In pictures: Surviving Congo

Maloani Isungo (centre), a man in his 60s, lives with a dozen relatives in two small clay huts by the side of a dirt track in Maniema province.

Over a candlelit bowl of rice and sardines, his son Axel (right) says that his wife gave birth to a daughter by caesarean-section in a nearby town.

"She lost a lot of blood, and she's not feeling well," he says. "But the baby's fine.

"I am lucky; I am one of three in our village to own a motorbike. The others have to walk if there's an emergency."