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Democratic Republic of Congo

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Humanitarian assistance: meeting critical needs

The humanitarian situation in DRC is very serious. DRC has a large number of people in need of humanitarian assistance. There are around 1.1 million Congolese displaced from their homes. Significant local level conflict, particularly in eastern DRC, forces populations to flee disrupting their livelihoods and preventing access to services such as education and health. Those displaced regularly face harassment or violence, including sexual attacks, by the multiple armed groups and militias on the ground. Insecurity also makes it very difficult to provide help to the displaced populations.

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DFID is one of the largest humanitarian donors in DRC providing £35 million in assistance this year. We provide the majority of this funding to a pooled fund coordinated by the United Nations, while the remainder is provided to NGOs such as Oxfam and organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross. DFID assistance is helping to reduce suffering and save lives in DRC. For instance we have provided the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), with £600,000 for emergency relief for villagers in North Kivu province, eastern DRC. Read here about how our support to CAFOD helped Antoine Ngira after his village was attacked by militia in December 2006.

Through the pooled fund DFID support helps to provide clean water to over 1.9 million people, health care for over 1 million and provides 1.2 million people with basic essentials such as blankets, buckets and cooking equipment. We are providing access for 51,000 displaced children to education in eastern DRC. DFID funds logistical support to enable humanitarian goods to be flown and transported to where they are needed.

DFID is also working hard to try to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance in DRC, for example by making sure that assistance is targeted where it is most needed. We hope that over time, as conflict reduces and people are able to return home, humanitarian needs will reduce.

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