For decades, conflict in the mineral-rich eastern DRC has caused alarming levels of violence, mass displacement, widespread disease, gender-based violence and severe mental trauma, explains Dr Adelheid Marschang, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘Chronic and acute shock’
Today, this large Central African country has “the highest number of people in need of humanitarian aid worldwide, with 25.4 million people affected” and many people are in “chronic and acute shock,” she told journalists in Geneva.
A surprise 7.4 million people have been displacedof which 2.8 million are in North Kivu alone.
The number of people forced to flee has increased since the M23 separatist movement launched a major offensive in 2022, prompting national and regional military responses to halt the militia’s advance.
Nothing left
A WHO official warned that mass displacement had overwhelmed water and sanitation systems, placing an additional burden on people’s scarce resources.
“About 40 percent of the population, that is, 40.8 million people face severe food shortages, of which 15.7 million people face severe food insecurity. and as a result, a higher risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases,” said Dr. Marschang. “Without immediate action to address basic needs in the DRC, more than a million children will suffer from acute malnutrition.”
Mpox is one of many health threats
Outbreaks of cholera, measles, meningitis, dengue fever and plague have all been reported, exacerbated by severe flooding and landslides.
Specifically on Mpox — which remains a global health threat with 26 countries reporting cases to the WHO this month — Dr Marschang said the DRC has recorded 20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from the virus since the start of 2023.
More than 11,000 cases, including 443 deaths, have been reported so far this year, “again affecting mainly children”, she noted.
Mpox is spread through close contact, causing flu-like symptoms and skin rashes. Scientists sounded the alarm last month over the spread of a dangerous new strain of Mpox in South Kivu, fearing it would spread in crowded camps in and around Goma.
The UN health agency explained that military activity around the camps has made it difficult for health authorities to contain the virus if security is not guaranteed.
The overlooked rights crisis
Earlier this week, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keitatell the United Nations Security Council that the DRC is facing one of the most serious and neglected humanitarian crises of our time.
Dr. Marschang agreed with that observation, explaining that the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan aims to assist 8.7 million people and requires $2.6 billion from all UN agencies and partners.
“The funding gap is very 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 deteriorating security situation was accompanied by the withdrawal of the entire United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DRC from South Kivu (MONUSCO), ending the first phase of troop withdrawal from the DRC following a request from the Government in Kinshasa to close its mission.
MONUSCO operations began winding down in January after two decades of operation, but the head of the mission, Bintou Keita, told the UN Security Council on Monday that there should be no rush to withdraw troops any further because the process had come up with unexpected challenges. She explained that the M23 rebellion carried “a very real risk of triggering a wider regional conflict”.
The state of violent unrest in the DRC has reached alarming levels, United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk “The absence of State authority over large areas of territory has also opened the way to brutal levels of violence and attacks,” it warned.
