The United Nations has issued a warning that the humanitarian crisis in the turbulent eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has deteriorated, including an increase in gender-based violence. Bruno Lemarquis, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator at the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in the DRC, delivered the caution during a video briefing on Tuesday.
Lemarquis described the crisis in the DRC as one of the most severe, complex, prolonged, protracted, and overlooked in the world.
He expressed deep concern about the resurgence of hostilities in eastern DRC, particularly in North Kivu, highlighting intensified violent clashes between the M23 group and the Congolese armed forces (FARDC), resulting in severe humanitarian consequences and displacement.
This warning coincides with the United Nations’ plans to withdraw peacekeepers from the region by the year’s end. According to the UNHCR, more than 25 million people urgently require humanitarian aid for survival, and the conflict has displaced over seven million individuals.
Lemarquis emphasized that the country is grappling with severe floods affecting two million people across multiple provinces, with the Congo River reaching its highest level since 1961.
The eastern Congo has been plagued by conflict for years, with over 100 armed groups, including M23, vying for control of the mineral-rich region near the Rwandan border.
Despite the severity of the situation, analysts suggest that this new disaster may go largely unnoticed due to the global focus on the conflicts in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
