Democratic Republic of Congo: Violence-ridden humanitarian crisis worsens as new refugee flows arrive

ROMA – With record levels of internal displacement, severe food insecurity and gender-based violence, urgent action is needed to stem the worsening humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, warns theInternational Organization for Migration (OIM), at the end of a three-day visit to the country.

The situation on the ground. Many people who have recently been affected by the conflict have already been displaced before and have been living in precarious conditions in makeshift camps for years. Women, on the other hand, bear the brunt of this conflict, with increasing levels of sexual and gender-based violence. Clashes between DRC government forces and the M23 armed group, the most dangerous of the more than 100 armed groups active in the region, considered strategic and rich in resources, have forced over 7 million people to abandon their homes, sometimes several times. 2.6 million people have been displaced in North Kivu alone. In other parts of the country, such as the capital Kinshasa, heavy rains and a series of floods have forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

The violence. The situation deteriorated in particular in the four eastern regions of North Kivu, Ituri, South Kivu and Tanganyika from April to June. The period was also marked by fires in and around refugee camps, which constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law and undermines the provision of vital assistance. Meanwhile, in South Kivu, the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, completed the first phase of its withdrawal, limiting its operational presence to just two provinces: North Kivu and Ituri. A two-week humanitarian truce was announced in early July in the east of the country to ease hostilities, facilitate the return of displaced people to North Kivu province and protect civilians.

The floods. Heavy rains in East Africa, triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon, have raised the water level in Lake Tanganyika and the Congo Basin, causing flooding across the country. The floods have destroyed roads and bridges, livelihoods and agriculture. The impact of the rain on food security is particularly significant as regional and local supply chains for food and other essential goods have been disrupted. The latest analysis of chronic food insecurity by the IPC, a UN and government initiative that tracks hunger trends in at-risk countries, shows that 40 percent of the population, or 40 million people in total, are chronically hungry. According to data, the DRC is one of the world’s worst food crises.

Health. L’World Health Organization warns that the health crisis in the DRC is not only worsening but is also being exacerbated by widespread violence, climate, poverty and malnutrition. Specifically, the country is facing one of the worst outbreaks of cholera, measles and monkeypox in recent years. As of mid-June, more than 9,000 cases of smallpox have been recorded in 23 of the DRC’s 26 provinces, including camps hosting internally displaced people in Goma. The threat of a rapid spread of the disease is very high, especially in refugee camps, given the lack of water and sanitation.

Humanitarian interventions. IOM delegates in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, visited the Lac Vert Bulengo site, which is currently hosting more than seventy thousand displaced people. Everything is missing: drinking water, food, sanitation equipment, but what is missing most, according to the testimonies of the refugees interviewed by the organization, is peace, which is also the essential condition for rebuilding life. The UN has requested 2.6 billion dollars in its 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but to date only 33 percent has been funded.