Belgium will raise its budget for humanitarian aid for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to 25 million euros this year. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation has announced this in Geneva, where a humanitarian donor conference for the DRC is taking place. The humanitarian crisis in the DRC has worsened considerably during the last 2 years.



Last year, Belgium reserved 17 million euros for humanitarian aid to the Congo. This year, Minister De Croo will raise the budget to 25 million euros. In doing so, our country wants to show its solidarity with the Congolese population and underline the gravity of the situation on an international level. At the same time Belgium is calling upon other countries to do more as well.



Beside the direct humanitarian aid, Belgium has also decided to raise the budget for humanitarian partner organizations and donor funds (the so called flexible funds), to 90 million euros, an increase of 10%. All of these humanitarian partner organizations and funds are active in the DRC.



Biggest humanitarian crisis

The biggest humanitarian needs have been identified in the sectors of food security, protection, hygiene, education, health care and housing. DRC is also struggling with the worst outbreak of cholera in history and possibly an outbreak of polio. Approximately 7.7 million people face food insecurity.



Call upon the Congolese government

During the conference, Minister De Croo called upon the Congolese leaders to take the humanitarian crisis in their country seriously and to tackle the root causes. It is the only way to mitigate the human suffering.

The complete address of Minister De Croo at the conference can be read here.