CONFLICT, HUNGER AND DISEASE ARE THREATENING MILLIONS OF CHILDREN'S LIVES.
Ongoing conflict is threatening children’s lives, uprooting millions from their homes, and turning children’s schools and play areas into battlegrounds. The ongoing insecurity is also leaving families and children facing extreme hunger and malnutrition, without the basics to survive. To make matters worse, the DRC is now facing the rapid spread of the deadly mpox virus.
This environment of chaos and insecurity is also putting children at risk of recruitment by armed forces, child labour, abductions, and sexual violence.
As a result, the DRC is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian and food insecurity disasters, and has become the second largest internally displaced people’s crisis globally.
- 25.4 million people are food insecure, including, 13.2 million children – the highest number globally for an individual country.
- 7.3 million people are currently displaced, of which 3.7 million are children.
The country is also suffering the impacts of the climate crisis with more frequent and severe weather causing droughts and flooding that are devastating crops and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks. This is all aggravating an already dire situation for a population that has been dealing with brutal conflict for nearly three decades.
Children are paying the heaviest price of this devastating crisis. Click below to learn more.
Marque*, 11, lives with his five siblings and mother Marlène*, 33, in displacement camp in Ituri province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Although Marlène* works every day in a nearby goldmine, she struggles to afford food for her six children, which taking a toll on Marque*’s development and education. When he is hungry, he cannot play or sleep. In 2023, Marque* was only able to attend school for one month before suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Within six months, Marque* suffered from malnutrition four times, grappling with a protein deficiency known as kwashiorkor that compromises the development of several organs, physical growth, and overall cognitive abilities. With kwashiorkor, Marque* developed Edema (swelling) and changes to his hair colour and skin, including small bumps all over his body. Marlène took Marque* to a health centre, supported by Save the Children, where he was urgently treated for severe acute malnutrition and given Plumpy’Nut and milk. However, shortly after he relapsed again due to a lack of food. The ripple effects of hunger have cast long-term consequences on his life. When Marque* returned to school, he faced bullying from classmates who taunted him for his appearance and past illnesses. He came home in tears because his friends had insulted him, calling him a sorcerer due to the changes in his body, which lead to his decision to drop out. Despite these challenges, he clings to his dream of becoming a doctor and returning to school when he goes back to his village, determined to overcome the hurdles posed by hunger.
What’s happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Right now, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in serious crisis - but the world isn't taking notice. We need to talk more about the situation in DRC. Here are three small things you can do today to help children.
Community members displaced by fighting are seen at a primary school, which is serving as a displacement site in Rutshuru, DRC. © Hugh Kinsella Cunningham / Save the Children
MARIE’S* AND ANTHO’S* STORY.
Marie*, 10 and her younger brother Antho*, 1, live in Kasai with their auntie Riva*. Like many families across DRC, conflict, climate change and epidemics like Covid-19 and cholera have left them food insecure.
They were unable to access nutritious food resulting in Antho* becoming severely malnourished.
Save the Children set up a health centre in Antho’s village, where they trained the community workers to screen and treat Severe Acute Malnutrition.
After assessing Antho, they were able to provide "Plumpy Nut", a high-energy, high-nutrient peanut paste. Maria* helps her younger brother by feeding him and she hopes he will make a full recovery soon.
Antho*, 1, and Marie*, 10, live in a rural village in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The young siblings live with their 46-year-old aunt, Riva*, because their mother died and their father moved away.
OUR RESPONSE.
Save the Children started working in the DRC in 1994. We are currently working with 13 local partners, as well as international partners and government authorities, to deliver critical health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection and education support to children and their families.
In 2023, we reached 2.7 million people, including 1 million children through both development and humanitarian interventions.
We’re providing safe drinking water, treating sick children suffering from pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea, and other illnesses, distributing food and, treating and screening children for malnutrition, Our community-led approach in the country has also allowed us to treat cases of malnutrition locally before life-threatening complications develop.
We’re providing child protection services, helping children access education and supporting survivors of gender-based violence and children formally associated with armed groups.
We have also been helping build communities’ resilience to food insecurity by encouraging sustainable farming and supporting farming families who have been uprooted from their homes to restart agricultural income-generating activities in their areas of displacement.
.jpg-ch11029387.jpg/q075vinfbt6j80o4m2hf12kbhpuae6w3.jpg?g=top&w=480&h=480&format=webp&itok=owtGR88H "Image showing a child being measured.")
