UN AND HUMANITARIAN PARTNERS IN D.R. CONGO LAUNCH US$892.6 MILLION ACTION PLAN FOR 2013

GENEVA, Switzerland, February 8, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- United Nations agencies, humanitarian partners and the Government of D.R. Congo today launched a US$892.6 million Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) to provide aid to millions of people affected by food insecurity, conflict and disease in 2013.

“The HAP represents the hope that affected families have in us. In return we promise to do all we can to help them meet their essential humanitarian needs,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator, Moustapha Soumaré, at the launch in Kinshasa.

The Plan responds to the growing needs of 3.9 million people across the country including 2.7 million internally displaced, more than half of them in the eastern Kivu provinces. Also the Katanga and Maniema provinces have seen a sharp rise in displacement in the past year.

An estimated 6.4 million people across D.R. Congo are food insecure and more than 2 million children under-five are acutely malnourished.

The funding will help provide essential food aid, shelter, protection and water and sanitation programmes to prevent life-threatening diseases such as cholera and measles. The Plan also aims at helping local authorities improve access to basic social services including education.

"Thanks to donor funding, humanitarian aid remains effective, but it is only part of the solution. Together we need to address the root causes of the multiple crises and find long-term solutions,” said Moustapha Soumaré.

In 2012, the HAP provided food aid to more than 3.6 million people and millions of children were treated for measles, cholera, malaria and other diseases. The requirements this year are 13 percent higher than in 2012, when the HAP was 70 percent funded.