Today, the United States, through USAID, announced nearly $424 million in humanitarian and health assistance to address the ongoing catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This includes $414 million in humanitarian assistance to support people experiencing persistent humanitarian needs resulting from conflict and displacement. This announcement, made in Kinshasa by the U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn and U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture Jeffrey Prescott, also includes an additional $10 million in health assistance to respond to the current mpox outbreak in the DRC and in other affected countries in the region. USAID is also donating 50,000 mpox vaccines to the DRC, which is the country most impacted by this outbreak.
With the additional humanitarian assistance announced today, including funding from the bipartisan National Security Supplemental, USAID’s UN and NGO partners will continue to provide urgent food assistance, health care, nutrition support, shelter materials, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services to crisis-affected communities. Partners will also continue providing critical child protection services and gender-based violence prevention and response activities for the most vulnerable who bear the brunt of the ongoing crisis.
Today’s announcement includes more than $170 million in Commodity Credit Corporation funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that USAID is using to purchase, ship, and distribute surplus agricultural commodities from American farmers to provide life-saving food assistance in the DRC. The additional health assistance will be invested across a range of critical public health interventions in response to the mpox outbreak in the region.
The United States is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to the DRC and the largest bilateral donor to DRC’s health sector. This Fiscal Year, the U.S. provided more than $256 million in health assistance through bilateral programs including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and the Global Health Security program, which enabled more than seven million people to receive lifesaving treatment for diseases including TB, HIV, and malaria.
The U.S. government continues to support humanitarian partners to deliver lifesaving assistance to communities in dire need. Today’s announcement brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the DRC to more than $838 million in Fiscal Year 2024. We continue to stand by refugees and the Congolese people and we encourage other donors to join us in our critical efforts to save lives and alleviate suffering caused by this ongoing crisis.