Emergency aid for displaced persons and returnees affected by the Ituri conflict

For years, people in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been suffering under extremely precarious conditions. The conflict between two ethnic groups, the Hema and the Lendu, has led to horrific murders, expulsions and the pillaging of food.

Since December 2017, fighting has broken out again and led to major expulsions, along with a hunger crisis. More than 60,000 people have fled their homes and are refugees in their own country. The need for humanitarian aid is often overlooked as the Congolese regime continues to downplay the crisis and other emergencies in the country for political reasons. And yet an analysis of requirements carried out by the Caritas Congo has shown that 43 percent of those displaced are food insecure, while 55 percent are not far from sharing their plight.

Caritas international, the relief organisation of the German Caritas Association, has launched an emergency aid project for 4,000 internally displaced persons in the diocese of Dungu Doruma in the region of Haut-Uélé, as well as another project with the diocese of Mahagi-Nioka.

These projects are aiming to assist 300 families of refugees, returnees and vulnerable members of the local population. A family here in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has an average of five family members.

Each family receives a voucher for food to the value of 90 USD and 97 USD for non-food items, as well as 40 USD for seeds and tools. The voucher system has proven successful and gives those people in need more freedom to choose exactly what assistance they need. Food is the most important relief provided. The seeds enable those who have returned to their villages to start working the land again. With help from local farm technicians, they are being provided with the technical assistance required to farm the land and keep livestock even more effectively and sustainably than before. The Redel Foundation is financing this project with €100,000.

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