Attachments
In 2019, UNHCR provided shelter assistance to 23,448 households in DRC
4,590 refugee households
18,858 internally displaced households
Total shelter budget US$ 7.4 million
THE CONTEXT OF 2019: The year 2019 was marked by new arrivals of South Sudanese refugees in DRC’s Haut-Uele and Ituri provinces, creating additional shelter needs, and leading to the establishment of the new Bele settlement in Haut Uele Province. Relocation of refugees to Bele is helping to decongest the overcrowded Meri settlement. In addition, refugees are being moved away from unsafe border areas.
From May 2019, a dramatic upsurge of violence in Ituri and North Kivu provinces led to massive new internal displacement. This in turn increased emergency shelter needs. UNHCR contributed to opening the new Kigonze displacement site in Bunia (Ituri Province) to decongest other overcrowded sites, and deployed significant means to provide shelter to the displaced and returnees. UNHCR declared an internal L3 emergency for North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri in November 2019 as more than two million were newly-displaced in the provinces in the past 18 months. This declaration initiated increased response measures.
At the end of 2018 and in 2019, over 43,000 persons, including Congolese refugees, were expelled from Angola, creating shelter needs in the Kasai region. From August 2019, these needs were compounded by the spontaneous return of thousands of Congolese refugees from Angola. These population movements of refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and refugee returnees in late 2018 and throughout 2019 created a bigger demand on shelter. UNHCR, together with its partners, led a response to these needs in 2019, which will be continued in 2020.