US announces $424 million in DR Congo aid

The United States announced Wednesday $424 million in aid and humanitarian assistance to the DR Congo, which is facing disaster as a result of armed violence in the east.

Plagued by armed violence for 30 years, eastern Congo, particularly the province of North Kivu, has been experiencing a crisis since November 2021, with the resurgence of the Rwanda-backed M23.

The aid announcement was made by Lucy Tamlyn, US ambassador to the DRC, and Jeffrey Prescott, US representative to the UN food and agriculture agencies, while on a visit to the DRC.

According to the press release from the US Embassy, $414 million of this package will be allocated to “humanitarian assistance”.

In the space of two and a half years, the M23 has seized vast swathes of territory, going so far as to almost completely encircle Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, to which hundreds of thousands of displaced people have flocked.

There are at least 7.3 million displaced persons in the DRC, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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The remaining $10 million is earmarked for “health assistance” to respond to the current outbreak of the mpox virus in the DRC and other affected countries in the region, according to the statement.

The US Agency for International Development is also donating 50,000 mpox vaccines to the DRC, the country most affected by the epidemic, it added.

As of August 3, the African Union’s health agency counted 14,479 confirmed and suspected cases and 455 deaths in the country, representing a case-fatality rate of around 3 percent.