Democratic Republic of the Congo

One of the largest and least developed countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ranked 175th of 189 countries on the 2020 Human Development Index. DRC is one of the largest hunger crises in the world. Hunger and conflict fuel one another, with armed conflict and widespread displacement prevailing for the past 25 years and multiple other crises compounding DRC’s humanitarian challenges.

Populations in large swathes of eastern DRC have been living with conflict and displacement for much of the past two-and-a-half decades. This very often takes the form of ever-more fragmented armed groups preying on civilians and preventing them from accessing their fields. North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri are the provinces where war and unrest have been the most protracted. In recent years Tanganyika in the south east and the central Kasai provinces have also been hit. Countrywide, 5.7 million people have fled their homes and lost their means of livelihood. Three out of every four internally displaced people live with host families, many of whom were already just scraping by before taking in strangers in need.