M-23 Rebels captured the city of Goma, DRC, on January 27, 2025, the site of Conscience International’s ongoing Emergency Care Training Partnership with the Heal Africa Hospital
Conscience International’s Medical Director, Dr. Gail V. Anderson Jr, was alerted immediately by our lead partner at Heal Africa Hospital, who reported that gunfire and rebel bomb attacks had set off panic in the city, sparking another exodus to add to the massive refugee camps around Goma.
Dr. Anderson first visited the North Kivu region in 2017 and made two trips in 2024, traveling to Goma and to neighboring Botswana for a pan-Africa emergency medicine conference, all designed to help develop the hospital’s innovative training course in emergency care.
The effort was established in honor of Dr. Anderson’s late father, Dr. Gail V. Anderson Sr., who in the 1970s was a leading proponent of Emergency Medicine as a medical discipline in the US and internationally.
This program could not have come soon enough for the city of Goma. Doctors and nurses trained last year to handle emergencies have skills urgently needed to face the current challenges of war and dispossession.
Displaced people from other regions have fled to massive refugee camps in North Kivu, causing the population of Goma to double in recent months to approximately one million. Life in the camps greatly increases the vulnerability of women and children in particular.
- Water is scarce—even at the hospital, although their water tanks are currently full, but still there is the risk of outbreaks of cholera.
- The city is without electricity—power lines that supply the hospital have been damaged and the hospital is running on a generator 24 hours a day.
- Fuel supplies are expected to run short.
- Internet service has been interrupted.
- Schools are closed.
- The crisis is increasing daily
PLEASE CONSIDER A DONATION TO HELP US RESPOND TO THIS CRISIS AND TO SUPPORT THE ONGOING EMERGENCY MEDICAL TRAINING AT HEAL AFRICA HOSPITAL.
Donate in any amount by check to:
Conscience International. PO Box 1163, Alpharetta, GA 30009
Or by credit card on our secure website here Or, scan the QR code
