Urgent and concerted action is needed to stem the worsening humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, DR Congo), a leading United Nations official warned today. With record levels of internal displacement, acute food insecurity and gender-based violence, the situation in DRC is one of the largest, most severe and most neglected humanitarian crises in the world.
The call for urgent and concerted action came as Amy Pope, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), concluded a three-day visit to the country.
In the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri in DR Congo, conflict has forced millions of people to flee their homes and become internally displaced or seek refuge in neighboring countries. Humanitarian needs are acute, with protection, food, shelter, and sanitation paramount.
“In eastern DRC, I met with people who have been affected by conflict their whole lives – displaced multiple times, living in the most challenging conditions in makeshift camps,“ Pope said.
“The situation facing women and girls – who are bearing the brunt of this conflict – is particularly distressing, with soaring levels of sexual and gender-based violence.”
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, many more than once. 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.
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 in the eastern provinces. 2.8 million people are currently displaced in the province of North Kivu alone.
The escalating conflict in eastern DRC is fueling record levels of gender-based violence.
A recent survey by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) of displaced people in four camps around Goma, the capital of North Kivu, shows alarming rates of violence, particularly sexual violence, that continue daily in and around the camps. More than one in ten young women report having been raped during the period covered by the survey (November 2023 - April 2024).
Pope traveled to the DRC in her capacity as head of IOM and as joint Principal Humanitarian Advocate of the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). The IASC is the UN system's highest-level humanitarian coordination forum, bringing together the heads of 20 UN and non-UN agencies.
Fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 escalated in March 2022. Violent clashes 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, forcing again hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
More than two years of armed conflict in North Kivu province have displaced millions of people within the DRC, resulting in a total of 6.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri. Since 2023, the conflict in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu has displaced more than 2.8 million people.
The influx of displaced people into host communities has strained existing resources and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.
Pope traveled to Goma, where she visited the Lac Vert Bulengo camp for displaced people - one of the largest of the many informal displacement sites that have sprung up in the area, currently home to some 70,000 people who have fled fighting in the region. There, she met with camp officials and spoke with women affected by the conflict.
“The humanitarian needs here are vast. Yet the displaced families I’ve spoken with here told me that, more than anything, they need peace to be able to rebuild their lives,” said Pope.
“So, while we need to continue to provide life-saving humanitarian aid, we know that alone is not the remedy. Given the scale and magnitude of needs in the DRC, working in partnership is crucial. We need to bring together efforts across the humanitarian, development and peace sectors to drive comprehensive, innovative, sustainable solutions – putting affected people at the center.”
She also called on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, ensure the protection of civilians, and facilitate the safe and unhindered delivery of aid.
Aid agencies are reporting severely restricted access to M23-controlled areas of North Kivu, where access to basic services and food is believed to be limited. The conflict in eastern DRC has created a multi-sectoral crisis affecting food insecurity, malnutrition, health, education, access to clean water and shelter.
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 militia. Cyclical violence perpetrated by armed groups and subsequent displacement affects millions of vulnerable civilians.
Several fragile ceasefires have been in place. An initial two-week humanitarian ceasefire was announced on July 5, but was not fully respected. A second consecutive temporary humanitarian ceasefire between the warring parties was set to expire at midnight on August 3.
Since August 4, the latest ceasefire between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda has been in effect in the east. 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.
"We hope this agreement will help create conditions for de-escalation of tensions between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda and enable the safe return of those internally displaced to their homes," UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on July 31.
The situation in the east of the country has deteriorated in recent months, despite numerous military operations by the FARDC, often supported by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, and the Southern African Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (SAMIDRC).
While the DRC continues to experience violence from more than 130 armed groups operating in the eastern regions, MONUSCO has been operating 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 the province of South Kivu. 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.
On Wednesday, MONUSCO welcomed the adoption of Resolution 2746 (2024) by the United Nations Security Council. This resolution authorizes increased support from MONUSCO to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Security Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC).
The resolution, unanimously adopted by Council members on Tuesday, mandates MONUSCO to provide support to SAMIDRC, including through enhanced coordination, information sharing, and technical and logistical support. The aim is to strengthen SAMIDRC's capabilities while ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights standards.
The authorization is seen as a commitment by the international community to support security and stabilization efforts in the DRC.
While the situation is worst in the east, heavy rains and flooding have also displaced tens of thousands of people in other parts of the country, including around the capital, Kinshasa. The flooding is exacerbating already high humanitarian needs, as infrastructure has been severely damaged and basic services have been severely disrupted.
In Kinshasa, the IOM chief met with DRC Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka and Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner to discuss shared humanitarian concerns and ways to strengthen cooperation in the short, medium and long term. She also met with representatives of the donor community, UN agencies and other humanitarian and development partners to find ways to strengthen and scale up a coordinated response.
The protracted humanitarian crisis in the DRC has been largely neglected by donors, the media and political leaders. Additional resources are urgently needed to address the humanitarian needs in the country. In its 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), the United Nations appealed for $2.6 billion, but only 33 percent of this amount has been funded to date.
“As IOM director general, and in my special role as humanitarian advocate for the situation in the DRC, I am committed to keeping this crisis firmly on the international agenda and working with all our partners towards lasting peace,” concluded the IOM chief.
In a related development, UN human rights officials on Friday released their latest update, covering the first six months of the year.
According to the report, 2,355 human rights violations were documented between January and June 2024, affecting more than 6,300 people, representing a 15 percent increase in the number of people affected by human rights violations. Armed groups were found to be responsible for nearly 3 out of 4 documented violations.
The UN estimates that in 2024, 25.4 million people, including an estimated 14.9 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance. In the three eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, some 8 million women, men and children are in need of emergency aid.
In total, more than 8.4 million people in the country have been forced to flee their homes. Of these, 7.3 million are internally displaced, making the DRC the second-largest internal displacement crisis in the world after Sudan. Some 1.1 million Congolese have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
In addition to the millions of internally displaced persons, the DR Congo is also hosting more than 520,000 refugees from other countries, mainly from the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.
More than 23 million people – nearly a quarter of the DRC's population - continue to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity, making it one of the world's largest food crises. Over 1.1 million children are acutely malnourished. Over 250,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require urgent medical attention.
According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), between 14 and 15 million people across the DRC are likely to require food assistance between October and December this year, mainly due to the combined effects of worsening conflict, seasonal flooding and economic instability.