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Kamuandu, Central Kasai province, 22 July 2017:

Galalela sits in front of her empty little hut in Kamanda. She is a widow, without any family remaining in the village. Before the crisis, she lived from what she was able to cultivate on a small field. The field was destroyed by the fighting, and her few belongings are gone.

“Militia and the military were fighting right in our village. Everything was looted. My clothes, my cooking items, my chicken, my small stock of food. I had a field where I cultivated some manioc. The attackers have devastated and taken everything. Now I have nothing to survive on.”
“At my age, I had to run for my life into the bush. That’s where the disease and suffering got worse. I am starving, I have no food, no water. My body hurts everywhere. The ribs, my back and feet, my right arm. I don’t even have enough force to walk anymore. It's terrible. “
“With my last money, I went to the health centre to buy treatment. It only lasted two days. Since then, nothing.”
“I am very old, my hair is white. I am a poor widow without hope. I don't know where to go for help.”

Credit: OCHA/Ivo Brandau