Attachments
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
· As of mid-September, approximately 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) remained uprooted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the majority displaced in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Orientale provinces, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The majority of IDPs fled their homes as a result of ongoing fighting and individual acts of violence, including the more than 128,000 people newly displaced between January and March 2011.
· The presence of foreign and local armed groups in eastern DRC contributed to insecurity and a decreased number of returns in mid-2011, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. As of late June, a total of nearly 888,000 individuals had returned to their areas of origin, according to OCHA.
· On September 13, OCHA reported that armed groups had committed at least 116 attacks against humanitarian actors working in DRC in 2011. As a result, humanitarian access remains limited by security conditions, particularly in North Kivu, South Kivu, and Orientale provinces.
· In FY 2011, USAID provided more than $71 million to support conflict-affected populations in the DRC, including nearly $4.4 million for agriculture and food security interventions, approximately $7.3 million for economic recovery and market systems (ERMS) activities, more than $9 million for health programs, more than $6.5 for logistics and emergency relief commodities, more than $2.2 million for nutrition support, and approximately $1.6 million for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities, as well as more than $37 million for the distribution of food assistance. In addition, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (State/PRM) provided more than $24 million to assist IDPs and returnees through education, protection, livelihoods, and WASH interventions.