At least eight Congolese refugees have died of cholera, an aid worker said Wednesday, warning that thousands faced ‘catastrophic’ conditions after fleeing to Burundi following the latest advance by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.Some 80,000 people who poured into Burundi to escape the militant advance launched in early December are now facing chaotic conditions in refugee camps that are lacking aid, the worker said.”The situation is catastrophic… because we’re facing tens of thousands of refugees who desperately lack everything –- food, shelter, water, medicines”, said the aid worker who requested anonymity, claiming Burundian authorities want to keep the figures secret.In refugee camps, “you’re met with an indescribable stench, with chaos because some have spent days under the sun and rain, with aid virtually nonexistent,” he said, urging the international community to act before the camps “become places of death”.Some 150 cases of cholera have been recorded so far, the aid worker said.After seizing the major Congolese cities of Goma in January and Bukavu in February, the M23 armed group launched a new offensive in early December near the Burundian border, even as Rwanda and the DRC signed a peace agreement in Washington.On December 10, it took control of Uvira, a city of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, giving it control of the land border with the DRC’s ally Burundi.The United Nations has appealed for $33 million in urgent funding to help the refugees.On Monday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 42 percent of malaria tests conducted by the NGO in recent days were positive.”We see people in a state of distress, despair and exhaustion,” said Zakari Moluh, MSF’s project coordinator for a site in northeastern Burundi. He also reported 14 confirmed cases of cholera and suspected measles.Since the M23 began its latest offensive on December 2, the fighting has internally displaced 500,000 people in the DRC’s South Kivu province alone, including 200,000 within Uvira territory, according to the UN refugee agency.
