Those impacted by the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo) need much more international assistance than they are currently receiving, the United Nations' top aid official said on Thursday. Speaking from the Goma region, whose main city was overrun by Rwanda-backed rebels from the Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) in January, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher explained that people have suffered "decades of trauma."
Humanitarian conditions in eastern DRC remain dire, with ongoing reports of fighting. Since early January, escalating conflict and intensified attacks by the M23 in the provinces of North and South Kivu have displaced more than 4.1 million people and caused over 7,000 deaths.
Fletcher said the last few months have been “particularly horrific for so many”, referring to the lawless fall-out from heavy fighting this year between rebel fighters and the regular DRC army that has been linked to serious human rights abuses, including potential war crimes.
Widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law have been reported, including summary executions, indiscriminate attacks, sexual violence, and the recruitment of children.
“Most striking today and yesterday has been the stories of sexual violence and sitting with women who tell horrific stories which are too horrific for me to tell here and who are trying to find the courage to rebuild their lives,” the UN relief chief said.
“We’re there providing that support to them, trying to help them rebuild, but they have been through hell.”
All those newly displaced by the M23 rebel advance are in addition to the five million people already living in displacement camps in eastern DR Congo. Currently, over 20 million people require relief assistance.
“They are desperate for this conflict to end,” said Fletcher, who is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The day after NATO member states agreed to increase their collective defense funding by five percent, investment in the UN's humanitarian work and that of its partners is at rock bottom. Many member states have cut lifesaving aid for the most vulnerable, essentially leaving them to die, in order to boost defense spending.
In the DRC, the United States historically funded 70 percent of UN aid programs — "amazing generosity over decades," Fletcher noted. However, he insisted that today, "we're seeing most of that disappearing," forcing the humanitarian community to make "brutal choices, life-and-death choices" about who receives help.
“For these women - the survivors of sexual violence, for the kids who told me they needed water, for the communities that told me they needed shelter, medicine, these cuts are real right now and people are dying because of the cuts,” the top UN official explained.
“So, you feel the effect of the underfunding, you can feel that we're overstretched in terms of the needs being as great as ever, but we're having to prioritize a smaller number of people. And we're under attack; here in the DRC, we've lost twice as many humanitarian workers this year already as we did in the whole of last year.”
This year's full Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for the Democratic Republic of the Congo aims to assist 11 million people — out of the 21.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance across the country — at a cost of US$2.54 billion. However, to date, only $296 million — 12 percent — has been raised, despite escalating needs resulting from the crisis in eastern DRC.
A dramatic drop in funding, triggered by the United States' cessation of most contributions and cuts to humanitarian assistance by other major donors worldwide, has forced the humanitarian community in the DRC to reprioritize its response plan amid critical funding shortfalls.
In May, humanitarian agencies published a rigorous assessment identifying life-saving interventions to help 6.8 million of the most vulnerable people in the DRC at a cost of $1.25 billion — about half of what is needed for the full response plan.
This reprioritization is part of a global attempt to counteract the steadily diminishing amount of aid funding provided worldwide. Fletcher recently announced a "hyper-prioritized" plan to save 114 million lives worldwide this year. However, success depends on receiving the necessary funding.
“All we're asking for to do that is one percent of what the world spent on defense last year,” he continued.
Despite the difficulties associated with the protracted nature of the conflict in the DRC and the enormous needs, UN aid teams and their partners are “working hard to get access to those communities,” Fletcher stressed - “trying to get the airport back open, trying to get roads open, trying to unblock checkpoints that are impeding our aid from getting through”.
After visiting communities impacted by the fighting, the top UN official said they should not be forgotten.
“They are the frontlines of the humanitarian effort,” he said.
“I suppose the glimmer of hope in all of this is, yes, we can work in that more efficient and prioritized way and will do that; but also, the communities here who are - basically - they've come through so much, and they are determined to support each other.”
Despite rising antipathy toward international cooperation, including the work of the United Nations, Fletcher insisted that there are reasons for optimism.
“I really strongly believe there's a movement out there that will back this work, that will support this work,” he said.
“We've got to find them. We've got to enlist them, and we've got to show them that we can deliver for them. And, you know, I've not given up on human kindness and human solidarity. I've not given up on the UN Charter for a second. And this work is at the heart of it.”
Since the start of the year, renewed fighting in eastern DRC has led to a dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation and mass displacement, particularly in North and South Kivu provinces. Fighting there has left thousands dead and thousands of others injured.
The redeployment of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) has created a security vacuum that other armed groups have taken advantage of to launch attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in recent months.
According to the United Nations, the escalation of conflict in the eastern region of the country represents levels not witnessed in the last three decades. The worsening violence has exacerbated one of the world's worst and largest ongoing humanitarian crises.
While millions within the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu have been displaced by violence, the situation has also led some 142,000 people to seek refuge in neighboring countries, primarily Burundi and Uganda. Burundi has seen the arrival of some 67,000 refugees and asylum seekers, while Uganda has received some 42,000.
Prior to the 2025 crisis, the DRC had already had 6.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), hosted 520,000 refugees, and there were 1.1 million Congolese refugees abroad at the end of 2024.
Conflict, economic instability, and rising food prices are putting millions of Congolese at risk of a deepening food crisis. An estimated 27.7 million people are facing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse). This includes approximately 3.9 million people experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4).
The situation has particularly deteriorated in the four eastern 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 experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4).