ReliefWeb

The humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to deteriorate due to recurrent intercommunal conflict, complicated by an ongoing outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Ituri and North Kivu provinces. In conflict-affected areas of eastern and central DRC, insecurity limits income-generating opportunities, disrupts agriculture, displaces households, and constrains humanitarian access.

SITUATION

• Approximately 13.6 million people in the DRC will likely face Crisis (IPC 3) or worse levels of acute food insecurity and require emergency food assistance through May, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis.* Additionally, the UN estimates that 4.7 million people countrywide require assistance to prevent and treat acute malnutrition in 2020.

• Conflict, displacement, and localized flooding in 2019 and 2020 contributed to below-average harvests throughout many parts of central and eastern DRC in January and February, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). The same factors will likely drive Crisis levels of acute food insecurity in some areas of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces through September, with the possibility of Emergency (IPC 4) levels of acute food insecurity in parts of Ituri between June and September, FEWS NET projects.

• According to the UN, food insecurity remains particularly prevalent among internally displaced persons (IDPs)—over 5 million countrywide as of March—and people returning to their communities of origin in the DRC, particularly in the Kasaï, Kasaï-Central, and Kasaï-Oriental provinces, which hosted more than 1 million returnees as of February