Tens of millions risk starvation as funding cuts deepen crises in DR Congo: WHO, WFP

The United Nations agency has received only $1.57 billion of the $21.1 billion required to sustain its operations this year, with donations slashed by 40 per cent after cuts from major donors like the United States.

“WFP is prioritizing countries with the greatest needs and stretching food rations at the frontlines. While we are doing everything possible to reduce operational costs, make no mistake, we are facing a funding cliff with life-threatening consequences,” said Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation.

“Emergency feeding programmes not only save lives and alleviate human suffering – they bring greatly needed stability to fragile communities, which can spiral downwards when faced with extreme hunger.”

The drastic reductions are threatening the organization’s global programs in 28 regions, including Gaza, Sudan, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Bracing for the rainy season

With the rainy season looming in fighting-stricken South Sudan, two-thirds of its estimated 12.7 million people facing acute food insecurity could go even hungrier.

WFP delivers food and nutrition aid to 2.3 million people in the east African country who have escaped war, extreme climate events, and economic downturn. More than one million people have fled to the impoverished nation from neighboring Sudan.

Outbreaks surging

Meanwhile, shortages in medical supplies are likely to worsen the crisis in conflict-torn eastern DRC, with the public health system on the brink of collapse and spikes in viral outbreaks, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

After recent clashes in Walikale, in the western part of the city of Goma, nearly 700 people are seeking treatment in a hospital, but funding cuts, disease outbreaks and blocked aid are hampering their access to healthcare.  

“There is no possibility for access – no partner, nobody can really join that place,” said Dr. Thierno Baldé, WHO Incident Manager for Eastern DRC.

Some 2,000 people have already died, Dr. Baldé stressed, adding that the crisis is also affecting neighboring countries such as Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

One in 10 infected people is currently dying of cholera in a major outbreak near the Congolese border with Burundi, he said.

The region is seeing a surge in outbreaks of infectious diseases, including cholera and mpox, and the dire humanitarian situation is driving spikes in mortality rates, Dr. Baldé reported.

A drop in the ocean

Emergency medical teams are “doing the best they can”, mobilizing local people for additional support in providing care. The World Health Organization was recently able to ship 20 tons of medical supplies on roads all the way from Uganda over Kenya and Tanzania into Goma, providing some relief, but as Mr. Baldé highlighted, all of this was just a “drop in the ocean” in the country where 50 million people are affected by the crisis.

Vaccines out of stock  

Funding cuts in humanitarian aid directly threaten half of the 4 million people living in North Kivu. “Vaccines for routine immunization are almost out of stock in Goma,” Mr. Baldé warned.

In the imminent danger of vaccines running out, Ms. Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization added, that this concerns the whole world.  

“Infectious diseases don’t care about borders; they don’t care about elections and governments. If you don’t vaccinate everywhere, you’re going to be affected everywhere,” she said.  

Amidst the US Government announcing to suspend financing the Alliance for Vaccine (GAVI), a driving force in providing children vaccinations in poor countries, a  out that an estimated 154 million lives have been saved over the past 50 years thanks to global immunization drives. “It’s madness not to invest in vaccination,” she concluded.

Refugees at risk

Providing further proof of the health threats caused by funding cuts, Allen Maina, Public Health Chief of the UN Refugee agency (UNHCR) stated, that nearly 13 million displaced people, including six million children are “at risk of not being able to access lifesaving health and nutrition care.”

Echoing that infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, malaria are more likely to break out, Mr. Maina stressed that the problem doesn’t only stem from“overwhelmed hospitals and health systems”, but also in disrupted water supply systems, sanitation facilities and waste management.  

“This situation is devastating, but it’s coming on top of longstanding shortfalls in humanitarian assistance,” Mr. Maina reminded, highlighting that in Ethiopia’s Gambela region, operations in four out of seven refugee sites have recently been closed due to the funding cuts. 

“99 severely malnourished children had to be discharged immediately because programmes had to close”, he said, maintaining that for 980 acutely malnourished children, there were only two staff members available.  

“We’re talking about people here. We talk about men and women. We talk about children, worried whether their parents will live to see another day, Mr. Maina stressed.