For several weeks now, the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been experiencing another major crisis. The capture of the town of Goma by the M23 armed group, supported by Rwandan soldiers, has left the population into a dramatic situation: at least 2,900 people were killed on February 07, 2025, according to the United Nations. Large-scale displacements, economic losses and widespread insecurity punctuated the daily lives of thousands of families.
A region marked by chronic instability
Bordering Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, Kivu has been mired for more than twenty years in an almost permanent conflict situation, which maintains a chronic instability hampering the socio-economic development of the territory and its inhabitants. This particularly complex situation in Kivu has made it a priority region for SIDI, which has seven local partners covering all its fields of intervention: financial inclusion (microfinance institutions such as Paidek, Guilgal, Hekima, credit cooperative unions such as COOCEC, promoters of solidarity mutuals), agricultural value chains (organic coffee and fair trade cooperatives Muungano and CPNCK) and the fight against climate change (through an innovative partnership with Altech, a renewable energy supplier).
SIDI partners directly impacted
The capture of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, has had a direct impact on our local partners, in particular Hekima, a microfinance institution (MFI) which SIDI has been supporting for several years and which has its headquarters in Goma. This MFI plays an essential role: it grants group loans to women entrepreneurs. Hekima reaches nearly 15,000 beneficiaries, 74% of whom are women, who, thanks to appropriate financing, are able to develop their activities and strengthen their economic resilience. Today, however, operations have ground to a halt, and the teams have to adapt to protect themselves and their beneficiaries, while maintaining a minimum level of activity. As for SIDI’s partner coffee cooperatives, the situation is equally dramatic as the season got underway at the end of January. Muungano, the coffee cooperative based in Kiniezire, was unable to start collecting coffee cherries from its 4,245 member producers because of the fighting. For its part, the CPNCK cooperative, based on the island of Idjwi on Lake Kivu, no longer has access to the financial resources blocked in Goma, but which are nonetheless necessary to pay its 2,300 producers.
SIDI, working alongside its partners
Above and beyond the impact on our mission as a socially responsible investor, it is above all the daily lives of local populations that are affected. In times of crisis, humanitarian and economic needs are immense. At SIDI, we remain mobilized to support our partners in Kivu as much as possible, in the hope of a rapid return to stability. We also salute the courage of the local teams and populations who continue, despite everything, to commit themselves to maintaining economic activity in Kivu.
photo credit: Philippe Lissac – Godong agency / SIDI
