UN warns 27 million face hunger in DR Congo

Passengers aboard a whaling boat preparing to leave the port of Mbandaka, Equateur Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on October 2, 2025. [AFP]

Millions of people are facing hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo as foreign aid evaporates, the United Nations said Thursday, warning the crisis risked triggering region-wide instability.

Nearly 27 million people in the DRC face "crisis levels of food insecurity or worse" by early next year, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme.

That includes nearly four million people in emergency levels of hunger, it added.

The DRC, while rich in natural resources, especially lucrative minerals, suffers from deep poverty.

Three decades of conflict in which different factions have fought over these resources that have claimed millions of lives in its restive east.

The UN warned that the African country was being hit hard by a sharp drop in foreign aid, speaking out on the eve of an international conference in Paris aimed at finding emergency donor funding for eastern Congo.

The World Food Programme said a lack of funds had forced it to slash the number of people receiving its assistance in the DRC from 2.3 million to 600,000 this year, as its deficit ballooned to $349 million.

It called for $127 million in emergency funding, warning it would have to end all assistance in the DRC from February without more money.

"Millions of lives are at risk, and regional stability will suffer," said Cynthia Jones, the organisation's acting country director.

"The time to act is now -- before the cost becomes irreversible."

More than three million children in the country of 109 million people suffer from stunted growth because of chronic malnutrition, the UN said.