Children are bearing the brunt of a devastating humanitarian crisis, in the eastern Province of Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where years of ethnic fighting between the Twa and Luba groups, has forced hundreds of thousands to abandon their homes. As of January 2018, a record 700,000 are thought to have become displaced in the war-torn area. Many have sought refuge in squalid, overcrowded displacement sites near the city of Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika Province. An extreme lack of water, food and shelter means families are faced with impossible choices: children as young as 5 years old are being forced into cheap labour as parents say they are no longer able to care for them.

She is not alone. Most mornings at dawn, an army of children – some barely five years old – swarm the empty streets on the outskirts of Kalemie, the capital of Tanganyika province in the south-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As with Françoise, years of fighting have forced them out of the classroom and into poorly paid jobs to support their families.

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“All of us here used to be in school; now we work to earn money to eat,” says Françoise, picking grains of sand from her scalp. “All the children complain because the sand is heavy and we get tired. I feel sick, my legs are in pain and my head hurts all the time.”

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Sand is a popular, low-cost building material in the area. On a good day, Françoise can earn up to 30 cents for every 25 kilos she carries. But even that’s not enough to help the family make ends meet, says her father, Philippe Kika Malisawa, 58, who transports sand alongside his daughter. “Our parents never made us work like this,” he recalls. “We just sat back and our father would bring us food. But now that we are displaced, we suffer tremendously.”

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Scores of civilians have been forced to flee their homes. Now they are seeking refuge in squalid, overcrowded sites near and around Kalemie and in other parts of Tanganyika province. As more people struggle to sustain their livelihoods, children are being forced to work.

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“All my life has been about is fleeing war,” says Françoise, wiping sweat from her forehead. “I wish we could stop transporting sand and go back to school.”