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DRC crisis

Over seven million people are in dire need of help in the Democratic Republic of Congo, millions are facing severe hunger.

Nearly four million people have been forced to flee their homes due to a vicious conflict.

Oxfam is there supplying clean water, food and hygiene kits.

You can help: donate to DRC now 

Last updated: 13/12/17

John Wessels

A man carries a sack of food at a food distribution in Kasala held by the World Food Programme and Oxfam October 2017. In the Kasai, over 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes and are in need of urgent help.

Updates from Oxfam

The situation

Fighting has forced 3.8 million people to leave their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo making it the largest displacement crisis in Africa. It is also home to nearly 500,000 refugees from Burundi, Central Africa Republic and South Sudan. Over seven million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. 

The government and international community have been slow to respond to the latest crisis in the Kasai region of the country, in part because of the security situation. Most of the affected people have received no outside help, while local communities have generously taken people in and offered the modest help they can. Food prices are rising and even people not affected by the fighting in Kasai and other parts of the country are finding it hard to cope.

Three full farming seasons have been missed, leading to severe food shortages. Many families are forced to survive on just one meal a day, on a diet mainly of maize and cassava, without access to more nutritious food. While 400,000 children are reported to be severely malnourished in the Greater Kasai region, further delay in delivering aid will lead to higher levels of mortality and serious stunting.

The conflict, which broke out in previously peaceful Kasai last year, has led to an eight-fold increase in hunger. Over three million people are going hungry.

Millions still do not have access to clean water, drinking instead from unprotected water sources.

Oxfam's response

Oxfam is helping more than 400,000 people in the DRC, providing them with clean water, sanitation, cash transfers and seeds for crops. In collaboration with the UN World Food Programme we are now giving food to 100,000 people.

Oxfam has brought in equipment to start drilling boreholes to provide handpumps or piped water.

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