The United Nations has declared the situation in parts of DRC to be at level 3, the body’s highest level of emergency. We need humanitarian aid, but not of that order.”Officials in DRC claim only 230,000 people have been displaced, a fraction of UN estimates of 4.5 million. Mende said the UN, which has about 16,000 peacekeepers in DRC, was trying to justify its presence in the country. In a statement, a coalition of Congolese civil society groups said: “This humanitarian crisis is not a result of an unpredictable natural disaster; it is a manmade tragedy. Jose Barahona, Oxfam’s DRC country director, said his organisation had been forced to halve food rations to 90,000 people in Kasai province.

Source: The Guardian April 13, 2018 08:46 UTC