Escalating violence in Eastern Congo puts one million children at risk of severe malnutrition – WHO

The World Health Organization has warned that over one million children in the Democratic Republic of Congo face imminent danger of acute malnutrition due to escalating conflicts that have displaced millions, dramatically increasing humanitarian needs.

The prolonged conflict in the eastern DRC, which has lasted over two years, is increasingly affecting civilians, leading to a surge in displacement.

About 2.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes in North Kivu province alone, as the fighting between Congolese forces and the M23 militia, backed by Rwanda, continues to escalate.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that 25 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo need urgent humanitarian aid due to ongoing conflicts, natural disasters, and other crises.

If action isn’t taken, over 1 million children will suffer from severe malnutrition, according to Adelheid Marschang, WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer.

“The acute malnutrition is a result of widespread, increasing and also recurrent food insecurity in the areas that have seen conflict for years and decades now but where we now very recently see an escalation,” she said.

The UN agency, she noted, has registered over 20,000 cases of cholera across the country so far this year and 60,000 cases of measles, with real numbers probably higher due to insufficient surveillance.

She added that humanitarian access has been “severely constrained by military presence around (displacement)sites and health facilities, bureaucratic impediments, roadblocks disrupting aid delivery.”

According to United Nations data, the $2.6 billion humanitarian response plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo is only 26% funded, leaving a significant shortfall in urgently needed aid.