UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians said on Thursday that 6 million U.S. dollars were allocated to help the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) respond to "catastrophic flooding" affecting 2 million people.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths made the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocation this week "to support the response to catastrophic floods in the DRC."
The office said that since December 2023, heavy rainfall caused the Congo River to surge to its highest levels since 1961, triggering the flooding, affecting 18 out of the country's 26 provinces and more than 2 million people, including in the capital Kinshasa.
"The floods are worsening already high humanitarian needs, with significant destruction of infrastructure and a critical disruption of basic services," OCHA said. "The CERF allocation will support nearly 400,000 people in the areas of health, food security, shelter and protection, among others."
The second largest country in Africa, after Algeria, the DRC has been plagued by civil unrest in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika, forcing more than 7 million people to flee their homes from clashes between armed rebel groups and government troops, OCHA said. More than 25 million people in the DRC need humanitarian assistance. ■
