UN says food assistance halted around DRC's war-torn Goma

The United Nations said on Tuesday that food assistance around the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Goma had been "paused", warning over food shortages in the besieged city.

"Food assistance activities in and around Goma have been temporarily paused. WFP is concerned about food scarcity in Goma," said Shelley Thakral, the World Food Programme's spokeswoman in DR Congo.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Kinshasa, she said: "Depending on the duration of violence, the supply of food into the city could be severely hampered".

"This is a huge test for Congolese trapped by fighting in Goma and surrounding areas of their resilience", she said.

"The next 24 hours will be critical, as people start to run low on supplies and will need to see what they can find to survive."

Her comments came amid deadly clashes in Goma, as the Congolese military fought to hold off M23 forces backed by the Rwandan army.

There were conflicting accounts over how much of Goma remained under Congolese control after the M23 armed group and Rwandan soldiers entered the city centre on Sunday night.

The M23 resurfaced in late 2021 after years of dormancy and began seizing large swathes of North Kivu province.

But fighting with the Congolese military has intensified since early this year, in the latest chapter of the internal and cross-border violence that has dogged the eastern DRC for three decades.

Besides the more than a million who call Goma home, the provincial capital is host to nearly as many displaced by fighting.

The fighting has intensified a humanitarian crisis, displacing half a million people this month alone, according to the UN refugee agency's chief Filippo Grandi.

The UN has also warned the conflict could spark a regional war.