospitals pretended to be patients or caregivers. He said M23 found 14 weapons in the hospitals and that hospital staff had alerted them to the situation.
Whilst the situation in Goma has begun to ease now the M23 has a firm hold on the city, Bethesda Hospital is providing ongoing care for the children injured at the height of the fighting.
'Some of our patients can take up to one month being managed in the hospital, especially the children being amputated, and they also require psychological support,' the doctor said.
'We are still managing several in the wards. Sometimes patients with gunshot wounds need to go back into the theatre three times, four times, even five times, so we still have quite a big number here,' he added.
Hopes of a cessation in the fighting were dashed on Monday when the M23 withdrew from peace talks with the Congolese government set to take place in Angola this week.
A spokesperson for the group said that European Union sanctions imposed against their leaders and Rwandan officials accused of supporting them had made the talks 'impracticable.'
The rebel group has previously called for an end to what it says is the persecution of ethnic Tutsis in Congo. The DRC's government has repeatedly said the rebels are terrorists and must lay down their arms.
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