The number of “acutely food insecure” people in the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly doubled this year, reaching 13.1 million, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.
The crisis prompted the organisation to ramp up its aid operations in the troubled central African country, reaching a record five million people, also a doubling from 2017, it said.
Vast areas of the DRC are in the grip of communal and militia violence that have caused rural families to flee and in turn affected harvests.
In a statement, the WFP said its help this year “averted famine” in the vast Kasai region, which spiralled into conflict in 2016.
It also scaled up operations in the troubled eastern provinces of Ituri, Tanganyika and North and South Kivu.
Its help took the form of commodities and cash, as well as fortified foods to treat or prevent acute malnutrition, which affects 4.6 million children in the DRC, it said.
“This has been a year of multiple crises and considerable suffering for millions of Congolese,” said the WFP’s director for DRC operations, Claude Jibidar.
“We are grateful to donors for their strong support during a period of record needs, and count on their continued backing during what will surely be a challenging 2019.”
The DRC’s humanitarian woes were also complicated by two deadly outbreaks of Ebola.
The first was a three-week episode that began in May in northwestern Equateur province.
The second began in August in the east of the country and is still underway. More than 300 people have died, making the outbreak the second deadliest in Ebola’s known history.
In addition to recurrent problems of violence and poverty, the DRC is also in the grip of political uncertainty over the succession of President Joseph Kabila.
Twice-delayed elections are due on Sunday, but the vote may suffer a further postponement after a fire destroyed a warehouse where electronic voting machines were stored, according to a source with the country’s election commission.
According to the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.5 million people were internally displaced inside the DRC as of December 2017.
In addition, more than 811,000 Congolese refugees were being hosted in other African countries as of August this year.
