United Nations Humanitarian Fund gives $7 million in rapid response aid to North and South Kivu

Kinshasa/New York, 17 July 2009 - Some 250,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled North and South Kivu provinces will receive urgently needed humanitarian assistance, thanks to a US$7 million allocation from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Together with Government authorities, United Nations humanitarian agencies are working to provide families in need with basic necessities including shelter, water and sanitation, primary healthcare, education as well as assistance to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

“The surge in violence by the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and rogue elements of the Congolese army has uprooted thousands of families, many of which have already been displaced several times. This allocation will help UN agencies and their partners to rush emergency aid to people who need it desperately,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Ross Mountain said today in Kinshasa.

Some $4 million will assist 43,000 displaced families with basic relief necessities and non-food items through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Another $2.5 million will provide potable water to 250,000 persons - also through UNICEF - in the severely affected areas of Walikale and Lubero, where water borne diseases have doubled in the past few months.

In addition, $500,000 will bolster the World Health Organization’s efforts to make basic healthcare accessible to 170,000 people including 3,200 children under five years of age. The CERF funding will pay for health kits to be used in 10 clinics.

Military confrontations between the Congolese army (FARDC) and the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and general insecurity in North and South Kivu have caused significant internal displacement since January 2009. There are today an estimated 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kivus.

CERF was established in 2006 to make funding for humanitarian emergencies faster and more equitable. Since then, more than 100 Member States and private sector donors have contributed some $1.5 billion to the Fund, which is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The DRC has received the most CERF funding of any country in the world, with some $144.5 million allocated over the last three years.