A mother gives birth to triplets during her flight from Kibombo

By OCHA Goma
During an invasion on 12 September of her hometown Kibombo, in the Province of Maniema Eastern DRC, Mama Poko Kikuni fled on foot with her mother, younger sister and 10 year-old daughter. Her family was certainly not the only to flee in fear of Mayi Mayi invaders but Mama Kikuni had a much heavier weight to carry this night with 3 soon-to-be-born babies filling her belly.

The family walked 80kms when the contractions started, Mama Kikuni recounts. "It was terrible," she said, notably the tremendous pain and not being able to find a health center along their road of flight. Eventually, the family found a Red Cross center in Malela where the triplet boys were born on 06 October. After recuperating for 15 days, the new mother, her three newborn babies, mother, sister and daughter took to the road again in the hopes of reaching Kasongo city, in Southern Maniema. Two weeks and 90kms later, they reached their destination where the mother and her babies were welcomed at the city's only therapeutic nutritional center, supported by INGO Concern.

In a few weeks, the babies are estimated to be strong enough to leave the TNC but that doesn't mean Mama Kikuni's worries are over. Her family would like to travel to Kalima, some 200kms north, where her husband's family lives but due to the insecurity, it is impossible to reach by foot. In Kasongo city, her family doesn't know anyone who will assist them either, she says. Her mother and younger sister are currently without shelter and survive on their forages in neighboring fields and forests while she recovers with the babies in the TNC. Although, Mama Kikuni may have made it to relative safety in Kasongo city, her fears about the near future are not yet over. "I am worried because I don't know what will happen to my family," she says.