The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has declared the hunger crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the “worst” on earth with humanitarian aid now unable to contain situation.
An alarming figure of 25 million people in the DRC are faced with hunger and starvation due the tense security situation in the country.
Due to rampant violence and emergence of armed groups particularly in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in eastern DRC, over half a million people have had to flee their homes.
Jan Egeland, NRC’s Secretary General, recently visited the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu and is saddened by lack or limited humanitarian assistance being delivered to the DRC.
“The crisis is beyond belief really, it is the worst hunger catastrophe on earth, no where else in the world is there more than 25 million people facing violence, hunger, disease and nowhere in the world is there such small international response to help end all of this suffering” Egeland said in an interview.
“Needs alone should govern where we go and what we prioritize and I’d say as humanity we are really failing the DR Congo now because it is Ukraine, it’s not the middle east, it’s that part of central Africa where most children’s lives are at risk.”
Egeland further revealed that the continued emergence of armed groups in eastern DRC had been the main cause of the population’s distress.
“Such a large proportion of this vast part of the continent which is the Democratic Republic of Congo is now engulfed in violence,
“In Ituri and North Kivu Provinces there are 150 armed groups who are fighting against each other for territory, fighting against the regular army and the civilian population is in the crossfire” he said.
He stressed out the need for the international community to come to the aid of the DRC in order to arrest the ever alarming situation.
“People are camped together in abject misery in hundreds of smaller camps, I visited many of those and we were able to give some shelter, some food, some assistance but only to a minority really because the small humanitarian appeal or plan compared to the crisis of the provinces is 1/3”
“The United States is giving half of the funding, too much of the world is giving nothing and now there is a question of perhaps even reducing that aid assistance, it’s terrible really” Egeland said.
