The European Union is planning to disburse 60 million Euros in aid to help displaced persons that are the victims of the ongoing war in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In an official statement to the public the European Union disclosed that this will be an initial amount of money that the EU gets to spend on humanitarian assistance to the DR Congo in the year 2025.
The new funding will support the needs of the urgently displaced populations and persons affected by recent clashes in the Eastern African country as well as related epidemics.
The development comes just as the DR Congo President; Felix Tshisekedi is for the first time addressing his nation regarding the ongoing conflicts and the recent fall of Goma Province into the hands of the rebel group, March 23.
Following the latest developments in the humanitarian situation in the eastern region, the European Union says it is prepared to stimulate emergency assistance, particularly for the newly displaced populations in and around Goma.
The EU assistance to DRC includes among other things, shelter and camps, toilets and latrines, basic food rations or cash transfers and provision of emergency education for the most vulnerable children.
Women and children are the most vulnerable group in the ongoing North-Eastern Congo skirmishes.
Before March 23 fighters closed in on Goma, more than 700,000 internally displaced people were living around the provincial capital.
However, hundreds of thousands fled in anticipation of clashes between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and DR Congo troops, prompting renewed alarm about the further spread of deadly diseases.
“When you have as many as 700,000 people living in camps, you can imagine the human suffering,” A World Health Organization official stated to the United Nations (UN) news portal.
According to the WHO, there are a lot of ongoing disease outbreaks” in North and South Kivu regions close to the Rwanda border, where dozens of armed groups have held sway for decades.
As the major donor for the humanitarian response in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this new funding from the European Union (EU) brings the total humanitarian assistance spent on the Congo Kinshasa to over 272 million Euros since early 2023.