But with his main supplier the nearby Heineken-owned Bralima brewery - shuttered, he expects to close his doors within the week.

Congo's Tutsi-led M23 rebels  supported by Rwandan soldiers and weapons, according to UN  investigators have carried out their most successful offensive in over a decade this year, seizing eastern Congo's largest city Goma in January before turning south and taking Bukavu.

The push has triggered a flurry of condemnations and sanctions against Rwanda, which denies supporting the rebels, as well as efforts to broker an end to the fighting.
But with peace elusive, businesses and residents in M23-held areas are digging in against the economic fallout.Prices for food and essential goods are sky-rocketing.

Farmers displaced by fighting cannot harvest their crops. Banks are shut and supplies of cash are under strain.

"We can no longer access our fields or our bank accounts. The economy is blocked and paralysed," said Bukavu resident Merci Kalimbiro.
The economic impact has hit large and small business alike.

Days of looting and a prison break preceded the rebels' arrival in the city of over a million people after the withdrawal of government troops and their Burundian allies left behind a security vacuum.Like many businesses, Heineken said its facilities were hit, with looters raiding beverage depots, entering the brewery and severely damaging its control room.
Days later, soldiers and militia fighters looted a Bralima depot in the city of Uvira, around 100 kilometres (62 miles) further south.

"It will take some time to assess the damage," a Heineken spokesperson told Reuters. "Businesses urgently need to see an end to the conflict and violence and a start to a meaningful peace process."

--Reuters--