World Food Programme: An Urgent Appeal for Eastern DRC
According to a press release published on Friday July 28, the World Food Program (WFP) is launching an urgent appeal to raise the sum of 557 million USD. This sum is needed to meet the most urgent food assistance needs in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between August and December 2023.
The situation is critical in eastern DRC, a region marked by armed conflict and insecurity. Currently, 6.7 million people are displaced, 80% of whom are suffering from an acute food crisis and increasingly severe malnutrition.
The available resources are insufficient to meet the extremely important humanitarian needs in this part of the country, underlines the press release of the WFP. Indeed, 3.6 million people in eastern DRC need help from this UN agency.
Faced with this situation, the WFP is prioritizing cash assistance for the months of July, August and September of this year. Each month, it aims to support 1.6 million people by providing them with direct financial assistance.
However, despite current resources, WFP is already struggling to meet the needs of these 1.6 million people each month until September. If additional resources are not mobilized, the agency will be forced to drastically reduce the number of people it can help from October.
This is why WFP is launching this urgent appeal for the predictable and flexible resources needed to meet the rapidly changing needs in eastern DRC.
It is crucial to support WFP’s efforts to provide food assistance to populations in need and to combat the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC. International solidarity is essential to enable the displaced people and the local population to overcome this difficult situation and to rebuild their lives.
In conclusion, the mobilization of financial resources is essential to enable the World Food Program to respond adequately to food assistance needs in eastern DRC. The situation is critical and the requested USD 557 million is needed to support the populations affected by the humanitarian crisis and offer them a better prospect for the future