For much of the last 20 years, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered from conflict and instability -- but until recently, the area had appeared to be stabilizing. In 2009, the main rebel army signed peace accords with the Congolese national army -- the FARDC -- and everyone had high hopes that the region would begin transitioning towards peace. But in April, several hundred former rebels defected from the national army and formed a new armed group known as M23. Within months, the M23 conflict had diverted the resources of the national army away from their regular posts throughout the country into fighting on the Ugandan and Rwandan borders. In the vacuum left behind, a series of tit-for-tat massacres and attacks against the population by various armed groups began, and nearly half a million people fled their homes. Millions of people are now trying to survive in desperate conditions, many of whom remain in isolated locations nearly inaccessible to humanitarian organizations. Unfortunately, it looks as if things are only going to get worse. Early on Monday, Nov. 19, rebels approached Goma, the largest city in North Kivu province, and the U.N. pulled its employees out of the country. By Tuesday, the group had taken the airport and the city in a move that, as Anjan Sundaram explains, could re-draw the map of Africa.

Since January 2012, Emily Lynch has traveled around North and South Kivu as a communications officer and as a logistician on a rural measles vaccine campaign for Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Here, her photographs provide an inside look into the tragedy and violence that are continuing to plague the population of North and South Kivu, most of whom remain out of sight and out of reach of humanitarian aid.

A 16-year-old girl shows where she was shot through her buttocks and her jaw during an attack by an armed group on her village in North Kivu in May 2012. She walked with her mother and younger brother for three days through the forest to reach safety, arriving in a hospital run by MSF more than a week after she was injured. This was the second time in May that the girl's village was attacked by the armed group.

Emily Lynch

A 46-year-old mother of six stands with her childrem, all of whom are missing after the family was forced to flee from their village in North Kivu in mid-May 2012, following an attack by an armed group. At the time of this photo, she was living in an abandoned building with around 500 other displaced people.

She recalled of her ordeal:

The attackers arrived in the village and then they separated themselves out -- taking one part here and then taking another part there. If you ran out, they shot you. They had all sorts of weapons -- guns and machetes. I fled from the village with other people but then everyone tried to save themselves however they could. Later, we met each other again on the road.

We spent a few nights in a church on the way but then the attackers came there, too, and burned down the church. We ran again and found another church, where we spent some time. But then we were also chased from that place by the fighting. So we started moving again. I was with about 12 other families from all over the place who all met each other on the road and started traveling together.

From that last place it took me three days to walk here. I came here because before that, after the last place, everywhere we went there was still war so we had to keep moving. Even now I have no news of my husband or my six children. There is no food here. There is nothing here. How will I find my children and husband?

Emily Lynch

A nurse working in a health clinic supported by MSF in South Kivu tests a patient for malaria. This 38-year-old woman and her family fled harassment and frequent  attacks on their village in South Kivu in January 2012; they are now living with a host family in a community in South Kivu that is overwhelmed by the needs of the thousands of displaced, the majority of whom have arrived since May 2012.

Emily Lynch

A 30-year-old mother of four who fled from an attack on her village by an armed group in South Kivu, stands with her son in early May 2012. At the time of this photo, she and her children were staying with a host family in a community in South Kivu where tens of thousands of families were also seeking refuge after similar attacks on other villages in North and South Kivu.

Emily Lynch

Farmers walk through Masisi territory in North Kivu in July 2012, near where the first series of massacres in April occurred. Constant displacement has caused thousands to flee their homes in rapid succession; waves of people would take to the roads, only to return weeks later in the other direction, searching for safety. The lack of infrastructure has made the chaotic situation even worse. The humanitarian community has little access to these refugee populations, and the current aid structure is still artificially focused on transition, not on responding to emergencies. Programs already operating on the ground have been limited in their response, even as camps of displaced people have grown into the hundreds of thousands.

Emily Lynch

Above, a household in South Kivu that has taken in refugees from the violence. Along with the owners of the house, already a family of 10, the additional five families now total 33 people, not all of whom are pictured above. The families share a three-room home.

Emily Lynch

A man carries banana tree leaves to use to build a temporary shelter for his family after they were forced to flee their village during an attack by an armed group. His right arm shows an infected bullet wound that had not yet been treated.

Emily Lynch

A displaced couple in North Kivu stands next to the temporary shelter they are constructing. The woman is raising her fingers to show the number of people in their family who were killed during the attack in May 2012 that caused them to flee. A few weeks after this photo was taken this village was attacked, houses and shelters were burned and an estimated 20 people killed. Thousands of displaced people were forced to flee again.

Emily Lynch

A grandmother and her granddaughters prepare dinner in an abandoned building in South Kivu that now houses hundreds of displaced families.

Emily Lynch

Women prepare to cook on the porch of an abandoned building where, at the time this photograph was taken, more than 500 displaced people were living. Tens of thousands of people in the area remain without adequate food, clean water, or shelter. 

Emily Lynch

A woman in South Kivu carries a colis (package) on her back. Often the only work to be found for the newly displaced is to transport goods on market days. Anyone fortunate enough to find this work may walk 5-6 hours carrying bags weighing between 100-130 pounds to earn 1000 Congolese francs (roughly $1) a day.

Emily Lynch

A mother waits with her daughter -- who is suffering from a high fever, chills, and general weakness -- in the crowd outside of a mobile clinic supported by MSF. Along with thousands of others, their family had displaced to this area after an attack on their village in May 2012. This wave of displacements prompted MSF to begin weekly outreach with mobile clinics to the area, providing ambulance transport for emergency cases to the closest hospital, a 4-6 hour drive by road in the dry season.

Emily Lynch

A nurse at a mobile clinic supported by MSF helps a mother prepare a rehydration solution for her young son who, along with severe dehydration, has tested positive for malaria. This family was displaced from their village in 2009 and has been living in a temporary shelter in the area since that time. A few weeks after this photograph was taken, this village was also attacked and the thousands living there fled.

Emily Lynch

Still, even with the mass displacement and constant conflict, humor and life continue. Above, a young man poses for an audience with his guitar.

Emily Lynch

Displaced families in South Kivu wait to receive coupons for a food distribution organized by an international NGO. Many displaced people live with host families, in unofficial refugee sites, or in areas that are inaccessible by road. Aid and food distribution may take weeks or months to reach them, and in many cases no aid arrives at all.

Emily Lynch

A young boy sets the small fish he caught out to dry; this meal represents unusual bounty for thousands of displaced people who are living on less than one meal a day. 

Emily Lynch