Attachments
President, Honourable Members of the European Parliament,
What is happening in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) is not a new crisis. It is an escalation of the crisis within the crisis.
The humanitarian situation is devastating:
already before the latest developments, there were 800,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) around Goma, cramped in heavily populated sites for displaced persons.
Since the attack on Goma by M23 and the Rwanda Army, many displacement sites are now reported to have been emptied:
some occupants have fled to other neighbourhoods of Goma, others have attempted to return to their villages in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories, which are currently under M23 control.
The risk of forced closure of the remaining sites is high due to the policy of M23, which opposes the presence of this kind of sites in areas under its control.
There are reports from Goma of around 3,000 deaths caused by the fighting, with bodies in the streets and overloaded morgues.
All hospitals in this town are overcrowded and many are operating at twice their capacity. The threat for epidemics such as cholera is growing.
Humanitarian actors are slowly coming back now that the fighting is over, and assessments for restarting the response as soon as possible are ongoing notably at sites for displaced and medical facilities.
However, the response is severely hampered by the security situation, and by a lack of available commodities, as many warehouses of humanitarian aid agencies were broken into and looted during the fighting.
The airport of Goma was damaged in the fighting and is not operational for humanitarian aid flights.
Humanitarian access to the most vulnerable people has been limited and remains a challenge where fighting is taking place. We need urgent political action to secure a humanitarian truce, ensure the protection of civilians, and enable full humanitarian access.
The EU has insisted on key humanitarian messages to all parties in conflict:
Keep borders open for refugees and humanitarian workers.
Allow humanitarian corridors where appropriate and ensure principled humanitarian access.
Ensure the protection of civilians and respect for International Humanitarian Law, particularly with the increased risk of gender-based violence in this context.
Preserve the safety of humanitarian staff, health workers, and medical facilities.
Engage in negotiations for a humanitarian truce.
It is imperative that the airport in Goma re-open for humanitarian flights, to allow our partners to re-supply their looted stocks, and to bring in much-needed life-saving equipment.
The EU stands ready to continue supporting the humanitarian response.
The EU alone is the second largest humanitarian aid donor in the DRC.
We have allocated EUR 112 million in humanitarian aid to the DRC last year. EU Member States are also strongly contributing to the response.
As response to this new “crisis within a crisis”, the Commission has accelerated the disbursement of its initial 2025 budget for DRC of EUR 60 million.
We are currently establishing which humanitarian partners still have to capacity to effectively intervene.
On that basis we have pre-selected the first six partners already on 27 January, while the fighting for Goma was still raging, for urgent interventions over EUR 25 million of the EUR 60 million announced.
We are now ensuring that these funds will be disbursed without delay.
Thank you.
CLOSING REMARKS
Honourable Members,
Thank you for your interventions.
The EU will continue its efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to those in need, despite all the difficulties.
But it is clear that humanitarian aid is insufficient in view of the dimension of this crisis.
We must use all the political tools at our disposal to urgently bring an end to the fighting.
Thank you.