BUKAVU, Congo, Sept 8, (AP): In the city of Bukavu in eastern Congo, Alain Mukumiro argues in a small wooden hut with a shopkeeper who refuses to take his money. Like many in the rebel-controlled city, Mukumiro is using older, hole-punched banknotes that have been patched up and put back into circulation because of a shortage of new and intact bills.

"All my money has serial numbers, but they refuse it,” Mukumiro said, upset about his ordeal. Mukumiro said his family faces yet another night with empty stomachs, like many in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province. The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured Bukavu in February following an escalation of fighting between the insurgents and Congolese forces in the country's mineral-rich east.

Congolese authorities closed the city’s banks as the conflict intensified, leading to a shortage of cash in the region. The perforated notes appear to be old bills that the banks intended to destroy to take them out of circulation. It's unclear how they went back onto the market, but residents suspect they were stolen from bank buildings during the rebel takeover.

The older bills exchange for new ones at a rate of about 10-to-1, said Ruboneka Mirindi Innocent, one of several local residents who now work on the black market as money-changers. "We keep these banknotes because we don’t know what else to do, it’s just to help each other out,” he said. The fighting earlier this year worsened what was already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with around 7 million people displaced and more towns and cities falling under the control of the rebels.

Banks have remained closed in Bukavu and and other key cities in the region, such as Goma, preventing the cities' residents from accessing cash. That has made life difficult in Bukavu, which once was booming with economic activity. Having both intact and patched up notes in circulation at the same time has resulted in confusion and tensions between businesses and customers.

"It’s a real headache because some sellers accept them and others don’t,” said Mukumiro, 36. A father of three working as a fridge technician, Mukumiro and his family are running out of ideas to cope as businesses decline the hole-punched banknotes - the only bills he has left.