people in need of humanitarian assistance
Democratic Republic of Congo
internally displaced people
recorded cases of measles
Despite a relatively stable political context following presidential elections in 2018, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is slipping ever deeper into crisis, both socially and economically. This is despite the country’s rich natural resources and strong demographic potential.
In 2019, the east of the country (especially Nord-Kivu) was still very unstable. This situation, which has persisted for over 20 years, has deteriorated with new crises emerging or worsening throughout the country. Humanitarian actors are struggling to respond to the scale of the need in Kasaï, Ituri, Tanganyika, Sud-Kivu and Kongo Central.
The province of Tanganyika, in south-western DRC, has seen a resurgence of intercommunal violence since 2016 and the humanitarian situation is very worrying, with continued mass movements of people. In 2019, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded over 430,000 internally displaced people and 615,000 returnees.
1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Tanganyika province
In Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, just 20.9% of women use modern contraceptive methods and three in five pregnancies are unintended, with the majority being terminated by unsafe abortions.
The mobilisation of resources remains critical: only 46% of the necessary funding was raised by the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan. After Syria and Yemen, the DRC is the country most in need of funds to respond to humanitarian needs.
Our activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Emergencies & crisis
Emergency programme in Tanganyika Province
In June 2019, Médecins du Monde France and Médecins du Monde Belgium launched a project in Tanganyika province and more specifically in Kalemie in the south-west of the country.
In a challenging healthcare context, this project aims to prevent an increase in mortality and morbidity. It provides access to good quality healthcare free of charge to communities affected by intercommunal conflict and displaced people in four health areas in the Nyemba health zone, which has a population of around 167,000.
Médecins du Monde works at six health centres to deliver the minimum healthcare package, including consultations to treat patients with malaria, care and treatment for acute severe malnutrition and sexual and reproductive healthcare. At the same time, the teams support a health referral centre for referrals of paediatric cases and obstetric complications.
MdM directly employs healthcare staff (nurses, midwives and doctors) at the health centres and the referral centre, with ongoing training provision to guarantee the quality of care.
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In 2019We:
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Response to measles epidemic in Kinshasa province
On 10 June 2019, the Congolese Ministry of Health declared a measles epidemic in the country. Between 1 January and 17 November 2019, a total of 261,376 cases were recorded, with 5,291 deaths, representing a case-fatality rate of 2%.
It was in this context that Médecins du Monde was approached by the authorities and agreed to provide a response in the Kisenso health zone in Kinshasa with an immunisation campaign to vaccinate children against measles.
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In 2019We:
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MdM has been working in Kinshasa for over ten years on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and child protection programmes. At the operational level, two new strategies were consolidated in Kinshasa in 2019: the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Strategy (access to safe abortion and advocacy) and an advanced community-level intervention in schools. All this work was carried out with local NGO, Afia Mama, which is very active both at the community level and in terms of advocacy (human rights activism), particularly through the Coalition Contre les Grossesses Non Désirées which campaigns on prevention of unwanted pregnancies.
Sexual healthcare and prevention in congolese schools
The programme seeks to strengthen the provision of health services, using an approach tailored to the needs of young people, community mobilisation and advocacy. It aims to achieve legal access to family planning for children and young people and the effective application of the Maputo Protocol. The Maputo Protocol is an international agreement which guarantees the rights of women, including their right to participate in the political process, social and political equality with men, greater autonomy in making decisions about their health and an end to female genital mutilation.
This approach is innovative, with its tactic of working in schools to ensure SRH services are adapted to the needs of children and young people in the school environment and through its harm reduction strategy in relation to illegal abortion, with the aim of reducing maternal mortality and morbidity as a result of unsafe abortions.
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In 2019We:
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Environmental health in Kinshasa
Health and environment is one of Médecins du Monde’s five priority areas. Our work in this area focuses on living environments, workplaces, working conditions and pesticides.
In this context we held a period of reflection on health and the environment in Kinshasa during 2018. An exploratory mission was undertaken in late 2019 to pull together the issues raised during this reflection period.