Violence in DR Congo has sent thousands of people fleeing into neighbouring countries.
Funding is desperately needed to feed a wave of refugees fleeing the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Burundi, the World Food Programme said.
The United Nations agency warned on Monday that 70,000 people have fled across the border to neighbouring Burundi since Rwanda-backed armed group M23 launched an offensive in January and seized large swaths of territory in eastern DRC.
The influx has raised the total number of people dependent on food aid from WFP in Burundi to 120,000, the United Nations agency said in a statement.
Current funding is only sufficient to sustain operations for 120,000 refugees through June, the WFP, which this month cut rations given to refugees by 50 percent, said. It added that it needs $19.8m in additional funding to maintain support until the end of the year.
“Refugees are arriving every day, some weighed down with hastily packed bundles and suitcases, and others with nothing but the clothes on their backs,” said Dragica Pajevic, WFP’s deputy regional director for eastern Africa.
Advertisement
“Although we are grateful for the funding received to date, it’s simply not enough. Our available resources are stretched beyond capacity, and we’re being forced to adapt our operations and reduce rations,” Pajevic added.
WFP provides meals to refugees housed in temporary transit camps, schools, churches and sports stadiums.
The longstanding tension in DRC, which has flared into violence since the start of 2025, has provoked one of the world’s largest displacement crises.
At least 7,000 people have been killed in recent months and many more injured, driving millions to flee.
In January, M23 seized control of Goma, the capital of mineral-rich North Kivu province, before capturing Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. The Rwanda-backed force has since advanced west.
Without additional funding, the WFP has said it will have to suspend food assistance entirely in Burundi by July at the latest, although it warned that the ongoing violence and instability threaten an even greater shortfall as it boosts refugee numbers further.
Funding constraints are partly the result of cuts at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). On March 10, the Donald Trump administration announced that 83 percent of all programmes at USAID had been cancelled following a six-week review.
Financing shortfalls have raised the alarm among humanitarian workers across the Global South, where the withdrawal of USAID support threatens decades of progress against not just malnutrition, but also tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Ebola.
Advertisement