Families sent home to ruins of east DR Congo conflict

Kimoka (R), a woman who was shot in the cheek while attempting to clean her plot and burn the trash, poses for a photo with her family in Sake on February 27, 2025. [AFP]

When the Banyene family were sent back to their home in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, all that had survived the fighting was a crumbling wall and sagging metal roof.

Shell casings from automatic weapons littered the plot, leftovers from the conflict between the Congolese army and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group that had until recently riven their Sake hometown.