At the end of 2011, the Democratic Republic of Congo stood at the bottom of two major indices of well-being. It ranks last on both the Human Development Index and the Global Hunger Index. About 70% of its population lacks access to adequate food, while one child out of four is malnourished.
More than half of DRC provinces, six out of eleven, still have general acute malnutrition (GAM) rates above 10%. In Maniema and in the Kasai, some areas have GAM rates above 17%.
The DRC is still recovering from years of war and political troubles, and the country is still facing huge humanitarian challenges.
People continue to live in crisis condition in many parts of the DRC. An estimated 4.5 million people are in food and livelihood crises. The DRC, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, is among the four countries in the world where the food situation is described as being “extremely alarming.”
The causes of this high level of food insecurity include population displacements associated with insecurity, lack of access to basic social services such as water and health services, low agricultural productivity, lack of roads infrastructure and chronic poverty.
The eastern regions are still plagued with violence, with civilians targeted by marauding armed groups. People have to flee from one place to the other desperately trying to escape harassment from different militia. They are still suffering from rape, looting of goods, food and crops, abduction and all kind of physical and psychological harassment.
This unrest and displacement threatens not just their immediate physical safety, but also the food security of whole communities, as it disrupts normal harvesting activities.
At the end 2011, more than 1.7 million people were displaced, according to OCHA. In early 2012, new mass displacements have taken place in North and South Kivu and in North Katanga.
The western part of the country is also quiet unstable, with political tensions and inter-ethnic conflicts mostly over land dispute. People are living in extreme poverty with little support from the state.
Basic needs, especially in health and education, are far from being met. In rural areas, hospitals and clinics have often been destroyed by conflict and a large proportion of the population does not live within reach of health services. The spread of HIV/AIDS remains a threat, particularly for displaced persons, who lack the means to protect themselves and do not have sufficient information about the transmission of the disease. In 2011, several disease outbreaks hit the country, including cholera, polio and measles, which struck even in urban areas.
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