Kinshasa, DR Congo
A โdrastic reductionโ in humanitarian funding threatens to deprive more than four million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in a statement on Wednesday.
According to OCHA, there is a shortfall of โ$1.4 billion to meet humanitarian needsโ in the DRC in 2026.
โWithout sufficient funding, the humanitarian response in 2026 will be refocused on 7.3 million people,โ compared to 11 million in 2025, the UN organization lamented.
โThis is a drastic reductionโ that โcomes at a time when the country is experiencing an acute crisis, fueled by persistent armed conflict, mass displacement and returns, climate shocks, and recurrent epidemics,โ OCHA added.
According to the organization, approximately 1.5 million people have already lost access to healthcare in 2025 due to the closure of health facilities and difficulties in supplying essential medicines.
That same year, more than 390,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition could not be treated, as a thousand nutrition centers were closed in the vast Central African country, one of the poorest in the world
The humanitarian crisis is particularly acute in the east of the country, which has been plagued by thirty years of conflict and the resurgence since 2021 of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group, which seized the major cities of Goma in January 2025 and Bukavu in February of the following year.
The clashes in eastern Congo have โdisrupted supply chains and increased administrative and security constraints,โ and โaccess to populations has become more dangerous and complex than ever,โ the organization said.
โThirteen humanitarian workers lost their livesโ in 2025 and there were โaround 700 security incidentsโ affecting humanitarian workers, said Bruno Lemarquis, humanitarian coordinator in the DRC.
In early 2025, the US government launched a sweeping plan to cut funding for US international aid programs, particularly in the area of health.
The United States contributed more than 40% of international aid.
Humanitarian funding had already fallen by half in 2025, according to Bruno Lemarquis.
Humaniterre with AFP
