Since the beginning of the year, renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) has led to a dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation and mass displacement, particularly in North and South Kivu provinces. Widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law have been reported, including summary executions, indiscriminate attacks, sexual violence, and the recruitment of children.
According to UN officials, the escalation of conflict in the eastern region of the DRC has reached levels not seen in the last three decades. The worsening violence has exacerbated what was already one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Since early January, the longstanding instability and insecurity in the DRC has escalated as the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) rebel group has intensified fighting and continued to seize territory in North and South Kivu provinces, where fighting has left thousands dead and thousands more injured.
On January 27, 2025, the Rwandan-backed M23 captured the capital of North Kivu, Goma. The rebel group continued its offensive southward, taking control of additional towns. On February 16, the M23 took control of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. According to the DRC government, an estimated 7,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting.
After seizing the two largest cities in eastern DRC, the rebels have also seized other key towns, including Masisi, Sake and Nyabibwe, and have set up "parallel administrations" in some of the areas they control. The occupations have resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
Since January, more than one million people - including an estimated 400,000 children - have been displaced by the violence in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, but the situation remains highly volatile and difficult to assess. The M23 has also forced hundreds of thousands of people to return to their areas of origin in a second wave of displacement.
In a recent report, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that internal displacement and return movements are occurring simultaneously, with approximately 4 million people estimated to be displaced in North and South Kivu.
According to UNHCR, efforts are underway to track the movements of internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees, however, the volatile security situation and difficulties in humanitarian access mean that it remains difficult to obtain a comprehensive picture of displacement.
At the same time, many IDP settlements have been deliberately dismantled by the M23 armed group. It is estimated that nearly 900,000 people have been forcibly displaced, mostly in North Kivu province, as a result of the targeted emptying and dismantling of IDP sites by the new rulers.
The precarious situation has prompted more than 123,000 people to seek refuge in neighboring countries in the first three months of this year, mainly in Burundi and Uganda. About 70,000 refugees and asylum seekers have arrived in Burundi, while about 48,000 people have crossed into Uganda.
The neighboring province of Tanganyika in the southeast is also feeling the effects of this instability, with thousands of displaced people sheltering in schools, disrupting educational activities. Since February, the Kalemie territory in the province has hosted more than 50,000 displaced people.
Prior to the 2025 crisis, some 7.8 million people, including nearly 4 million children, were forced to flee their homes in DRC, mainly due to conflict, with 6.7 million internally displaced persons and 1.1 million Congolese refugees abroad. In addition, the DRC hosts some 520,000 refugees from neighboring countries.
The M23 rebel group is one of more than 130 armed groups operating in eastern DRC, primarily in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, vying for control of valuable and abundant mineral resources, including gold, diamonds, uranium, and copper, as well as coltan and cobalt, key components in batteries used in electric cars, cell phones, and other electronics.
Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels have taken advantage of the security vacuum created by the redeployment of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) to launch attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
In addition, clashes between the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) and Zaïre armed groups have escalated in Ituri province. The human rights situation there is also deteriorating, with widespread abuses against civilians, including summary executions.
Even before the recent escalation of armed conflict, the DR Congo faced one of the largest and most underreported humanitarian crises in the world, characterized by widespread human rights violations and massive forced displacement.
With a population of approximately 118 million, DRC was estimated to have 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance at the beginning of 2025, one of the highest numbers in the world.
The protracted conflict in the east of the country has exacerbated the country's food crisis, with an estimated 27.7 million Congolese facing acute hunger. According to the latest IPC analysis, released in late March, the total includes 3.9 million people in emergency hunger (IPC Phase 4) and more than 23.8 million in crisis (IPC Phase 3).
In recent months, a worsening food crisis has gripped the people of DRC, where conflict, economic instability and rising food prices have put millions of people at risk. The situation has worsened in the four provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika, where more than 10.3 million people are facing crisis levels or worse, including 2.3 million in in emergency levels of hunger (Phase 4.)
IDPs fleeing violence remain among the most vulnerable, bearing the brunt of the worsening hunger crisis. According to the IPC, more than 2.2 million of the 3.7 million IDPs surveyed are experiencing acute hunger, with an alarming 738,000 in emergency levels of food insecurity.
UNHCR and other aid agencies have warned that critical funding gaps are severely hampering the humanitarian response in eastern DRC, leaving thousands without life-saving assistance and "pushing an already dire humanitarian situation closer to catastrophe".
The humanitarian response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains severely underfunded. Aid agencies in the DRC have requested US$2.54 billion to assist 11 million people in 2025. To date, only 8.5 percent of the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded, while needs are skyrocketing.
The Central African country is also facing the impact of climate change, which has exacerbated the effects of recurrent flooding in many provinces of DR Congo.
To make matters worse, heavy rains in recent weeks have caused flooding in the southeastern province of Tanganyika, resulting in casualties and damage. According to aid agencies, some 10,000 people have been displaced by the flooding of the Rugumba River, with the towns of Kalemie and Nyunzu in Tanganyika the worst affected.