For decades, conflict in the mineral-rich eastern DRC has led to alarming levels of violence, mass displacement, widespread disease, gender-based violence and severe mental trauma, said Dr. Adelheid Marschang, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘Chronic and acute shock’
Today, the vast Central African nation has “the highest number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the world, with 25.4 million affected” and many in “chronic and acute shock,” she told reporters in Geneva.
A bewildering 7.4 million people have been displacedincluding 2.8 million in North Kivu alone.
The number of people forced to flee their homes has increased since the separatist M23 movement launched a major offensive in 2022, prompting national and regional military responses that have struggled to stem the militias’ advance.
Left with nothing
The resulting mass displacement has overloaded water and sanitation facilities and placed an additional burden on the population’s scarce resources, the WHO official warned.
“About 40 percent of the population, that is 40.8 million people face severe food shortages, while 15.7 million people face severe food insecurity and as a result, a higher risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases,” Dr. Marschang said. “If immediate action is not taken to address basic needs in DRC, more than one million children will suffer from acute malnutrition.”
Mpox is one of many health threats
Outbreaks of cholera, measles, meningitis, smallpox and plague have been reported, exacerbated by severe flooding and landslides.
Speaking specifically about Mpox – which remains a global health threat, with 26 countries reporting cases to the WHO this month – Dr Marschang said the DRC has seen 20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from the virus since early 2023.
More than 11,000 cases have been reported so far this year, including 443 deaths, “again mainly affecting children”, she noted.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and a rash. Scientists last month raised the alarm about the spread of a dangerous new strain of Mpox in South Kivu and fear it could spread to overcrowded camps in and around Goma.
Military activities around those camps make it difficult for health authorities to contain the virus if security is not guaranteed, the UN health agency said.
Rights crisis neglected
Earlier this week the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keitatold the UN Security Council that the DRC is facing one of the most serious and neglected humanitarian crises of our time.
Dr Marschang echoed this comment, explaining that the 2024 humanitarian response plan aims to assist 8.7 million people and requires $2.6 billion across all UN and partner agencies.
“The underfunding is serious,” she stressed, as “16 percent of the Humanitarian Response Plan is currently funded. For WHO, we are looking for about $30 million to address the situation until the end of the year.”
The deterioration of the security situation was accompanied by the complete withdrawal from South Kivu of the UN stabilization mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), ending the first phase of withdrawal from the DRC, after the government in Kinshasa requested that the mission be closed.
MONUSCO began winding down its operations in January after two decades of operations, but its chief, Bintou Keita, told the UN Security Council on Monday that there should be no rush to withdraw further, as the process has presented unexpected challenges. She explained that M23 rebel activity poses a “very real risk of provoking a wider regional conflict”.
Violent insecurity in the DRC has reached alarming levels, UN human rights chief Volker Türk has warned that “the absence of state authority over large parts of the territory also paves the way for brutal violence and attacks”.
