Millions face starvation in Congo. Their new rulers are to blame.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. KAMPALA, Uganda—Ten million people face hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east, and it isn’t because there is no food to be had. It is largely because people can’t get what food there is.

The M23 rebel group that one year ago seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, has tried to establish itself as the prevailing government in the area and consolidate control. Instead, it has driven farmers from their land, left produce to rot at roadblocks and blocked food imports except those from its allies in neighboring Rwanda, according to local traders and activists. The result is empty shelves in most stores and sky-high prices for meat, milk, grain and vegetables in stores that do manage to stock up, residents and activists report.

Noella Amisi, a nurse in Goma, rushed out for baby formula, sugar and other groceries as soon as she received a $30 mobile-money transfer from her husband in government-held Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city. For hours, she crisscrossed the city looking for a stocked supermarket. She found nothing to buy.

“I am just trying my best to ensure that my children don’t starve, but every day the situation gets worse," said 28-year-old Amisi. The United Nations projects three million people in eastern Congo will likely slip into a food emergency by the end of June—its term for life-threatening hunger. After years of insurgencies, residents in eastern Congo are accustomed to food shortages, inflation and destitution.

But since the Rwandan-backed M23 stormed through the mineral-rich region and seized Goma and Bukavu, the region’s No. 2 city, people have had to comb looted markets for scraps of food. Some locals sell clothes and other personal items to raise cash to