‘Unprecedented’ Humanitarian Crisis in Congo as Conflict Rages
- About 7.1 million people now displaced by renewed fighting
- Territory held by M23 rebels at ‘unprecedented levels’: UN
A displaced person from the Democratic Republic of Congo at a transit center in Rubavu, Rwanda on March 26.
Photographer: Guillem Sartorio/AFP/Getty ImagesA humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo as fighting rages across the country’s mineral-rich eastern provinces, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country told the Security Council.
Nearly a quarter of Congo’s 100 million people are facing food insecurity and the number of displaced people has increased more than 800,000 in the past three months to 7.1 million people, Bintou Keita told the council on Wednesday. The figures are “unparalleled” in Congo’s long history of conflict, she said.