DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF CONGO CRISIS

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.  

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.

Now, children in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are once again facing a deadly Ebola outbreak. In just days, cases have surged to over 540 reported infections and more than 130 deaths, with numbers doubling rapidly. At least seven children have reportedly already died.

This outbreak is spreading through communities in the DRC where families are already facing conflict and displacement and healthcare is severely limited, making it harder to trace contacts and contain transmission.

Children are not only at risk of infection, but a whole multitude of knock-on effects– family separation, psychological distress, being cut off from routine healthcare and protection services, dropping out of school, child labour and early marriage. 

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

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.

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. We have a long-standing footprint in Uvira in South Kivu, where the latest escalation of violence has erupted and are responding to the most urgent needs. We’re also at reception centres in Burundi, supporting families who have crossed the border with child protection, health and nutrition support.

In response to Ebola, we are working alongside health authorities and local partner NGOs in the DRC, rapidly mobilising to protect children and families.

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. 

Marie*, 10 and her younger brother Antho*, 1, live in Kasai with their auntie Riva*. Like many families across DRC, conflict, climate change and epidemics like Covid-19 and cholera have left them food insecure.  

They were unable to access nutritious food resulting in Antho* becoming severely malnourished.  

Save the Children set up a health centre in Antho’s village, where they trained the community workers to screen and treat Severe Acute Malnutrition.  

After assessing Antho, they were able to provide "Plumpy Nut", a high-energy, high-nutrient peanut paste. Maria* helps her younger brother by feeding him and she hopes he will make a full recovery soon.