Just hours after the death of several people - including a French humanitarian worker - in a drone attack in Goma, reactions multiplied in the European political class and within the humanitarian community present in the DRC on Wednesday 11 March.

The two explosions blamed on drone attacks that killed several people - including a French humanitarian worker who worked for UNICEF - in Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on the night of Tuesday 10 to Wednesday 11 March, have since provoked a cascade of reactions.

Among the political leaders, the first came from French President Emmanuel Macron who spoke of "the support and emotion of the Nation" to Karine Buisset's family in a message broadcast in the morning on the social network X. The latter also called for respect for humanitarian law and the protection of humanitarian personnel.

In a similar message, the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévôt, then considered that it was not an "isolated incident" before noting an "increase in this type of attack, in violation of the ceasefire, carried out by all parties in recent times", thus taking up the concerns of the contact group on the Great Lakes. Composed of several Western chancelleries, this group had indeed denounced the use of drones against civilians last week.

As for the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, she did not fail to express her indignation: Hadja Lahbib, who had visited Goma last month, indicated that some of the European Union's (EU) humanitarian staff were staying in the concession targeted on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

The humanitarian community in the DRC shaken

On the side of the humanitarian community present in the DRC, there too the reactions multiplied throughout the day on Wednesday. Like the rest of her teams, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said she was shocked and outraged by the death of Karine Buisset, assuring that the UN agency was continuing to collect more details about this tragic event.

For his part, the head of humanitarian operations in the country, Bruno Lemarquis, condemned this escalation of violence which also caused the death of a United Nations staff member and two civilians, calling for full light to be shed on the circumstances of this incident.

The representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the DRC, François Moreillon, said he was shocked, adding that civilians and humanitarian personnel should never be the target of attacks.

The tragedy that occurred in Goma comes at a time when actors on the ground have been warning for more than a year about a reduction in humanitarian space in eastern DRC. Last January, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on the worrying number of incidents affecting humanitarian personnel in 2025. (RFI, 2026-03-12)