UN News Today 31 January 2025 |

DR Congo latest: civilians ‘trapped’ and running out of food

The humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to deepen for civilians likely trapped by days of intense fighting in and around the provincial capital Goma, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.

According to UN World Food Programme, WFP, the situation “is going for desperate to disastrous”, as people run out of food and other supplies.

WFP spokesperson Shelley Thakral described the desperate testimonies of civilians caught up in the emergency, saying that “people have lived through this before, but they are just telling us we can’t take it anymore. We’re running out of food. We’re running out of supplies. We don’t know if it’s safe to go outside.”

“It’s a stranglehold for many of the civilians. And if you kind of read the history of DRC, you’ll know that over the last three years, especially, people have been displaced not once, not twice, but multiple times. So they’ve been living in very densely populated camps out on the outskirts. They have in the last week they moved to find shelter. They’re probably now trapped.”

Critical UN aid workers and partners remain on the ground in eastern DR Congo but the situation remains deeply unstable since the rebel group took control of most of Goma since entering the city on Monday.

Warehouses containing food in Goma city have been looted and aid teams have been confronted with supply chain obstacles because roads and ports remain blocked or closed.

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, there has been “no major movement” of people at DRC’s borders because of the latest escalation. Rwanda has confirmed 577 new arrivals, while Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania have yet to report a spike in crossings.

The emergency caused by the M23 rebel group’s advance on Goma marks the biggest escalation of a decades-long conflict springing from the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsis, and a continuing struggle for control of rich mineral resources in the region among a plethora of armed groups.

As Gazans return north, WHO warns over desperate healthcare needs

As the UN-wide effort to flood Gaza with aid continued on Friday, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned that health needs are critical and massive across the enclave, after 15 months of war.

Only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partly functional, with just one-third of healthcare centres and 11 field hospitals in the same condition, said WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr Rik Peeperkorn.

Speaking from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, he said that an estimated 450,000 people have now crossed to the north but there are only 10 partially functional hospitals in Gaza City and one minimally functional hospital in north Gaza.

Dr Peeperkorn also responded to reports that 2,500 children in Gaza are at risk of imminent death unless they are immediately evacuated for treatment:

“So, what we have been asking for all the time…is first and foremost a restoration of the referrals, the traditional referral pathway to West Bank and East Jerusalem. The East Jerusalem hospitals and the West Bank hospitals are ready to receive Gazan and Palestinian critical patients.”

Four years since Myanmar coup, violence reaches unprecedented levels, warns UN rights office

It’s almost four years since the military coup in Myanmar sparked spiralling conflict across the country; the situation for civilians is only getting worse by the day, says the UN human rights office, OHCHR.

In an alert, OHCHR released new data indicating “unprecedented levels” of violence against non-combatants, and the heaviest civilian death toll, since the military takeover on 1 February 2021.

“As the military’s grip on power eroded, it launched wave after wave of retaliatory airstrikes” and shelled civilians, OHCHR said.

At the same time, the military pressed thousands of young people into service, conducted arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, caused mass displacement, and denied access to humanitarians, even in the face of natural disasters, a report from the UN rights office maintained.

Responding to the report’s findings, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said that it was deeply distressing to find that the situation on the ground for civilians is only getting worse by the day”.

He warned that “even as the military’s power wanes, their atrocities and violence have expanded in scope and intensity,” and their attacks are designed “to control, intimidate, and punish the population”.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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