United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher allocated US$13.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) on Wednesday to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo). In the midst of a severe funding crisis, $10 million will support the delivery of immediate, life-saving assistance for displaced people in DRC, while $3.5 million will bolster urgent refugee response efforts in neighboring Burundi.
Since early December, escalating armed conflict in the DRC's South Kivu province has resulted in the forced displacement of an estimated 500,000 people. Families are sheltering in public spaces, overcrowded sites, and with overstretched host communities. The renewed violence has also led to an influx of refugees into Burundi.
Basic services across South Kivu are reportedly on the brink of collapse. Health facilities have been looted, medicines are unavailable, and schools remain shut down. Education has been severely disrupted, leaving more than 391,000 children out of school. Impacted communities are extremely vulnerable, deprived of safe water, medical care, and livelihoods.
In Burundi, more than 88,000 new arrivals — including Congolese refugees and Burundian returnees — have further strained an already fragile system. Border points and transit centers are operating at nearly twice their capacity. In both contexts, people are facing acute shortages of food, shelter, protection services, and healthcare amid heightened risks of disease outbreaks.
On Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which manages CERF, announced that the new funds will support the most vulnerable displaced and host communities in DRC's South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces, focusing on life-saving programs.
In Burundi, the additional resources will go toward stabilizing conditions at reception centers, reducing overcrowding, supporting relocations to the Bweru site, and delivering critical aid.
Congolese refugees in Burundi urgently need support
On Monday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a non-governmental organization (NGO), stressed that people who have fled to Burundi face dire living conditions in the camps. They have limited access to clean water, food, hygiene, and other basic necessities as more people continue to arrive.
MSF said it was expanding its emergency response and warned of the risk of epidemic diseases spreading, such as cholera, measles, and malaria, which are particularly dangerous for people already vulnerable in the midst of this crisis.
“The camp is saturated, you can see a few families sharing the same tent, and the ground is covered in mud. We see people holding two-liter water bottles and this is all they have to cover their water needs; food is almost unavailable,” said Zakari Moluh, MSF project coordinator. He was describing the situation at the Ndava site in Cibitoke, in the northwest of Burundi.
“We fear a worsening of the health and humanitarian situation,” Moluh added.
With the political and security situation in DR Congo evolving rapidly, refugees face much uncertainty. Meanwhile, the authorities and humanitarian organizations operating in Burundi are overwhelmed by the needs of the displaced population.
People need immediate mobilization of aid agencies to provide vital healthcare and other essential support. Reproductive health and care for survivors of sexual violence are among the primary needs.
“We see people in a state of distress, despair and exhaustion. We see women who gave birth while fleeing, some that give birth in our clinic,” Moluh said.
As of Monday, around 29,000 people had arrived at the long-term Bweru displacement camp in eastern Burundi, where they received assistance from the government and international humanitarian organizations. MSF is scaling up its emergency medical response across the country, providing support for cholera and measles treatment, vaccinations, and water and sanitation services.
WFP scales up assistance to those displaced as resources risk running out
On Tuesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it is expanding its efforts to provide lifesaving assistance to over 210,000 of the most vulnerable individuals displaced by recent violence in eastern DRC. However, while some food supplies are prepositioned in the conflict area, the WFP urgently needs $67 million to continue its assistance efforts for three months and an additional $12 million for operations in Burundi.
“This hunger crisis risks spiraling without urgent action,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP Country Director ad interim in DRC.
“Not only are those forced to flee in dire need, but families who have provided shelter, already living at emergency levels of food insecurity, are sharing their last food with displaced neighbors—pushing all of them closer to utter desperation.”
WFP aims to provide survival packages containing cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, iodized salt, and specialized nutrition to prevent malnutrition in young children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women to the most vulnerable displaced families and host communities in South Kivu.
“Without urgent support and additional funding, we cannot respond to a crisis that is teetering on the brink of a hunger catastrophe,” Jones said.
The violence has forced many to flee to other neighboring countries, including Rwanda.
This latest escalation of needs comes at a time when WFP operations globally, and particularly in these countries, are already severely underfunded. In order to maintain operations across all programs in all three countries for the next six months, the UN agency urgently requires over $400 million.
The security situation in South Kivu has sharply worsened since early December, when the Alliance Fleuve Congo/Mouvement du 23 mars (AFC/M23) launched an offensive in several locations. This occurred despite recent "peace commitments" by the M23 and Rwanda, which backs, controls, and supports the M23 rebel group.
The Washington Accords, signed on December 4, reinforced the DRC's and Rwanda's commitment to ending the conflict, fostering economic integration, implementing the June 2025 Peace Agreement, and creating stability in the Great Lakes region by focusing on security and economic growth.
On November 15, the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed by the DRC government and the M23. It outlined protocols for a ceasefire, prisoner exchange, humanitarian access, disarming groups, and restoring state authority. The framework aims to resolve the root causes of the conflict through dialogue and monitoring mechanisms.
However, the situation on the ground contradicts these commitments as it continues to deteriorate following the M23 offensive.
Armed conflict: the primary driver of humanitarian needs
Ongoing armed conflict remains the primary cause of humanitarian needs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For years, the human rights and humanitarian crises in DRC have spiraled, prompting the United Nations to repeatedly warn of the dire situation and urge the international community to pay more attention to the plight of Congolese civilians.
This year, hostilities have expanded across North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri, causing massive displacement, including returns and continuous back-and-forth movements, as well as heightened protection risks for civilians. Despite its vast natural resources, DRC has some of the highest poverty and vulnerability levels globally.
The eastern provinces, particularly South Kivu, North Kivu, and Ituri, have been plagued by violence for decades as non-state armed groups fight for control of the region's rich natural resources. Many of those forced to flee have been displaced multiple times.
According to the latest food security analysis, 26.6 million Congolese are projected to experience crisis-level acute hunger or worse by early 2026. The situation is most dire in the conflict-ridden eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika. Ongoing conflict, violence, displacement, and limited humanitarian access exacerbate food insecurity in these provinces.
By January 2026, more than 10 million people — roughly one-third of the population in these four provinces — are expected to experience crisis levels of hunger, with 3 million already facing emergency conditions.
Despite the severity of the situation, the world has largely turned a blind eye to the ongoing emergency. With over 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance this year alone, DR Congo is experiencing one of the world's largest and most complex humanitarian crises.
Severe access restrictions and funding shortages continue to hinder the entire humanitarian response effort, forcing many aid agencies to curtail their operations and disrupting life-saving services for those in desperate need. As a result, the lives of millions of people in the country are endangered.
The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan requested $2.5 billion to assist 11 million people, yet it is currently only 22 percent funded, having received only $566 million thus far.