NEWSDESK
Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe as they try to reach tens of thousands of people uprooted by fighting in eastern Congo. Some of the displaced are sheltering in camps but many others have fled into the bush. Here are some quotes from aid workers in the field. Click on the links to find out more about what their organisations are doing to help.
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"The people here don't have food and they are hungry. Some people are going into the banana fields around the camp which is very dangerous because there are drunk soldiers around. They're risking their lives but they are hungry and desperate.
"Many people are still arriving but others are risking leaving. They want to go home. They told me, 'We don't want to be here. Why do we have to live in plastic shelters when we have houses?' But going home is a risk. They have the choice of staying here and being hungry or risking their lives going home.
"It's still tense. There is a ceasefire, but that ceasefire could break. There's still a real need for other countries to keep piling on the diplomatic pressure." - Rebecca Wynn, an aid worker from Oxfam who is at Kibati camp, just north of Goma, where thousands of people are sheltering
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"Children are sleeping on the road with no shelter, no clean water, and with very little food. It's critical that we get life-saving supplies to these children quickly.
"We've seen a mass exodus of people over the past week. In this chaotic setting, children are put at great risk of being separated from their families, or worse, of sexual exploitation, violence and abduction by armed groups." - Ned Olney, Save the Children vice president for international humanitarian response
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"The people have often not been able to find shelter and have to sleep outdoors. They try to protect themselves from the cold by wrapping themselves up in cloths, cardboard and banana leaves." - Eyal Reinich, co-ordinator for Handicap International in Goma
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"We fear that this crisis could develop into a full-blown catastrophe if fighting reignites. Several of our health centres have been destroyed, and the delivery of life-saving medical and nutrition services have been severely curtailed." - Pierre Willems, country director for International Medical Corps
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"The humanitarian situation is terrible. In the Kibati camps, I saw people in extreme distress, including women and children, and elderly people." - Max Hadorn, International Committee of the Red Cross head of delegation, currently visiting North Kivu
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"In my three-and-a-half years in Congo, I've never seen such a dire situation. There are enormous water and sanitation needs. We have more than 200,000 newly displaced people in an area that was already stretched thin by a massive influx of people last spring." - Luke King, country director for Mercy Corps
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""Armed aid convoys may aim to improve access for humanitarian aid groups, but they actually risk reducing access to the populations. There is a risk of aid being manipulated by political or military actors and of humanitarian actors being seen as parties to the conflict." " - Anne Taylor, head of mission in Goma for medecins sans Frontiers
