The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has deepened dramatically, with the United Nations warning that more than 26 million people in conflict-affected areas face acute food insecurity — one of the largest hunger crises in the world today, and one that international attention has largely failed to match.
The M23 rebel group, a Rwanda-backed militia that launched its current offensive in late 2021, has consolidated control over large swathes of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, displacing entire populations and disrupting farming communities that had already been destabilized by decades of conflict. The group’s territorial gains have brought it to the outskirts of Goma, the regional capital, whose fall would represent a catastrophic escalation.
Civilians Caught Between Rebels and Army
Displaced families describe a brutal calculus: flee into the bush and risk starvation, or stay and risk forced recruitment, taxation, or violence at the hands of armed groups. Both the M23 and Congolese army forces have been accused by human rights organizations of serious abuses against civilian populations.
The UN Human Rights Office has documented widespread violations in M23-controlled areas, including arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence used as a weapon of war, and the forced recruitment of children. The rebels have also imposed illegal taxes on civilians and disrupted humanitarian access, making it increasingly difficult for aid agencies to reach those most in need.
In areas still under government control, the Congolese army has struggled to provide basic security or services. The FARDC, despite regional military support from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania under the East African Community force, has been unable to roll back M23 gains. The result is a patchwork of contested zones where civilians live under constant threat of violence from multiple directions.
The International Response Falls Short
Despite the scale of the crisis, international media attention has been dominated by conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine. The DRC crisis — which has killed more than 150,000 people since 2021 alone — receives a fraction of the coverage.
The UN has called for increased humanitarian funding, warning that aid agencies are operating at less than 40 percent of required capacity due to funding shortfalls. World Food Programme officials have described conditions in displacement camps around Goma as on the edge of famine, with malnutrition rates among children under five exceeding emergency thresholds.
For the people of eastern Congo, the political negotiations that periodically dominate headlines — Luanda process, Nairobi framework, EAC summit communiqués — feel distant from their daily reality. What they need, aid workers say, is simple: a cessation of hostilities that allows farmers to plant crops, merchants to reopen shops, and families to return to homes that, for many, no longer exist.