The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that violent clashes in parts of the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) continue to harm civilians and force them to flee their homes. In parallel, the ongoing conflict in the east of the country has exacerbated the food crisis, with an estimated 27.7 million Congolese facing acute hunger.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday that new data from the latest Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) analysis reveals the highest number of acutely food insecure people ever recorded in DRC, amid massive displacement and rising food prices.
© WFP/Michael Castofas
According to the latest IPC analysis, released on the same day, nearly 28 million people in DRC are now facing acute hunger (IPC Phase 3 or worse) - a number that has jumped by 2.5 million since the latest outbreak of violence in December. This includes 3.9 million people in emergency level of hunger (IPC Phase 4) and more than 23.8 million in crisis levels (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 Phase 4.
Internally displaced people (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 analyzed are experiencing acute hunger, with an alarming 738,000 in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4).
"The humanitarian situation in the DRC is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Families who were already struggling to feed themselves are now facing an even harsher reality,” Eric Perdison, WFP's ad interim Country Director in the DRC, said in a statement on Thursday.
“We have resumed operations in parts of North and South Kivu, and we are committed to do more to support those at risk, but we urgently need more resources.”
The situation is particularly dire in DRC's conflict-affected eastern provinces, where families have lost access to their livestock and livelihoods. Armed clashes continue to disrupt food production and trade routes, while humanitarian access remains limited as security risks hamper the delivery of essential aid.
Conflict zones have spread to several villages and towns, particularly Goma and Bukavu. The security situation throughout eastern DRC remains highly volatile. Human rights violations, including reprisal killings and abductions, continue to be reported.
While between 700,000 and 800,000 people have been displaced internally, more than 108,000 people have fled from DRC to neighboring countries since the beginning of the year, the majority, some 70,000, to Burundi, which is struggling to cope.
With some 90,000 new refugee arrivals expected through 2025, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Friday launched a US$76.5 million response plan to address the impact of the DRC emergency on Burundi.
On Thursday, the head of the UN mission in the country told the UN Security Council that an increasingly volatile situation - driven by renewed incursions by rebel militias - is killing and displacing civilians in eastern DRC.
“The political and security context remains very tense,” said Bintou Keita, the UN special envoy to DRC and head of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
In the east of the country, the Congo River Alliance and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) - backed by the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF) - are consolidating control over South Kivu province, threatening to expand into Tshopo and Maniema provinces, and establishing a parallel administration.
UN peacekeepers have been deployed in the DRC since 2010, with a mandate to protect civilians and reinforce the Congolese government's efforts to quell violence and insecurity from multiple armed groups in the east. More than 60 percent of MONUSCO forces are deployed in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri.
At the request of the Congolese government, MONUSCO had withdrawn its troops from South Kivu province in June 2024, but Kinshasa changed course and asked the Security Council to extend MONUSCO's mandate until the end of 2025.
All parties must “honor their stated commitment to silence the guns and pursue a peaceful solution”, Keita stressed.
Meanwhile, the overall security situation in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri remains volatile.
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 CODECO (Coopérative pour le développement du Congo) and Zaïre armed groups have escalated in Ituri province. The human rights situation is also deteriorating, with abuses against civilians, including summary executions.
Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council, also addressed the Security Council, stating that since the end of January, her organization has been “racing to respond to the erratic and constant movement of internally displaced persons [IDPs] seeking safety” since the end of January.
The recent explosion in violence in and around Goma has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation in the east, resulting in the forcible displacement of 660,000 people - adding to the 6.7 million already displaced across the country at the end of 2024.
“With little notice, families were kicked out of their shelters, forced to leave with nothing but the clothes they were wearing,” Slente said.
She described appalling living conditions in makeshift camps, churches and schools, noting widespread looting, shootings, rampant sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and reports of boys and men being forced to join armed groups.
“One person told us they wake each morning to find new dead bodies on the streets,” she recalled, adding that 98 percent of her organization’s case management for human-rights violations has been for rape.
And while humanitarian work is under extreme pressure due to recent funding cuts, the displacement crisis will only worsen, she said.
As of today, only 7.8 per cent of the 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded.
Stressing the need to ensure the safe and voluntary return of IDPs, Slente also called on the Council to ensure humanitarian access throughout the country.
UNHCR and other aid agencies have warned that critical funding gaps are severely hampering humanitarian efforts in eastern DRC, leaving thousands without life-saving assistance and "pushing an already dire humanitarian situation closer to catastrophe".
In a related development, UN-appointed human rights experts on Wednesday called for urgent action to address grave violations against children in DR Congo amid escalating hostilities in the eastern provinces.
“The recent surge in violence has led to indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations, massacres and conflict-related sexual violence, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law,” the experts said.
Reports from health facilities indicate a surge in rape cases, with children accounting for 30 percent of those treated. Humanitarian agencies have identified more than 1,100 unaccompanied and separated children in North and South Kivu, while attacks on hospitals, humanitarian facilities and civilian infrastructure have further exacerbated the crisis.
“Child-sensitive measures must be immediately implemented to protect children from these violations,” the experts said.
“These include strengthening early warning and child protection risk alert systems, developing robust age verification methods to prevent child recruitment, and authorizing access for child protection agencies to visit military sites to verify that no children have been unlawfully recruited.”
The independent experts called on all parties to the conflict, including those directly engaged in hostilities and those in command of armed groups, “to halt these atrocities and to uphold their legal obligations to protect civilians, particularly children.”
Since early January, the longstanding instability and insecurity in eastern DRC has escalated as the M23 rebel group has stepped up fighting and continued to seize territory in North and South Kivu provinces.
The Rwandan-backed M23 captured South Kivu's capital, Bukavu, on February 16, about three weeks after seizing North Kivu's capital, Goma, where fighting has left thousands dead and thousands others injured.
After seizing the two largest cities in eastern DRC, the rebels have also taken control of other key towns, including Masisi, Sake and Nyabibwe, and have set up "parallel administrations" in some of the areas they control.
These occupations have resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in and around Goma. The M23 has forced hundreds of thousands to return to their areas of origin in a second wave of displacement.
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.
Even before the recent escalation of armed conflict, the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced one of the largest and most underreported humanitarian crises in the world, characterized by widespread human rights violations and massive forced displacement.
Further information
Full text: Democratic Republic of the Congo: Acute Food Insecurity Projection Update for January - June 2025, Snapshot, IPC, released March 27, 2025
https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_DRC_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Jan_Jun2025_snapshot_English.pdf