Democratic Republic of the Congo

Overview

A complex emergency has persisted in DRC for more than 20 years. Population displacement is frequent and repeated, and mostly driven by armed clashes and intercommunal violence between foreign, self-defence, and other armed groups. More than five million people are internally displaced. The situation in the eastern provinces remains particularly volatile, and humanitarian needs have increased since January 2020, as displaced and local populations are faced with violence, food insecurity, floods and disease outbreaks. 1,315 extrajudicial killings by armed groups were reported in the first half of 2020, triple the number recorded during the same period last year.  Over 900,000 refugees from DRC live in African host countries. DRC also hosts about 527,000 refugees, mainly from Rwanda, Central African Republic, and South Sudan.?

COVID-19 is predicted to further deteriorate the situation in DRC. Government measures such as border and market closures, and movement restrictions will result in decreased imports, food production and purchasing power. Some 19.5 million people are in need of food security assistance, a 25% increase from last year .?

Since late March, least 586,000 people have been affected by flooding caused by heavy rains in the provinces of Haut-Lomami, Haut-Katanga, Maniema, and Tanganyika, and in the Baraka, Fizi, and Uvira territories of South Kivu province.? These floods occurred in areas where large parts of the population were already food insecure, placing an additional strain on vulnerable households.

DRC is currently facing an Ebola outbreak  in Equateur province as well as a nationwide measles epidemic. Health authorities are still monitoring the areas affected by the previous Ebola outbreak, which lasted from 1 August 2018 to 25 June 2020 in Ituri, Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu provinces.?

INFORM measures DRC’s risk of humanitarian crisis and disaster to be very high at 7.6/10. The risk of exposure to flood is 7.5/10 and the lack of coping capacity is at 8.0/10.?

Latest Developments

Rising water on Lake Albert have caused flooding and displacement in Ituri since December 2019. Most recently 11,000 people have been displaced. There are significant information gaps on the current situation along Lake Albert and sectoral needs of the affected population. ?

ACAPS' team is daily monitoring the impact of COVID-19. Find more information related to the outbreak here.