Democratic Republic of Congo Humanitarian Crisis
Despite its vast potential wealth, DR Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world. Years of conflict have created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
- An estimated 5.4 million killed as a consequence of the war since 1998, most from preventable diseases
- Up to 1 million people have been living in camps for displaced people within the D.R. Congo
- It is estimated that nearly 1 million more people are displaced from their own homes and living with families in other villages
- A critical lack of health care and education
- Malnutrition is widespread
- People have lost virtually everything – family, friends, homes and their means of making a living
- Rape is used as a systematic weapon of war
Actor Emile Hirsch travelled to the DR Congo with Oxfam - read his compelling diary of the trip.
Current situation in DRC
Latest assessments from the Oxfam team in DRC indicate that the humanitarian crisis is as severe as it was in late 2008 when over 200,000 people were displaced by fighting. Oxfam is significantly scaling up its emergency response to reach an additional 150,000 people displaced across swathes of North Kivu and South Kivu in eastern DR Congo.
According to UN figures, some 250,000 people in the provinces of North and South Kivu have been displaced since mid-January following a military operation targeting the FDLR rebel group.
There also have been reports of armed men committing reprisal killings of civilians, blocking off roadways, in some cases burning down houses and chasing people away. In parts of Lubero, where most people are subsistence farmers, civilians can barely access their fields to harvest due to widespread insecurity and looting.
With the operations against the FDLR set to expand to South Kivu , there are mounting concerns for civilians there, several tens of thousands of whom have already been forced from their homes.
A lack of peacekeeping resources on the ground is also hampering efforts to protect civilians.
“More than four months after the UN Security Council approved 3,000 additional peacekeepers, not one extra soldier has arrived. Until the reinforcements come, MONUC needs to ensure that the troops on the ground are doing all in their power to protect people. Civilians need more foot patrols in towns and along the main roads in order to be kept as safe as possible”.
Nicole Widdersheim, Head of Oxfam International's New York office
With the UN Security Council set to discuss the MONUC peacekeeping force on Thursday this week, Oxfam is urging world leaders to mark the occasion by rapidly providing the extra troops needed. It also called on them to ensure that existing resources are deployed to the most insecure locations, so as to more effectively protect civilians.
Oxfam's response to the current crisis
Oxfam is developing a flexible response to the new crisis that can provide water, sanitation and life-saving hygiene promotion to dispersed groups of people on the move, as well as larger groups of people sheltering in specific areas. Fighting and insecurity has hampered humanitarian access this year, and a quicker and lighter response is required to reach people during windows of opportunity.
Throughout eastern DRC, Oxfam is already assisting half a million people, and as a result of the scale up the agency will reach 650,000 people, despite ongoing security challenges. Teams have been sent to Lubero in North Kivu and Bukavu in South Kivu to plan the scale-up. In Lubero, Oxfam is already providing clean water and basic sanitation to 40,000 people newly displaced by the fresh fighting, especially to combat epidemics.
How can the public donate?
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NI: 0800 0 30 40 55
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