News Monitor

Humanitarian infrastructure and warehouses have been looted, severely compromising the aid response. Significant quantities of food and essential medical supplies have been lost in targeted attacks.

Essential civilian infrastructure, such as healthcare facilities, schools and markets, are also attacked or under threat. All must be protected, as well as aid workers, in accordance with IHL.

Large parts of Goma have been without water and electricity since Friday, and parents have no food or clean water for their children. People are trying to flee but with nowhere to go.

The number of people displaced has surged to more than 400,000 this year alone, almost double the number reported just last week. Since our last update on 17 January, bombs have fallen on IDP sites.

The rapid deterioration of needs means that DRC is one of the countries most at risk of worsening humanitarian crisis in 2025, according to the IRC's Emergency Watchlist 2025.

Already dire humanitarian conditions are worsening rapidly, and access to these vulnerable populations is severely restricted by insecurity, roadblocks and the presence of violent armed actors.

Civilians are being forced to flee the combat zones in haste. More than 290,000 people have been displaced throughout Lubero territory, including 70,000 in Lubero-Centre and 30,000 in Kipese.

Conflict in DR Congo has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with nearly 7 million people, including at least 3.5 million children, displaced and one in four people in need of aid.

In recent days, the Masisi territory of North Kivu province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been the scene of major clashes between the armed group M23/AFC and the Congolese army.

"We need to find innovative and efficient tools and solutions to avert a catastrophe but also to unlock the country’s untapped potential for significant agricultural productivity and profitability."

While overall food insecurity in the DRC remains stagnant, in the east it has deteriorated. Driven by conflict and displacement, 6.2 million people likely face crisis or emergency levels of hunger.

The fast-moving clade 1b strain has disproportionately affected children in DRC and in Burundi, where they face severe health risks due to hunger, displacement, and limited healthcare.

The largest number of vaccines – 85% of the 899,000 doses – will go to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reporting four out of every five laboratory-confirmed cases in Africa this year.