UN agency works to fill humanitarian vacuum in north DR Congo

The United Nations migration agency is responding to the urgent humanitarian needs of more than 27,000 displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) eastern province of North Kivu, after many relief aid organizations left the camps.

Sweden’s development agency has provided $183,000 to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The funding has been crucial to enable IOM to construct and rehabilitate basic water and sanitation infrastructure.

“These funds have come at a time when most humanitarian actors have pulled out of many displacement sites in eastern DRC due to security and funding issues, leaving thousands of displaced people even more vulnerable,” said Boubacar Seybou, Head of IOM’s Office in Goma.

Over the next 12 months, IOM will continue to provide life-saving assistance and protection to vulnerable people in displacement sites in North Kivu, thanks to additional financing from Sweden.

By the end of April 2017, there were 3.7 million internally displaced persons in the DRC, making it the African country most affected by internal displacement.

[UN News Centre]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.