WFP Warns of 3 Million People Facing Hunger in the DRC
Michiyo Tanabe, Noriko Watanbe, and Kanako Mita
Modern Tokyo Times
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is engulfed in a nightmare of ethnic, political, and religious bloodshed tearing through its eastern heartlands. Tensions with neighboring Rwanda smolder relentlessly amid accusations of Kigali’s backing for the Tutsi-led M23 insurgents.
Amid this chaos, a labyrinth of militias and deep-rooted ethnic rivalries collide with regional turmoil. The Islamist butchers of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) unleash terror upon Christian communities, leaving a trail of devastation and despair. As a result, millions are uprooted from their homes, while hunger, fear, and poverty haunt the land like unending shadows.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has sounded an ominous warning: nearly three million people in eastern Congo now face severe hunger — double the number from just a year ago. This grim surge unfolds against the backdrop of a deepening funding crisis, where forgotten wars and silent humanitarian catastrophes languish beyond the glare of global headlines. As the world looks elsewhere, the suffering of millions grows more desperate, their cries drowned out by indifference and fatigue.
The WFP reports, “People are already dying of hunger in parts of eastern DR Congo.”
Humanitarian assistance in eastern Congo has withered just as the crisis reaches breaking point. Aid that once reached one million people has been slashed to a mere 600,000 — and without an urgent infusion of $350 million, that number will collapse further, leaving only 300,000 souls to receive adequate support.
In effect, nine out of ten people enduring desperate hunger and displacement will be abandoned to their fate. It is a grim arithmetic of neglect in a land already drowning in suffering.
The WFP says, “The hunger crisis is particularly severe in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika, where 3.9 million people are expected to face emergency levels of food insecurity.”
Severe health emergencies also ravage eastern Congo, compounding an already unbearable humanitarian crisis. Cholera, Ebola, malaria, measles, Mpox, tuberculosis, and a host of other diseases stalk communities with merciless persistence.
Malnutrition deepens the suffering, leaving weakened bodies unable to resist infection. In this bleak landscape, illness and hunger feed upon each other — a deadly cycle tightening its grip as the world looks away.
The DRC stands at the edge of catastrophe and needs immediate, large-scale emergency assistance to protect its most vulnerable citizens.
Lee Jay Walker (Modern Tokyo Times analyst) says, “Regional African nations and the wider international community must not remain idle while millions suffer in silence. The beleaguered people of this vast and wounded nation — and countless others trapped in neglected crises across Africa — deserve more than sympathy; they need decisive action and sustained support before hope itself fades into oblivion.”
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