CAFOD calls for urgent action and international solidarity to support local frontline responders at the Paris Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a meeting for donor countries and UN leaders in Paris today on the Great Lakes region, to address the devastating effects of global aid cuts in crisis-affected areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring countries.
The funding crisis threatens critical assistance to Congolese refugees arriving in Burundi and Uganda and is creating tensions between refugees and host communities, and CAFOD is calling for urgent action.
According to estimates by the United Nations, more than 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the DRC. However, due to global aid cuts, only 6.8 million people are currently targeted for UN support.
The Catholic Church is present in every DRC province - saving lives and providing physical, psychological and spiritual support. CAFOD, and CAFOD’s local partner, Caritas Congo, along with other faith-based organisations, manage more than 40% of health facilities across the DRC, and around 60% of primary schools as well as more than 80% of state-approved schools (primary and secondary).
Caritas organisations provided displaced people in the east of the country with hot meals, shelter and other forms of support worth more than £2.6 million (US$3.5 million). However, this year’s cuts to international aid have seen funding for vital health, food security and other essential interventions decrease by around 60%.
Essential medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria are running out, leading to an increase in preventable deaths.
When international agencies were forced to leave due to the worsening conflict, local CAFOD staff and Caritas partners continued working. But the humanitarian needs in DRC are immense and the Church cannot solve the problem on its own. Renewed and strengthened support from the international community is urgently needed to prevent more lives being lost.
Abbé Edouard Makimba, Executive Secretary of Caritas Congo, said:
"Cuts in global aid are a man-made crisis that is having devastating effects in the DRC and neighbouring countries, condemning millions to hunger, disease and avoidable death.
"Withdrawal of foreign aid has hit local NGOs much harder, as our ability to raise funds locally remains very limited compared to international agencies, but when they pull out we are left to bridge the gap in our communities.
“We welcome President Macron's initiative to convene the Conference in Paris and the efforts to mobilise international support, and call on France and other donors to ensure that all pledges strengthen local aid efforts in the DRC, whether by faith-based humanitarian organisations such as Caritas Congo, women's organisations, youth networks or other community actors.
“We have not left the DRC and we will not do so. We risk our lives every day to bring aid and protection to our communities affected by this crisis. We urge the decision makers gathered in Paris: see us, and support us. "
Christine Allen, Executive Director of CAFOD, said:
“The Paris Conference is a wake-up call for international solidarity to help fill the hole in support caused by aid cuts.
“While aid budgets may be shrinking, the scale of humanitarian need continues to rise, and it is our moral imperative to respond. We cannot stand by, shrug our shoulders or turn our backs while millions of people go hungry.”
Bernard Balibuno, CAFOD Country Director based in Kinshasa, said:
“The crisis in DRC illustrates the human cost of UK aid cuts, and the choices the government must now make about its commitment to solidarity with people in humanitarian crisis.
“It is good that Baroness Chapman attended today's conference, but support from the UK must now translate into new and additional funds that reach local community groups saving lives on the ground.”
Ministers have recognised the UK needs to get better at supporting locally-based groups and yet most of FCDO’s funds still go to big international agencies. Caritas members are calling on international donors to act urgently to find ways to release funds and maintain support for these essential programmes.
We urge donors not to overlook the crisis in DRC, which is having a disastrous impact on the affected populations and their access to basic needs.
Notes to editors
For more information or interview requests, please contact:
Rosalind Mayfield, CAFOD Media Officer
Melissa Nethersole, CAFOD Media Officer
CAFOD’s out-of-hours media line
CAFOD is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and part of Caritas Internationalis, working with communities across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to fight poverty and injustice, including those worst hit by climate change. The agency works with people in need, regardless of race, gender, religion or nationality.