The city of Kamituga, with 260,000 inhabitants, together with the neighbouring territories of Mwenga and Shabunda, has a population of 1.5 million and, like most cities in the world, is dependent on trade and exchange with other cities. Road connections are the main supply lines, as they are everywhere. However, ‘National Road 2’, which connects Kamituga with the provincial capital Bukavu, is in a desolate state (see the other articles on this topic). As a result, humanitarian aid has difficulty reaching the town. Since the departure of the German aid organisation ‘Cap Anamur’ over ten years ago, the public hospital in Kamituga has been dependent on state support and privately run health centres run by local doctors are left to fend for themselves. As a result, diseases such as cholera and mpox, which have broken out in the region, continue to spread and claim more and more lives.

The cholera and mpox patients admitted to the hospitals often cannot be adequately treated as there is no access to medication due to the poor road conditions. The hospitals in Kamituga are therefore trying to fight these epidemics as best they can with the resources available. As is so often the case, it is the poor and the weak who suffer, having to shoulder the exorbitant bills for the treatment they receive due to the shortage. Very few are in a position to do so.