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
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | ITU
An estimated 5.5 billion people have access to the internet in 2024, an increase of 227 million people based on revised estimates for 2023, the UN specialized agency for telecommunications, ITU, said on Wednesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNAIDS
Launch of World AIDS Day Report 2024—Take The Rights Path
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
A joint report issued this morning by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) paints a disturbing picture of the media landscape in the country since the Taliban takeover. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN human rights chief Volker Türk lent his weight to growing ceasefire calls in Lebanon on Tuesday, amid reports that the senior Israeli cabinet members were due to meet on a deal to end more than a year of conflict with Hezbollah militants, sparked by the war in Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.