"We are trying to get back in touch with everyone. "

Testimony from Natalia Torrent, programme manager in North Kivu, on the situation in Goma:

This is Natalia Torrent. I'm MSF's programme manager in North Kivu, and I'm speaking from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Today is Thursday and it's another day where the security situation seems to be stabilising, although there are still reports of skirmishes in some parts of town.

MSF has been operational in town since last Thursday, mainly to ensure the capacity to deal with the trauma cases that have arisen in recent days.

We are still working in Kyeshero, the hospital, supporting the capacity that the ICRC has put in place in Ndosho [hospital]. 

Since last Thursday, the division is that the ICRC treats war wounded with trauma cases that need surgical care, and what we're doing is supporting them in dealing with less complex cases and cases that may need light surgical care.

The latest data we have is that 142 wounded patients have been received (at Kyeshero]. In the last few days it has been half civilians and half military. Most civilians were women. Right now, and especially today, it seems that the calm is coming back and we have some guarantees of movement. We have started to go back to our bases and to our warehouses to assess the situation, especially those that people have started to loot or tried to loot in the previous days.

So right now we are trying to assess what is the capacity that we have here and start contacting all the hospitals to assess their situation and see how we can support them, especially - to start with - with donations. 

We are also assessing the water situation in the city because we have heard that over the last few days, particularly because of the lack of electricity, the water distribution has not been done properly.

We are afraid that cholera could appear soon.

We are trying to assess the situation of the water distribution in the centre. The camp is still functioning thanks to the water pumping station that we have [installed and] was functioning before.

While assessing the situation in Goma, we started thinking about how we could continue to support the projects we have around the North Kivu province. Because, as MSF, there are several hospitals and health centres that we support. 

Goma is the main supply hub. And right now we have no mobility out of Goma, so we cannot take medical supplies or fuel to them. We have been discussing with the teams that are managing the projects to see how they can also enter into some sort of contingency plan to reduce consumption. And right now we are trying to regain, slowly, very carefully way, our capacity, especially now in Goma.

So we have all been trying, first of all, to assess where all the people who were in the camps are located at the moment, because the information is still confusing. We don't have mobility in the whole city. We are mobile by sector, where the situation, the security conditions allow us to move. But it's true that we are worried to see – and we would like to understand - where this population is, to see what their main and immediate needs might be.

Today was also the day that we reassessed the human resources capacity that we have on the ground. It was also the day to see some of our colleagues who we have only been able to contact by telephone in recent days. To see them in person.

But it was also the day we learned that some of our colleagues had been personally impacted. We are very sad to share that a colleague who was working with an MSF emergency team has been shot dead by a stray bullet. The son of another colleague, who also works in one of the projects was also hit by a bullet. 

And slowly we are trying to get back in touch with everyone. And we are very sorry that, probably, we will continue to hear about such unfortunate incidents. 

But at the same time, it was a day when we saw some of our colleagues again in person. And I think all of us, we have probably released a little bit of the tension of the last few days.

We see the city slowly getting back to “normal”. 

There is transport, shops are starting to open. So I think everyone is trying to stock up a little bit. A little bit of normality after the events of the last few days.