Conflict and COVID driving record hunger in DR Congo, warns UN

UN agencies say DRC has the highest number of people requiring urgent food security assistance in the world.

A record 27.3 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing acute hunger, one-third of the violence-wracked Central African country’s population, largely because of conflict and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations has warned. The DRC is “home to the highest number of people in urgent need of food security assistance in the world,” the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization said on Tuesday in a joint statement, describing the scale of the crisis as “staggering”. Besides conflict and the coronavirus pandemic, the number also rose because the latest analysis covered more people than previous ones.