Protracted conflict, serious human rights violations and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law are causing grave suffering for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Congolese refugees, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warns. The warning follows a humanitarian assessment visit to the DRC, including the capital Kinshasa and the eastern provinces, by the agency's top refugee protection official.
“I am extremely concerned about the forgotten but devastating plight facing civilians in the DRC. It is a travesty that atrocities continue to confront this long-suffering civilian population and that even in their quest for safety, they face a litany of human rights violations,” said Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, in a statement Monday.
Since the beginning of 2024, more than 2.4 million people have been forced to flee violence perpetrated by a wide range of non-state armed groups (NSAGs). Many of those forced to flee have been displaced multiple times. Humanitarian needs are acute, with protection, food, shelter and sanitation of paramount importance.
Today, the DRC has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world, with more than 7.3 million people scattered throughout the country, most of them - 6.4 million - in the eastern provinces. 2.8 million people are currently displaced in the province of North Kivu alone. More than 1.1 million refugees have sought safety in neighboring countries.
Fighting between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) has forced millions of people to flee their homes. The M23 is the most prominent of more than 130 armed groups reportedly active in the strategic and resource-rich region, which has been at the center of several conflicts since the 1990s.
Clashes between the Congolese army and the M23 escalated in March 2022. Violent confrontations between members of M23, FARDC and coalitions of armed groups resumed in North Kivu in October 2023 and intensified in the first half of 2024, again forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
By the end of August this year, UNHCR protection monitors had identified more than 71,200 victims of human rights violations.
“I have spoken with displaced women and men in Ituri and North Kivu provinces. They have witnessed and experienced unimaginable horrors – killings, detention, kidnapping, extortion, and recruitment of their children by armed groups. Women and girls, in particular, are faced with an unbearable situation – their bodies are a battleground,” Menikdiwela said.
She warned that gender-based violence (GBV) was widespread and that sexual violence was being systematically used by parties to the conflict on an unprecedented scale.
According to data collected by the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) in the DRC, in North Kivu alone, the number of reported cases of gender-based violence in the first half of this year (27,328) was significantly higher than in the same period last year (20,771). Alarmingly, rape accounts for 63 percent of these cases.
UNHCR teams are increasingly seeing displaced women and girls resort to harmful coping mechanisms, including selling sex to survive and making dangerous forays into conflict zones in search of food and firewood.
In many remote areas, humanitarian access is cut off or resources and assistance are scarce. Access to justice also remains limited, and survivors fear retaliation and social marginalization.
Menikdiwela called on all parties to urgently prioritize the well-being of civilians, including displaced persons, by ensuring the humanitarian and civilian nature of displacement sites and restoring safe passage for displaced populations.
Overcrowding and deteriorating sanitary conditions in displacement sites have raised deep concerns among humanitarian actors in recent weeks that displaced populations may face increased exposure to disease, including the virulent mpox virus.
During her mission, the Assistant High Commissioner also met with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Home Affairs, as well as provincial authorities and humanitarian partners.
She conveyed UNHCR's commitment to continue working with the authorities to assist, protect and find solutions for the forcibly displaced.
“It is abundantly clear that peace is the most sustainable and durable of solutions and is urgently needed,” Menikdiwela added.
“What I saw also gives a reason for hope. There is a strong commitment by the various actors to seek solutions. I visited internally displaced families who have benefited from local integration schemes, building their homes, establishing small businesses and contributing positively to their new communities. Authorities have played a key role here, and these efforts must be scaled up,” she said.
UNHCR is also calling for additional support and funding from the international community. As of 31 August, UNHCR had received only 37 percent of the $250 million needed to meet the needs of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Overall, donors have contributed more than $1.15 billion in humanitarian assistance to the 2024 UN Humanitarian Response Plan for the DRC, but this is only 45 percent of the nearly $2.6 billion needed to support the 8.7 million most vulnerable people in 2024 (as of October 2).
Also on Monday, the UN Security Council received a briefing from Bintou Keita, head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). She told Security Council members that there has been a decrease in fighting since the cease-fire agreement announced in late July between the warring parties in the east.
The head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world - called on Member States to remain engaged in peace building efforts as MONUSCO begins its phased withdrawal and the security situation remains fragile.
Keita reiterated the Mission's support for the ongoing mediation, adding that with an active framework for dialogue between the DRC and Rwanda, a real prospect for peace could be envisaged.
The situation in the east of the country had deteriorated in the first half of the year, despite numerous military operations by the FARDC, often supported by MONUSCO, and the Southern African Development Community Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).
Several tenuous ceasefires have been in place. An initial two-week humanitarian ceasefire was announced on July 5, but was not fully respected. The latest ceasefire between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda has been in effect in the east since August 4.
The open-ended ceasefire in the eastern region of the country was announced by Angola on July 30. Neighboring Rwanda supports the M23 armed group and has reinforced its support for the M23 in 2024.
The eastern DRC is home to several armed groups, including the M23, the Coopérative pour le développement du Congo (CODECO), Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, and Mai Mai militias. The cyclical violence perpetrated by armed groups and the subsequent displacement affects millions of vulnerable civilians.
While the DRC continues to experience violence from more than 130 armed groups operating in the eastern regions, MONUSCO has been present in the regions since 1999.
However, UN peacekeepers are due to withdraw from the eastern provinces as part of the mission's drawdown plan from the DRC. The force has already withdrawn from South Kivu province. MONUSCO will complete its withdrawal from the country by the end of 2024, raising fears for the protection of civilians and the specter of a worsening humanitarian emergency.
The planned withdrawal of the UN mission is likely to create a power vacuum that will allow non-state armed groups to consolidate and escalate their activities, leading to a surge in violence, human rights violations and further population displacement.
At the Security Council, Keita highlighted other challenges, including the outbreak of mpox.
Africa is experiencing a surge in mpox cases and deaths. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the epicenter of this epidemic, with 90 percent of all cases in the African region. Cases are occurring in all provinces of the country, with multiple clades 2 simultaneously emerging in endemic and non-endemic provinces.
Cross-border transmission from the war-torn eastern provinces of North and South Kivu into neighboring countries is accelerating, particularly into Burundi, but also into Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.