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Caritas Internationalis Appeals for “urgent” Help for 21 Million People in Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in DRC

Refugee Camp, Caritas Goma in DRC. Credit: Caritas Internationalis (CI)
Nicholas Waigwa

By Nicholas Waigwa

Kinshasa, 03 November, 2025 / 11:00 pm (ACI Africa).

The Catholic Church’s global development agency Caritas Internationalis (CI) is urging swift intervention to help the 21 million Congolese who are suffering from the “worsening funding crisis.”

In a statement on October 30 ahead of the just-concluded Paris Conference for Peace and Prosperity in the Great Lakes Region, CI expressed concern that out of the “more than 21 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance today,” only 6.8 million are targeted in the United Nations’ revised Humanitarian Response Plan for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The worsening funding crisis also threatens critical assistance to Congolese refugees arriving in Burundi and Uganda and is creating tensions between refugees and host communities, CI said in their statement ahead of the October 30 event that France hosted and co-chaired with Togo, the mediator for the conflict in Eastern DRC.

The world’s largest network of national Catholic humanitarian organisations stated that the Church in DRC is struggling to help provide essential services to the needy. 

“Since aid cuts at the beginning of the year, Caritas DRC and its Dioceses have seen international funding for vital health, food security and other essential interventions decrease by around 60 percent,” the organization said.

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“As a result of these aid cuts, we are facing a critical situation regarding stocks of essential medicines, particularly those for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria,” CI lamented, noting that the shortage is also “having a direct impact on the efforts made to date to ensure the health and survival of thousands of people.”

The funding crisis, the development agency warned, is contributing to an increase in preventable deaths from malaria, obstetric complications and infectious diseases.

“Without renewed and strengthened support, Caritas and the local Catholic Church will no longer be able to adequately respond to the growing needs and save lives,” cautioned the global development arm of the Catholic Church, noting that global cuts to international funding have affected local NGOs far more severely than international organizations.

According to the CI Secretary General, Alistair Dutton, the international community “must step up” and make available the urgently needed funding to “replace the money that has been slashed in the recent aid cuts.”

He described the October 30 Paris Conference as “a clarion call for solidarity with the people of the DR Congo and surrounding countries.”

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“It is a stark reminder of the deaths and suffering that are being created in countless humanitarian crises by these short-sighted, selfish cuts,” Mr. Dutton is quoted as saying.

A report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has already identified DRC as the country of origin of the second largest number of refugees in Africa, coming only after South Sudan. According to the report, by 2020, more than 900,000 refugees originated from DRC and were living in other countries.

Over the decades of instability in DRC, the hundreds of thousands fleeing the country are said to end up in Uganda, South Africa, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. At the beginning of this year, approximately 487,000 Congolese reportedly sought refuge in Uganda alone.

In their October 30 statement, Caritas Internationalis welcomed the Paris initiative and urged international donors to find ways of urgently releasing funds and maintaining support for essential programmes.

“Caritas welcomes the French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to convene the Conference in Paris and the efforts to mobilise international support,” CI said.

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The Church organisation called 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.”

“Reducing aid today means condemning millions of Congolese to hunger, disease and avoidable death,” the Caritas Congo Executive Secretary, Abbé Edouard Makimba, is quoted as saying in the October 30 statement.

He reiterated the local organization’s commitment to continue providing humanitarian support despite the current risks and the worsening funding challenges.

“We urge the decision-makers gathered in Paris: see us, and support us,” he said in his appeal, and added, “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.”

Acknowledging the contribution of the members of the Caritas confederation in raising funds to support the local Church and Caritas DRC, CI said that the contribution is not enough, and urged donors not to overlook the crisis in the embattled country.

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CI further described the crisis in western DRC as  “less visible but no less important in terms of its disastrous impact on the affected populations and their basic needs.”

Nicholas Waigwa

Nicholas Waigwa is a Kenyan multimedia journalist and broadcast technician with a professional background in creating engaging news stories and broadcasting content across multiple media platforms. He is passionate about the media apostolate and Catholic Church communication.