{{The M23 rebels have pulled back from Goma, the flashpoint at the heart of the conflict ravaging eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but the city still faces bombed-out schools, a stalled economy and a climate of fear.}}
Residents welcomed news this week that the M23 army mutineers, whose 16-month rebellion has terrorised the area, had retreated from their positions in the hills around Goma in the face of an offensive by the military and a new United Nations combat force.
But life in the city, the capital of the mineral-rich yet chronically unstable province of North Kivu, is hardly back to normal.
The new school year, which was supposed to start Monday, has been pushed back a week because of the chaos created by the estimated one million people in the province who have fled their homes, many taking shelter in local schools.
And Eugene Mutabazi, the assistant director of a secondary school in Goma, said the problems go deeper than that.
One of the two buildings at his school, the Monseigneur Masimango Institute, was hit by a bomb that left just one wall standing, riddled with shrapnel.
The explosion killed a girl and wounded two other people, said Mutabazi.
Many residents were left traumatised by the fighting in and around Goma and the M23 occupation of the city, which the rebels seized for 12 days in November before pulling out under international pressure.
In the most recent fighting, several bombs hit the area, killing 13 people, according to authorities.
Swollen by tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled their homes in the surrounding area, Goma’s population has now reached around one million.
But the army’s new offensive and the arrival of the UN intervention force have raised hopes by pushing the M23 back to around 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the city.
NMG
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