The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Eastern DRC: Disease outbreaks on the rise due to recurrent natural disaster and insecurity putting health system at breaking point
Increased violence, natural disasters and disease outbreaks have fueled the deteriorating health situation in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said Dr. Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday when briefing journalists at the United Nations in Geneva: “There has been a huge repetitive and very difficult increase of displacement with a total of 7.4 million in DRC that are in need of (health) assistance.”
Since March 2022, almost 3 million people have been forced from their homes in the eastern part of the country, in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, due to attacks from armed groups which is severely impacting people’s health.
“With the different attacks that started in March in which Hutu population moves, they are attacked, they move, they are attacked”, said Dr. Castilla. “Several other areas like Masisi and Nyiragongo have had this same phenomenon collecting people around the city of Goma. And when they move, also diseases move with them. Cholera has spread through the area, and it is now prevalent with 25,000 cases. The area where they arrived has the highest number.”
The country’s health system and resources are under pressure due to concurrent outbreaks of COVID-19, measles, polio and mpox but also yellow fever, cholera and malaria which are on the rise due to recurrent natural disaster and lack of access to safe water and sanitation for those on the move, said the WHO.
Their data has shown that since mid-March 2023, the DRC has been experiencing a large cholera outbreak with an average of 1,000 cases per week. As of 12 June 2023, a total of 24 562 cases and 156 deaths were reported.
The WHO has planned a measles vaccination campaign to take place in the next days. The two provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu alone account for 82% of the more than 136 000 measles cases, including 2,000 deaths, recorded in the country so far this year.
In addition to the armed violence, flooding earlier this year killed and injured hundreds of people and affected 36 health facilities in North Kivu, South Kivu, Kasai and Tshopo provinces, further increasing health needs. Attacks on health care have also impacted access to health care interventions.
According to WHO’s Dr. Castilla who spoke from Kinshasa, “the international attention came to the area because of the landslides and the floods that were in the news with injured people and facilities destroyed. So, the entire health system is really under stress.”
Hunger and malnutrition are growing, said the WHO expert, forcing the displaced to sporadically return to their areas of origin to collect resources, exposing them to further violence and to mental health and psychosocial strain.
“There is this increase in malnutrition and this increasing gap between the needs and the assistance,” noted Dr. Castilla. “The whole UN system, the humanitarian system, decided on the 16th of this month to do a three-month scale-up for everybody in order to improve the actions of the different partners there.”
Close to 26 million people are facing acute food insecurity in 2023, said WHO’s Emergency officer, the world's highest number of food insecure people. Acute malnutrition is severely affecting children under the age of 5, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
From the overall US$174 million which is required to provide urgent health assistance, only US$23 million (13%), have been mobilized so far, informed the WHO.
-ends-
- Exterior wide shot: UN Palais with flags
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO): “There has been a huge repetitive and very difficult increase of displacement with a total of 7.4 million in DRC that are in need of assistance.”
- Exterior medium shot: UN Palais with flags
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO): “With the different attacks that started in March in which Hutu population moves, they are attacked, they move, they are attacked. And several other areas like Masisi and Nyiragongo have had this same phenomenon collecting people around the city of Goma. And when they move, also diseases move with them. Cholera has spread through the area, and it is now prevalent with 25,000 cases. The area where they arrived has the highest number.”
- Exterior medium shot: UN Palais with flags
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO): “On top of this, I think the international attention came to the area because of the landslides and the floods that were in the news with injured people and facilities destroyed. So the entire health system is really under stress.”
- Exterior wide shot: UN Palais with flags
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Dr. Jorge Castilla, Senior Emergency Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO): “There is this increase in malnutrition and this increasing gap between the needs and the assistance. So, the whole UN system, the humanitarian system, decided on the 16th of this month to do a three-month scale-up for everybody in order to improve the actions of the different partners there.”
- Exterior wide shot: UN Palais garden with UN flag
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNDRR , IFRC , WHO
Nepal: Flooding disaster “not over” as humanitarians work around the clock
While search and rescue efforts continued Friday following flash floods and mudslides in northern Nepal, UN humanitarians are taking stock of the devastation amid concerns over more flooding to come.