Aid conference for Congo expected to draw $530m in pledges: UN
GENEVA: Donors gathered in Geneva on Friday were expected to cough up pledges of $530 million (430 million euros) towards addressing a towering humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said.
The amount was less than a quarter of the some $2.2 billion the UN has estimated is required this year to provide desperately needed aid inside DRC and to Congolese refugees in neighbouring countries.
But UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock stressed that the expectation had never been to raise the entire amount in one conference.
“I am pleased with the progress,” he told reporters, highlighting that a number of countries which had not yet made pledges had indicated they planned to do so soon. Around 100 delegations were taking part in Friday’s conference.
But the DRC itself was conspicuously missing. The government has accused the UN of exaggerating the crisis and is boycotting the event.
That move has deepened political divisions in a country facing mounting strife, while its legacy of ethnic conflict, corruption and instability are combining with political tensions to spark fears of a bloodbath.
The growing violence has worsened an already dire humanitarian situation in several areas, with underfunded aid agencies struggling to keep up with the needs.
In a video address to Friday’s conference, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that the DRC was “experiencing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.”
“Millions of people are suffering,” he said, warning that “the single biggest obstacle is the lack of funding.”
In January, the UN and Kinshasa said $1.68 billion was needed in 2018 to provide urgently needed assistance to some 10.5 million people inside the country.
The UN refugee agency has meanwhile said another $508 million is needed to support more than 800,000 Congolese refugees in surrounding countries, as well as the some 540,000 refugees from the Central African Republic, South Sudan and other countries who have fled into DRC.
Lowcock acknowledged that the total of $2.2 billion was “a lot of money”.
But, he stressed, “it amounts to less than 50 cents a day for each of the people whose lives we are trying to save and protect.”
Friday’s conference got off to a strong start, with co-host Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, pledging 77 million euros ($95 million) of EU aid inside the DRC this year.