Drc crisis: children need urgent support

Children in the DRC are facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with one in every four people in need of humanitarian support due to violent conflict, climate-related disasters and disease outbreaks.  

Fighting has escalated drastically in 2025 to levels not seen in a decade. Children are being killed and injured, their hospitals and schools have come under attack, and they are at grave risk of recruitment by armed forces, child labour, abductions, and sexual violence.

This is just the latest chapter in a living nightmare for children in the DRC, that has been dealing with violent conflict for nearly three decades. The country is already facing one of the world's worst food insecurity crises, with about 14 million children facing critical hunger – one in five -  the highest number globally for an individual country. Over 4 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition, including over 1 million children facing severe acute malnutrition, which can be life-threatening without treatment.

Cycles of increasingly severe drought and flooding, triggered by the climate crisis, are also devastating crops and increasing the risk of deadly disease outbreaks, like cholera and Mpox.

“When they are hungry, some start crying, others go to sleep, and others still stay quiet with their hands on their cheeks, not knowing what else to do”, says Charly, a mother of seven, abut Gervienne and her other children

Donate to our Children's Emergency Fund to help us respond quickly to children impacted by the violent conflict in the DRC and other crises around the world.

*Names changed to protect their identity

Save the Children started working in the DRC in 1994. We are currently working with 13 local partners, as well as international partners and government authorities, to deliver critical health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection and education support to children and their families.

We’re operational in all three of the eastern provinces worst impacted by violence – North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. While much of our work continues across these provinces, we have paused all operations in Goma to protect the safety and well-being of our staff. 

In other parts of the DRC we also continue our life-saving work. We’re providing safe drinking water, treating sick children suffering from pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea, and other illnesses, distributing food and, treating and screening children for malnutrition. Our community-led approach in the country has also allowed us to treat cases of malnutrition locally before life-threatening complications develop.

We’re providing child protection services, helping children access education and supporting survivors of gender-based violence and children formally associated with armed groups.

We have also been helping build communities’ resilience to food insecurity by encouraging sustainable farming and supporting farming families who have been uprooted from their homes to restart agricultural income-generating activities in their areas of displacement. 

To continue our work and reach even more children in need, we need your help:

• Your $80 gift could provide warm, cozy blankets for around 20 children affected by conflict.
• Your $100 gift could help us reunite a child separated from their family amid the conflict in the DRC and provide them with temporary care in a foster family while we trace their family.
• Your $120 gift could buy twelve weeks worth of fortified peanut paste to treat a child with malnutrition.
• Your $500 gift could provide critical care for five children suffering from pneumonia.

Together, we can provide what families can’t save. Donate now.

Save the Children’s Emergency Fund is key to unlocking the critical support that children need in times of crisis like this. It helps us prepare better, respond faster, and protect longer. In times of crisis, and in the world's toughest places, we stand side by side with children.

The situation in DRC is desperate, and we need urgent global action, now.

Hospitals are overwhelmed with children and families suffering gunshot wounds and other injuries. There is also concern this increase in violence could trigger the spread of deadly diseases in overcrowded displacement camps in a country already suffering cases of mpox, measles, cholera and ebola.

This environment of chaos and insecurity is also putting children at risk of recruitment by armed forces, child labour, abductions, and sexual violence.  

As a result, the DRC is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian and food insecurity disasters, and has become the second largest internally displaced people’s crisis globally.

Gervienne was suffering from malnutrition after her family had to flee their home due to war.

Thanks to the generosity of donors like you, she received life-saving treatment. The support provided high-nutrient peanut paste, covered her hospital expenses, and ensured her family had transportation to and from the hospital. Today, she is on the path to recovery.

But far too many children like Gervienne are still fighting for their lives in 2025. Hunger, displacement, and conflict are stealing their health, safety, and future.

When an emergency strikes, we support millions of families and children like Gervienne. But we need your help to continue being there. A gift of $120 today could provide a twelve-week supply of high-nutrient peanut paste to treat a child with severe acute malnutrition - just like what saved Gervienne. Donate now.