DR Congo's Goma faces economic and financial crisis following M23 takeover

The once bustling streets of Goma, the capital of North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are markedly silent.

The city has been experiencing an unprecedented economic and financial crisis since the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels took control of the city last month.

Businesses are struggling to survive, financial transactions are almost impossible, and people are have trouble making ends meet.

Gaston Mumbere, a resident of Goma, wonders how he will pay his bills at the end of February.

“We are suffering a lot, and our families are also victims of the lack of circulation of money between people. The banks are not functioning, and now we are realising that weapons kill people, but that hunger will also kill us”, he said.

The closure of banks and cooperatives, a direct consequence of the prevailing insecurity in the city, is paralysing monetary transactions and undermining the daily lives of its two million inhabitants.

In Virunga, the town's main market, sellers struggle to find buyers. Sometimes they go home with nothing.

"We used to earn up to 100,000 Congolese francs ($36), but today it's hard to earn even 30,000 Congolese francs ($11). I don't sell much in a day, and I close the goods to go home and cook for the children”, said Collette Musumba who sells beans at the market.

Even local government and business employees have yet to receive their salaries since the city was taken over by the M23.

The situation has led analysts to fear the collapse of the economic system in the city, where the United Nations says the humanitarian situation is already alarming.

Deogracias Bengehya, a professor of economics at Goma University, says customers no longer trust banks or microfinance institutions (MFIs).

“MFIs will be in trouble even compared to banks. Why is that? Because the banks have representatives elsewhere, but there are MFIs that are not represented elsewhere and are only in Goma,” he said.

In mid-February, North Kivu’s governor, appointed by the M23 alliance, met in Goma with the heads of the banking institutions.

Their aim is to reopen the banks as soon as possible and in good security conditions. But no solution has yet been found.

The current financial crisis highlights the fragility of the economic system and the need for urgent intervention to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.