WFP Democratic Republic of the Congo: Situation Report #54 – 31 January 2024 – Democratic Republic of the Congo

Highlights

Election Results: Official election results announced the incumbent President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi, as winner of the December elections with more than 73 percent of the votes. On 20 January, the President was officially sworn into office for a second term.

• Increased insecurity due to renewed fighting as well as retaliatory protests by host communities, forced WFP to halt its assistance in some parts of North Kivu, thereby affecting WFP’s progress of operations.

• Cumulatively, WFP assisted 2.6 million people in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu, under its emergency response in-kind food, cash, and nutrition programmes between June and December 2023. For cash distributions, resources are fast depleting and WFP is gradually reducing its use of the cash modality, limiting the number of food insecurity people it can assist, including women and young children. The lack of funding prevents any further programme expansion to those with extreme needs.

• WFP urgently needs USD 397.1 million in the next six months to sustain its operations in the scale-up provinces (Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu) from February to July 2024. Without additional funding, more people are at risk of not receiving the life-saving assistance they urgently need. WFP planned to scale up its operations to reach more people this year, but funding has only allowed it to meet the needs of the 1.6 million people currently reached in December.