APA-Kinshasa (RDC) – In response to the violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the European Union (EU) has decided to provide further financial support to help the population.
The European Commission has released 13.3 million euros (almost nine billion CFA francs) in “emergency humanitarian aid.”
The aim is to reinforce the response to the humanitarian crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It also aims to “alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable” in close collaboration with humanitarian partners on the ground, according to a press release obtained by APA on Friday.
This Central African country has been marked for several years by an increase in “conflict, poverty, malnutrition and frequent epidemics.”
This situation, which proves that “the humanitarian needs in the DRC are among the highest in the world,” motivated the European Commission to release this “additional” amount.
The European ambition is to reinforce the humanitarian response “to the escalation of violence and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the east of the country,” particularly in North Kivu, where clashes between the army and the M23 rebels are raging.
The EU stresses that the financial support allocated to the DRC “represents half of the total envelope of 26.7 million euros intended to respond to the multiple humanitarian crises aggravated by conflicts and climate-related disasters in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, in particular in South Sudan, Uganda, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
“In East Africa and the Great Lakes region, food insecurity – due to conflict or climate-related disasters – is on the rise,” warned Commissioner Lenarčič, before recalling that since the beginning of the year, the European Union has committed nearly €96 million to support the response to the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC.
ODL/te/lb/as/APA