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Life without cash in captured DR Congo city

Vendors sell bottles of palm oil measured in koroboyi, a local unit, along with tomatoes and other food products at Birere Market in Goma on May 15, 2025. [AFP]

Cash has become so scarce in Goma, the eastern Congolese city seized by anti-government fighters in January, that some parents are now paying school fees in cans of palm oil.

After the city fell to the Rwanda-backed M23 group, authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo stopped supplying cash to banks in M23-controlled areas.

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