DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF CONGO CRISIS

Children in the DRC are facing one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with one in every four people in need of humanitarian support due to violent conflict, climate-related disasters and disease outbreaks.  

Fighting has escalated drastically in 2025 to levels not seen in a decade. Children are being killed and injured, their hospitals and schools have come under attack, and they are at grave risk of recruitment by armed forces, child labour, abductions, and sexual violence.

In the first half of December, more than 500,000 people, including a reported 100,000 children (although this figure is likely to be higher), were forced from their homes as they fled escalating violence in South Kivu province. over half of which are children, have been forced from their homes in South Kivu, following escalating violence. Armed groups descended with heavy weapons on multiple fronts, directly targeting civilians, killing and injuring nearly 200 people. Children and families have sought refuge in other parts of the country, as well as across the border in Burundi and Rwanda. 

Thousands of children need urgent support following this latest escalation – food, water, shelter, medical care. 

The situation is desperate, and we need urgent action, now.

This is just the latest chapter in a living nightmare for children in the DRC, that has been dealing with violent conflict for nearly three decades. The country is already facing one of the world's worst food insecurity crises, with about 14 million children facing critical hunger – one in five -  the highest number globally for an individual country. Over 4 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition, including over 1 million children facing severe acute malnutrition, which can be life-threatening without treatment.

Cycles of increasingly severe drought and flooding, triggered by the climate crisis, are also devastating crops and increasing the risk of deadly disease outbreaks, like cholera and Mpox.

Save the Children started working in the DRC in 1994. We are currently working with 13 local partners, as well as international partners and government authorities, to deliver critical health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection and education support to children and their families.

We’re operational in all three of the eastern provinces worst impacted by violence – North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri. We have a long-standing footprint in Uvira in South Kivu, where the latest escalation of violence has erupted and are responding to the most urgent needs. We’re also at reception centres in Burundi, supporting families who have crossed the border with child protection, health and nutrition support.

In other parts of the DRC we also continue our life-saving work. We’re providing safe drinking water, treating sick children suffering from pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea, and other illnesses, distributing food and, treating and screening children for malnutrition. Our community-led approach in the country has also allowed us to treat cases of malnutrition locally before life-threatening complications develop.

We’re providing child protection services, helping children access education and supporting survivors of gender-based violence and children formally associated with armed groups.

We have also been helping build communities’ resilience to food insecurity by encouraging sustainable farming and supporting farming families who have been uprooted from their homes to restart agricultural income-generating activities in their areas of displacement. 

Marie*, 10 and her younger brother Antho*, 1, live in Kasai with their auntie Riva*. Like many families across DRC, conflict, climate change and epidemics like Covid-19 and cholera have left them food insecure.  

They were unable to access nutritious food resulting in Antho* becoming severely malnourished.  

Save the Children set up a health centre in Antho’s village, where they trained the community workers to screen and treat Severe Acute Malnutrition.  

After assessing Antho, they were able to provide "Plumpy Nut", a high-energy, high-nutrient peanut paste. Maria* helps her younger brother by feeding him and she hopes he will make a full recovery soon.