UN sounds alarm over growing food crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo | United Nations News

The WFP says a “worsening food crisis” is occurring and it may have to suspend food aid due to record funding.

The number of people facing emergency levels of hunger in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has almost doubled since last year, the United Nations has warned.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Friday that an “increasing food crisis” was unfolding in the region, but warned it was only able to help a fraction of those in need due to severe funding shortages and difficulties in access.

“We are at historically low funding levels. We have probably received about $150 million this year,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP country director for the DRC, highlighting the need for $350 million to help people in the West African country who desperately need it.

“One in three people in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. That’s more than 10 million people,” Jones said.

“Of this number, an alarming three million people are in a hunger emergency,” she said at a press briefing in Geneva.

She said this higher level meant people were facing extreme gaps in food consumption and very high levels of malnutrition, adding that the number of people facing emergency levels of hunger was increasing.

“It’s almost doubled since last year,” Jones said. “People are already starving. »

A conflict that has lasted for years

The region has been shaken by more than a year of fighting. The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 has seized swaths of eastern DRC since taking up arms again in 2021, worsening a humanitarian crisis and the region’s more than three-decade conflict.

The armed group’s lightning offensive allowed it to capture the key eastern towns of Goma and Bukavu, near the border with Rwanda. He installed an administration parallel to that of Kinshasa and took control of neighboring mines.

Rwanda has denied supporting the rebels. The M23 and Congolese forces have been accused of committing atrocities.

Jones said the WFP faced “a complete shutdown of all emergency food assistance in the eastern provinces” from February or March 2026.

She added that the two eastern airports, Goma and Bukavu, had been closed for months.

The WFP wants an airbridge established between neighboring Rwanda and eastern DRC, saying it would be a safer, faster and more efficient route than from Kinshasa, on the other side of the vast country.

In recent years, WFP has received up to $600 million in funding. In 2024, it received approximately $380 million.

United Nations agencies, including the WFP, have been hit by significant cuts in U.S. foreign aid, as well as other major European donors cutting their foreign aid budgets to increase defense spending.