Hunger threatens Congo's Goma after fighting cuts supply routes

Congolese entrepreneur Feza Christelle, who retails maize flour produced by Bweteta food production company, talks to Christian Kabengele the marketing manager of the agribusiness company Bweteta, after making the delivery at her store in Goma, North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, December 5, 2022. REUTERS/Arlette Bashizi

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Sitting in the dirt, Valerie Kahindo picks spoiled kernels from a sack of maize - the only job the farmer can find in the eastern Congolese city of Goma after rebel fighters seized her fields and forced her to flee without her family.

The mother of eight is among 450,000 people displaced in this year's renewed offensive by the M23 rebel group, whose seizure of land in North Kivu province has also severed key trade routes and disrupted farming that is the backbone of the local economy.