The EC and United States have given the UN World Food Programme (WFP) a total of US $15 million in response to an appeal for aid for an estimated 500,000 people facing severe hunger in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a WFP official told IRIN on Friday.
The Nairobi-based WFP regional information officer, Laura Melo, said that the donations by the EC ($4.3 million) and the US ($9.5 million) have now given WFP a 41 percent resourcing level of the $38 million it requested in June.
The agency issued a second donor alert on 8 August, saying it had received only five percent of the required funding, and that its food reserves in the Congo were low.
Melo said the agency had since resumed food airlifts in Kalemie, eastern DRC, so as to reach the thousands of people who have been displaced by fighting.
In a statement issued from Brussels, the EC said its humanitarian aid package, to be channelled through its Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), would contribute to WFP's emergency operation launched in June in response to the deterioration of the situation in the east.
"Despite successful peace negotiations that resulted in a transition government in June, localised conflict has intensified in the eastern parts of the DRC, with serious humanitarian consequences, the EC said. "Fighting and looting have prompted mass population displacement. People that have fled their homes suffer high malnutrition and mortality rates."
In June, WFP appealed for funds to provide 46,000 mt of food aid for people affected by ethnic fighting in northeastern Congo, where hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced by fighting among ethnic militias in recent months.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.
Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.
Get the latest humanitarian news, direct to your inbox
Sign up to receive our original, on-the-ground coverage that informs policymakers, practitioners, donors, and others who want to make the world more humane.
Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.