What is happening in the DRC?
The conflict in the DRC is often referred to as “the forgotten war” due to the global community’s limited engagement. In reality, violent conflict in eastern DRC killed approximately six million Congolese people since 1996.
Violence has been escalating since 2021, leading to over 7 million displaced civilians – one of the worst displacement crises in the world. Since early January, there have been violent clashes between the M23 rebel group and armed forces in North Kivu province. M23 combatants, a town about 80km (50 miles) from the major city of Goma. While other towns have been recovered from occupation, the situation remains volatile, the situation remains volatile.
This latest spate of violence follows a long history of underreported conflict in the region. For the eighth year in a row, DRC is one of the world’s most neglected crises. Receiving little to no media or political attention, the challenges faced by our partners are exacerbated.
The recent fighting in Masisi has displaced more than 100,000 civilians in just one week. This will worsen the dire humanitarian situation in the North Kivu province where more than 2.5 million people are displaced.
What does this mean for people in DRC?
Among those displaced are several young people working with our local partner, the National Partnership of Children and Youth in Peacebuilding (NPCYP), who have been forced to move to Walikale, over 150km from home. NPCYP’s work in the region is crucial in supporting young people in DRC to live lives without violence and full of opportunity.
Across DRC, at least 25 million people need humanitarian assistance, making it the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Camps for internally displaced people are severely overcrowded and people face an extreme lack of hygiene facilities. Most recently, .
We are working closely with our partners to support their lifesaving work across the country and particularly in the North Kivu province as fighting escalates. Since this most recent escalation, we have supported NPCYP with an emergency humanitarian grant to support displaced youth and their families.
