An estimated 500,000 people have been forced from their homes since fighting erupted in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at the beginning of December.
That's according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which announced on Tuesday that it is scaling up to deliver aid to more than 210,000 people displaced by the violence after a new offensive by armed group M23 reignited hostilities earlier this month.
"This hunger crisis risks spiraling without urgent action," said Cynthia Jones, WFP Country Director for the DRC.
She added that even the families who have provided shelter to those forced to flee are already living at emergency levels of food insecurity, "sharing their last food with displaced neighbors--pushing all of them closer to utter desperation."
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Deprived of water and medicine
Since the violence broke out in South Kivu, health facilities have been looted, medicines are unavailable and schools remain closed. Affected communities are deprived of safe water, medical care and livelihoods. Education has been severely disrupted, with more than 391,000 children out of school, according to WFP.
As a result, many have also fled into neighbouring countries in search of food and shelter. Teams are supporting 71,000 new arrivals from DRC in Burundi, and 1,000 in Rwanda, with hot meals.
Underfunding threatens aid
WFP is trying to reach the most vulnerable displaced families and host communities in South Kivu with a survival package of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, iodised salt and specialised nutrition to prevent malnutrition for young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
While some food supplies are already pre-positioned in the conflict area, the agency says it is urgently seeking $67 million to continue assistance for three months for those forced to flee DRC and $350 million to keep operations running across all programmes in the country.
"Without urgent support and additional funding, we cannot respond to a crisis that is teetering on the brink of a hunger catastrophe," said Ms. Jones.
