Print this page

Tough circumstances for aid workers in DR Congo

A massive fire explosion A massive fire explosion Jeff Kingma on Unsplash

8 October 2021

Lack of funding hinders the humanitarians’ work in DR Congo

 

As UN News reports, the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis in the country, which has the highest toll of internally displaced people in the African continent and a large refugee population of approximately 500,000 civilians. Furthermore, David McLachlan-Karr, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for DRC, highlighted the interlinkage between the hostilities and the multiple crises experienced by the country's population, with the education and the healthcare system on the brink of collapse. Relatedly, according to UN Humanitarian, more than 27 million people are suffering due to high degree of deprivation of food, water and other objects indispensable to survival, with starvation constituting a concrete threat.

Despite such a dismaying scenario, Mr. McLachlan-Karr warned that the funding flow has recently been on the decline, as the emergencies related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the armed violence plaguing Ethiopia have been prioritized by the global agenda. This lack of funds dramatically hinders the functioning of the aid operations in the country, since the humanitarian actors do not have enough resources in order to fulfill the needs of all the civilians affected by the war.

For these reasons, McLachlan-Karr recalled how important it is for the donors to timely provide for the adequate funds, as to make sure that the dire conditions of the millions of civilians in need of assistance are not further aggravated by delays and shortage of means. In order to increase the funds flow, it is pivotal to draw the international community’s attention to the appalling situation of DRC, so that both public and private donors will be reminded to prioritize the issues and the challenges of this conflict-torn country.

 

To read more, please visit:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102632;

https://www.hrw.org/africa/democratic-republic-congo;

https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/15/dr-congo-massacres-persist-despite-martial-law

 

#LOsservatorio #DRCongo #CiviliansInConflict #HumanitarianAid

 

Author: Gianpaolo Mascaro; Editor: Jasmina Saric

Read 276 times