WFP: Floods Cause Humanitarian Disaster in Eastern DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION

Floods are causing chaos in eastern DRC, in South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces. Heavier rainfall than usual during the rainy season, prompted by climate change, has forced rivers and lakes to overflow, swallowing towns, villages and roads on the shores.

All around Lake Tanganyika, and areas upstream of the Congo River basin, people have lost their homes, their fields and livelihoods.

Many can only reach their houses by boat or by wading through waist-high water. Families have been forced into shelters or are living with host families. Most have had to move several times as the water levels continue to rise.

Shops and schools are submerged so that life has come to halt. Farmers have lost their crops and are now sleeping in shelters with their cattle.

The overflowing of Lake Tanganyika, bordering the DRC, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia, has disrupted daily life since January as the flooded roads are cutting towns off from each other and limiting the passage of food and other essential items. Notably, the road between Bujumbura (Burundi) and Uvira (DRC) is submerged in metres-deep water, forcing traders, including small traders whose livelihoods depend on this daily commute on this major trade route into DRC, to wade through dirty lake-water with their goods.

People in flooded areas need food, shelter, clean drinking water, health and sanitation support, as well as support to restart their livelihoods. However, WFP has very limited resources to respond to the flooding crisis due to current funding levels and the food assistance pipeline situation.