UNICEF's emergency response in eastern DRC

After a period of relative calm, the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) started to deteriorate again in early 2022, with increasing levels of violence and displacement in the three eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. The resurgence in armed violence and interethnic conflict that continued throughout 2023 and 2024 was compounded by climate-related disasters and disease outbreaks and resulted in a deplorable humanitarian  situation.

In 2024, there were about 6.5 million people displaced people in eastern DRC, making it one of the worst displacement crises globally.

At the start of 2025, fighting escalated to levels not seen in decades and the humanitarian situation reach levels that were already beyond dire.

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. It is also characterize by alarming rates of sexual- and gender-based violence especially against children and adolescent girls.

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.