"It must have been an eerie sight when 35-year-old Diudonne Muka looked over his shoulder and saw a trail of people stretching as far as the eye could see. The line ebbed and flowed deep into the surrounding forest, a river of multicoloured clothing cutting through the green. He saw countless women balancing trays of goods on their heads, babies on their backs, tightly wrapped in kikwembe cloth."
"When war begins, you take what you can in your hands and run, Muka says over the phone. Over the two-day, 21-mile (34km) trek, he heard a mix of languages, from Kiswahili to Kirundi Lingala and French. Livestock such as cows, goats and chickens were plentiful at first. Then, slowly, they disappeared."
"There was only one sound that halted the family's progress: bombing. The shelling was relentless, each side trying to outdo the other. They bomb, and the others bomb back. Over and over again, Muka recalls. You would pass a house that had been hit and see dead bodies, and you thought: I don't want that to happen to me.'"
Thousands of residents fled Luvungi and surrounding areas in South Kivu after renewed fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Democratic Republic of the Congo military. Families walked for two days across 21 miles, carrying goods, children and diminishing livestock as violence escalated. Multiple languages were heard among the displaced, reflecting the region's diversity. Military vehicles and houses were destroyed during clashes. Bombing repeatedly halted movement and dead bodies were visible among hit homes, intensifying fear. The M23 captured Goma in January 2025 and Bukavu in February before launching a new offensive in December 2025.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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