A top United Nations official has expressed grave concern over the rapid expansion of the M23 armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, DR Congo), particularly in North Kivu province and its spillover into neighboring South Kivu province. Briefing the UN Security Council on Monday, Bintou Keita, the UN special envoy to the DRC, described the situation as "one of the most serious, complex and neglected humanitarian crises of our times."
Keita, who also heads the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, warned that the "rapidly escalating M23 crisis carries the very real risk of provoking a wider regional conflict."
The escalating conflict is fueling record levels of displacement, hunger, and gender-based violence in eastern DRC. More than two years of armed conflict in North Kivu province have forced millions of people to flee their homes within the DR Congo, resulting in a total of 6.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri.
Fighting between the Congolese army and the armed group Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) escalated in March 2022. Since then, violence has been concentrated in the Rutshuru and Masisi territories of North Kivu, and most of the displaced people have fled to the Nyiragongo territory.
The situation in the east of the country has continued to deteriorate in recent weeks and months, despite numerous military operations by the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC), often supported by MONUSCO and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) security mission in the DRC.
Over the past two weeks, the M23 has seized several strategic locations in North Kivu, burning multiple FARDC bases and prompting mass displacement, Keita said, noting that a UN panel of experts reporting to the Council's sanctions committee has found that Rwanda has reinforced its support for the M23.
Violent clashes between members of the M23, FARDC, and coalitions of armed groups resumed in North Kivu in October 2023 and intensified in the first half of 2024, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
In June, for example, an M23 offensive on the town of Kanyabayonga displaced 350,000 people in one week. The influx of displaced people into host communities has strained existing resources and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.
Many displaced families have sought refuge in rudimentary camps on the outskirts of Goma, the capital of North Kivu. Between 600,000 and 1 million IDPs are crammed into the city's two million inhabitants.
Citing 7.3 million displaced people, the UN envoy described the situation in the country as "one of the most severe, complex and neglected humanitarian crises of our times".
Today, the DRC has one of the largest numbers of internally displaced people in the world, with more than 7.3 million spread throughout the country, but most of them living in the eastern provinces. 2.8 million people are currently displaced in the province of North Kivu.
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. The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) calls for US$2.6 billion to support 8.7 million of the most vulnerable people affected by the crisis, but is only 26 percent funded to date.
Calling for increased financial support, Keita also urged UN Member States and regional organizations to step up their efforts to reduce humanitarian suffering by strengthening their efforts to find political and regional solutions and by recommitting themselves to addressing the root causes of the conflict.
“There will be no military solution to this conflict, and that peace can only be restored through lasting political solutions,” she said, noting that MONUSCO continued to support the government’s disarmament, demobilization and reintegration efforts and security sector reform.
She welcomed the two-week humanitarian ceasefire in the east of the country, which began on July 5. The two-week humanitarian truce, which will continue until July 19, commits the parties to the conflict to silence their weapons, allow for the voluntary return of displaced persons, and provide unimpeded access for humanitarian personnel to vulnerable populations.
On Friday, a group of 13 international humanitarian organizations warned that hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced in the recent upsurge of conflict and violence in eastern DRC, as civilians, civilian infrastructure, and non-governmental organization staff and assets are increasingly targeted.
“While North Kivu has been plagued with conflict for over two decades, the current situation has drastically deteriorated, triggering a catastrophic protection crisis. Parties to the conflict now regularly use heavy artillery including mortar, grenades and bombs, and deliberately target civilians, including internally displaced persons (IDPs),” they said.
The joint statement was signed by ActionAid, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Concern Worldwide, COOPI - Cooperazione Internazionale, Danish Refugee Council, Inter-Agency Working Group East and Central Africa (IAWG), International Rescue Committee (IRC), INTERSOS, Islamic Relief, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Save the Children and Tearfund.
The NGOs warned that the involvement of neighboring countries through their support for non-state armed groups, the presence of several national and regional armed forces, and more than 120 armed groups “represents an over-militarization of the region and adds a layer of complexity to the conflict in DR Congo which, if not contained, could lead to a regional escalation.”
Despite staggering and growing humanitarian and protection needs, access to affected populations is becoming increasingly restricted.
“Credible accounts indicate that parties to the conflict have militarized and established presence in and around IDP sites, thereby compromising their civilian character and posing serious risks not only to IDPs but also to humanitarian personnel,” the NGO statement said.
On June 30, two Tearfund aid workers were killed in an attack in North Kivu. The staff were traveling in a convoy from the town of Lubero to the town of Butembo when they were assaulted and killed.
While the DRC continues to experience violence from more than 120 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 Mission 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 abuses and further population displacement, the NGOs warned.
Most of the country's IDPs live in areas currently protected by MONUSCO, raising the possibility of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of a hasty and disorderly withdrawal.
“The clock is ticking for civilians. As the crisis continues to be overshadowed by other humanitarian emergencies and despite the intensification of the conflict, political leaders and donor agencies across the world remain inexplicably disengaged from the tragedy that is unfolding,” the humanitarian agencies said.
The cyclical violence perpetrated by armed groups and the subsequent displacement affects millions of vulnerable civilians. Armed groups active in eastern DRC include the M23, the Coopérative pour le développement du Congo (CODECO), rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), and Zairean fighters.
While most attention is focused on the deteriorating situation in North Kivu province, the humanitarian situation in Ituri province is becoming increasingly critical. In Ituri, in parallel with intercommunal clashes between CODECO and Zaire armed groups, the ADF armed group has intensified its attacks against the civilian population, resulting in numerous killings, gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Together with the M23 armed group, the ADF is responsible for most of the security incidents in the province of North Kivu. The non-state armed groups ADF and CODECO are responsible for most of the civilian killings in the eastern provinces.
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.
More than 25 million people - 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. 250,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and require urgent medical attention.