Attachments
SITUATION OVERVIEW
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces an extraordinarily dire humanitarian crisis, particularly in the eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, generated by escalating armed conflicts and persistent inter-community tensions, severely impacting civilian populations (with 6.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, including 5.5 million in the eastern provinces and 2.4 million in North Kivu alone identified by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in late 2024 and 21.2 million people in need with 11 million targeted as part of the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan). In the midst of this massive crisis, the violent conflict between the March 23 Movement (M23) and government forces has led to a further upsurge with the capture of Sake, Minova, Goma and Bukavu by the M23 in January and February 2025 and the dismantlement of IDP sites in North Kivu and South Kivu. New waves of displacements have been further observed and former residents of sites have been secondarily or tertiarily displaced to host communities or collective settlements that lack all basic infrastructures and services (48 new collective centers in Goma mapped by the Camp Coordination Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster hosting over 10,000 IDPs mid-March and over 95,000 IDPs identified by the DTM in Goma as of March 2025) or have reportedly returned to their areas of origin, without any assistance. This has resulted in unprecedented humanitarian needs while the humanitarian situation remains critical in Ituri which is host to nearly 130 official and spontaneous sites. In addition, DRC is facing several epidemics, including cholera, meningitis, measles, yellow fever, poliomyelitis and Mpox. From the beginning of the Mpox outbreak until mid-March 2025, 87,016 suspected cases have been reported, including 1,620 deaths.
A total of 8,056 cholera cases have been reported until end of February 2025, including 171 deaths.
IOM urgently needs USD 60 million to scale up life-saving assistance, between March and September 2025, and prevent further suffering. Immediate action is required to meet the escalating needs of displaced populations and communities in areas of return in Eastern DRC, to conduct mobility tracking, deliver site management services and provide emergency shelter, core relief items, safe drinking water, and essential health and protection services. Similarly IDPs leaving displacement areas to return to their areas of origin are in desperate need of recovery and resilience assistance.