The humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continues to deteriorate amid ongoing conflict that has displaced tens of thousands of people and caused widespread hunger, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. UN aid agencies are struggling in particular in provinces overrun by Rwanda-backed rebels from the March 23 Movement (M23). However, dramatic funding shortfalls for humanitarian operations have also contributed to the dire situation.
The M23 is a non-state armed group that primarily operates in eastern DRC, mainly in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. It is involved in an ongoing conflict with the Congolese army and other armed groups, causing significant displacement and exacerbating the region's humanitarian crisis.
Since the start of 2025, the M23 has seized control of various territories, resulting in thousands of deaths, injuries and large-scale movements of people, as well as the establishment of parallel administrations. Despite peace commitments in Doha and Washington, as well as an agreed ceasefire between the M23 and the DRC government, fighting continues in the eastern provinces.
The M23 receives support from neighboring Rwanda, which has sent troops across the border to reinforce the group’s military operations. The armed group is known for competing for control of the region's valuable mineral resources.
“The numbers of people facing the emergency level of hunger is surging. It has almost doubled since last year. This has been driven by the various conflicts in the Eastern DRC – and demonstrates the impact of a major shift in the Eastern DRC context,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP's country director for DRC, on Friday.
An area the size of Switzerland has fallen under the de facto control of the M23, causing massive population movement, including large-scale forced returns, as all displaced sites have been dismantled.
Jones said that “people forced to return with nothing” found “their houses destroyed, fields looted or farmed by others, and ongoing new displacement as the fighting continues.”
“In the eastern provinces, families have been forced from their homes over and over again: a total of 5.2 million people are displaced, including 1.6 million this year alone, making eastern DRC one of the world’s largest displacement crises,” she added.
“This is coupled with the major disruptions to markets, national services and systems – health, education and banking systems —with banks closed and no money available – in these areas. This has had a major impact on the population and the humanitarian response.”
The escalation has further devastated the livelihoods and food security of affected communities.
Friday’s WFP alert follows the release of a report by UN-backed food insecurity experts at the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) that warns 24.8 million people are experiencing high levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse) in the country.
In DR Congo’s eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika, one in three people — over 10 million — are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse.
Over 3.2 million people, most of whom live in the eastern part of the country, are facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), which is characterized by significant food shortages and high levels of acute malnutrition.
“This means what for families? It means that they're skipping their meals, depleting all of their household assets. They're selling off their animals,” Jones said, speaking via video from Kinshasa to journalists in Geneva.
According to the UN agency, “people are already dying of hunger” in parts of eastern DR Congo.
“Malnutrition among children is also alarmingly high. In some areas, reports indicate that over 60 percent of children are malnourished,” she said. “I have seen for myself the difficult choices that women make trying to feed their children.”
Malnutrition is driven by poor diets, limited access to healthcare and recurring disease outbreaks. Nationwide, nearly half of all children under five – around 3.2 million – are stunted due to chronic undernutrition.
The WFP official insisted that help could be provided more easily if air access were re-established.
“The two airports in DRC’s east – Goma and Bukavu airports – have been shut for months. WFP is urgently calling for a humanitarian air bridge to be established,” she said.
“Either for the partial re-opening of the airport of Goma for the resumption of humanitarian flights, or, if this is not possible, cross-border flights between eastern DRC and western Rwanda. This would improve the effectiveness of the response.”
Despite the deepening hunger crisis, funding for lifesaving humanitarian work is running out, and the UN agency has been forced to reduce the number of people it assists from around one million at the start of the year to 600,000 today.
“We will only be able to support a fraction of those in need” moving forward, Jones said, in an appeal for $350 million to support emergency food and nutrition assistance over the next six months.
“Without it, we will have to make further cuts reduce [assistance] even further, down to 300,000 - which is only 10 percent of the 3 million in need.”
Without a significant funding boost, the WFP warned of a “total pipeline break” in assistance by March 2026.
“That means a complete halt of all emergency food assistance in the eastern provinces,” she said.
The dire funding shortfall has also impacted the agency internally, too.
“We're starting to close downtown offices, we're reducing our footprint, the number of staff and juggling how to maintain the operational capacity to deliver in a very complex environment,” Jones explained.
As the conflict drags on, families are seeking shelter in urban centers, where host communities are already struggling to cope. Equally worrying is the fact that millions of subsistence farmers have been forced from their homes or are too fearful to access their land, causing them to miss the planting season this year.
“The women, children, men, they've just been suffering devastating sequences of the violence, perpetrated by the non-state armed groups and fleeing from conflict. They're tired, exhausted and need peace,” Jones insisted.
She stressed that WFP is doing “all we can, but we can do more and reach more people.”
“We are asking for support in one of the world’s largest hunger crises. We are calling on donors, partners, and the international community to assist and help the people of DRC and bring in hope for millions.”