UNICEF's emergency response in eastern DRC

After a period of relative calm, the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has deteriorated sharply since March 2022. A resurgence in armed violence and interethnic conflict, compounded by climate-related disasters and disease outbreaks, has resulted in huge population displacement and spiralling humanitarian needs.

In eastern DRC, almost 5 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, including 2.8 million children. In the three eastern provinces  of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, there are 6.4 million displaced people, including 1.5 million people in the camps around Goma.

The violence in the east is characterised by the deliberate targeting of civilians, displacement camps, hospitals and schools. Children are being killed, maimed, abducted and recruited into armed groups. There is also an alarming increase in sexual- and gender-based violence especially against children and adolescent girls.

Eastern DRC is also grappling with cholera and measles outbreaks. In 2023, DRC had its biggest cholera outbreak in 6 years. While case numbers have declined this year, the camps around Goma remain a cholera hotspot.

Children have the right to grow up in safety and dignity. They have the right to play, attend school, drink clean water, have enough to eat and get the healthcare they need. Children in DRC are being forgotten, their suffering ignored.

UNICEF is staying and delivering in eastern DRC. The agency is providing lifesaving assistance via its water and hygiene, health and nutrition, child protection, education, and cash assistance programmes. UNICEF is also striving to link its humanitarian interventions to longer-term development programmes, so that communities benefit not just immediately but over the course of time.