Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Public Health Situation Analysis (PHSA) – Short-form (13 July 2023) – Democratic Republic of the Congo

SUMMARY OF CRISIS AND KEY FINDINGS

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently has six graded health emergencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This Public Health Situation Analysis (PHSA) focuses on the humanitarian health risks as a result of violence and conflict in following provinces: North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Tshopo, Kasai and Mai-Ndombe.

DRC is among the five poorest nations in the world. In 2022, nearly 62% of Congolese, around 60 million people, lived on less than $2.15 a day. The DRC has been facing complex humanitarian crises for several decades, mainly caused by the internal population displacements fleeing armed conflicts and due to natural disasters. The ongoing protracted complex humanitarian crisis has extremely impacted the country’s development momentum and placed the affected population in extreme socio-economic vulnerability.

Although humanitarian events have been reported almost everywhere on the national territory over the past three decades, the eastern side of the country (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu provinces) is severely affected due to a relatively high frequency and intensity of the conflict and of the reported humanitarian situations in that part of the country.

More than 120 militias and armed groups have been actively operating in the eastern provinces for nearly 30 years.

The security situation has continued to deteriorate in recent months despite regional diplomatic efforts by the East African Community (EAC) and International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

Recently, there has been a surge in deadly attacks and abuses attributed to the resurgence of one Non-State Actor Group (NSAG) (M23), with at least 530 victims between December 2022 and March 2023 and triggering a new displacement of 1 million people in 5-6 months.

At least 150 additional civilians were killed in the first two weeks of April 2023 alone in Ituri.

In May 2023, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to deploy troops “to restore peace and security in eastern DRC. While these developments present an opportunity for progress, for the 27 million people in need of aid across the country, this has yet to translate into a better daily reality. DRC has the largest number of internally displaced people (IDP) on the African continent. Over the past 12 months, the humanitarian situation has been exacerbated by a spike in violence with 6.3 million people internally displaced in Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. Of those displaced, 2.3 million were displaced in North Kivu after clashes escalated in March 2022.
In neighbouring Ituri province, localities have been and continue to be the scene of intercommunal massacres.