13 million people. This is the number of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo requiring humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations (U.N.). Last week, the U.N. convened an international donor conference seeking to raise $1.7 billion for the central African country. Congo’s crisis, a product of ethnic and political unrest and an unprecedented cholera epidemic, threatens to be on par with Syria and Yemen. The U.N. has categorized Congo as a “level three” emergency, the global body’s highest rating.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s government boycotted the U.N. donor conference in its honor, alleging that the international community has exaggerated the magnitude of Congo’s problem. Kabila has been in office since 2001, and has refused to leave power following the end of his second and final term more than a year ago.
The numbers, however, are stark: By the end of March 2018, the country’s ethnic and armed conflicts have forced more than 4.5 million people to flee their homes. Hundreds thousands have sought safety in nearby Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda. Two million children in Congo are at risk for starvation, while 7.7 million Congolese overall are acutely food-insecure.
Every day, news stories fly under the radar—but the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one story that warrants our closer attention. Here are five resources to get up-to-speed with what is presently happening in Congo:
- Caught in Congo’s Tides of War (The Washington Post 2018)
- Understanding the Constitutional Crisis in Congo (Brookings 2017)
- Tales of Terror From Congo’s Ituri Province (The New Humanitarian 2018)
- Cholera Threatens Congo's Capital as Hundreds Die from Lack of Treatment (Reuters 2018)
- Surviving Congo’s Massacres: ‘I Climbed Over Bodies to Flee’ (BBC 2017)
To dig deeper into this issue that demands greater international response, explore the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s 2017 Global Report on Internal Displacement.