Under normal circumstances, Goma's Birere market is a hive of activity, with hundreds of stalls packed with produce from North Kivu's fertile farmlands. It also sells manufactured goods from China, shipped through the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam or Kenya's Mombasa before entering the DRC via the "Petite Barrière" border crossing or the airport. An army of porters usually weaves through the market's congested passageways. However, on Thursday, March 13, it was easy to move through them, the air thick with a puzzling mix of spices, vegetable waste and exhaust fumes.

A month and a half after the M23 rebels and their Rwandan allies seized Goma in late January, the fighting has stopped. However, despair is spreading among the traders of Birere and much of the provincial capital's population, left in limbo due to the lack of customers. There are no more war explosions, that's true. The fighting has moved further south, toward the Uvira highlands. But it's not peace either. The economy is at a standstill.

Darius, who requested anonymity, used to run a thriving small business. Here, on the shores of Lake Kivu, he bought dried fish and sent them by plane 600 kilometers away to Kindu, the capital of Maniema province. However, not a single plane has taken off since January 26, when the first M23 fighters and Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) entered northern Goma, precisely where the airport is situated.

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