The emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. Decades of clashes between armed groups, widespread violations of human rights, and devastating incidents of gender-based violence have caused unprecedented levels of protection needs, vulnerabilities and risks, displacing 6.1 million people within the country and forcing 1 million to seek asylum across Africa. At the same time, the DRC hosts more than half a million refugees from neighbouring countries.
- Racked by conflict for more than 30 years, the DRC’s insecurity is caused by complex and deep-seated factors, as well as a multitude of actors. Apart from the M23, numerous other armed groups, Congolese and foreign forces are battling for control, mostly in the eastern part of the country. Some of Kinshasa’s neighbours are also implicated in the crisis. Approximately six million people have been killed since 1996 and more than six million people remain internally displaced in eastern DRC.
- Mineral resources have long been a factor in the protracted crisis with various armed groups battling for control of lucrative diamond and gold mines and using the earnings to fund wars. Leaders of these groups have been accused of child labour in the mines and of attacking and exploiting mining communities. During the civil wars, Rwandan and Ugandan troops looted DRC’s minerals, although only Kampala was forced by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to pay reparations to the DRC for the economic damage caused.
- The dense forests, rugged highlands and lakeshores of the eastern DRC are pocked with both industrial and artisanal mines, guarded by armed militias and worked by hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who are effectively enslaved. More than 250 local and 14 foreign armed groups are fighting for territory, mines or other resources in the DRC’s five easternmost provinces, the government’s stabilization agency for the region said last year.
- Over 30-plus years, the fighting has drawn in armed forces from Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Tens of thousands of U.N. peacekeeping forces, soon to withdraw, and African regional troops have tried to restore order and help the government establish real authority.
- The DRC has enormous reserves of natural resources and the potential to become one of the richest African countries. Eighty million hectares of arable land and more than 1,100 minerals and precious metals constitute its potential for economic growth.
- However, only 10 million hectares of the DRC’s arable land are under cultivation. Illegal mining by armed groups and war contribute to the DRC’s inability to utilize its vast resources. By increasing the amount of land under cultivation, food security and economic development would increase significantly, reducing poverty in the DRC.
- Thousands of Congolese people continued to flee the country, seeking asylum, especially in African countries. According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, between January and August around 45,000 new refugees arrived from the DRC to neighbouring countries, particularly Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Meanwhile, the DRC continued to host half a million people who had fled armed conflict and persecution from other African countries, in particular South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Rwanda and Burundi.
- M23, short for the March 23 Movement, takes its name from a failed 2009 peace deal between the Congolese government and a now-defunct rebel group that had split off from the Congolese army and seized control of North Kivu’s provincial capital, Goma, in 2012. The group was pushed back the next year by the Congolese army and Special Forces of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
- In February 2024, a law came into force that protects and promotes the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the result of a campaign by civil society organizations lasting over 30 years. Despite this, systemic abuses against Indigenous Peoples, particularly in the name of conservation, continued. The Indigenous Bambuti people who live in and around national parks, including Salonga and Kahuzi-Biega, both World Heritage Sites, were subjected to persistent violence from security forces and park rangers, forced evictions and other abuses.
- The World Health Organization warns that hunger, poverty, malnutrition, and disease have reached alarming levels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in the east, where a resurgence of fighting between armed groups and government forces has uprooted millions of people from their homes.
2024 population planning figures
- Refugees and asylum-seekers in Angola, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia: 965,800
- IDPs: 6.1 million
- Refugee and IDP returnees: 2.3 million
- Refugees and asylum-seekers in the DRC: 504,300
*Sources: AL JAZEERA; UNHCR; Amnesty International; Voice of America (VOA); The United States Institute of Peace (USIP); BORGEN Magazine.
Source:
Qiraat Africa
