Humanitarian: Food crisis affects 26.5 million people in DRC in 2025

Kinshasa, May 14^th, 2026 (CPA).- 26.5 million people have been affected by the worsening food crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with needs far exceeding humanitarian aid, according to the latest update of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis conducted in 2025, published on Thursday in Kinshasa. “This warning has been issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). DRC continues to face one of the largest and most severe food crises in the world. Today, more than 26.5 million people – nearly one in four Congolese – are struggling to meet their basic food needs, according to the latest update of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, the two UN agencies warn,” it is read. “More than 3.6 million people are in an emergency situation, facing severe food shortages that threaten their survival without urgent assistance. Although the latest projections show a slight improvement compared to previous estimates, the situation remains worse than the levels recorded between September and December 2025, a period during which 24.8 million people were facing a food crisis or an even worse situation,” the source has added, before noting that this highlights the worsening and persistence of the crisis. According to the source, this situation highlights the deeply entrenched nature of the conflict, particularly in the most affected provinces such as Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika, where violence continues to affect families, destroy livelihoods, disrupt markets and restrict access to agricultural land. The source notes that across the country, there are more than 7.8 million internally displaced people, many of whom have lost their homes, land, livestock and sources of income. At the same time, persistently high food prices, disrupted supply chains and recurring outbreaks of diseases, including cholera, measles and smallpox, are further weakening already vulnerable communities. “The nutritional situation is particularly alarming. An estimated 4.18 million children under the age of five require treatment for acute malnutrition (January–June 2026). Of these, more than 1.3 million are suffering or are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition that can prove fatal within weeks without treatment,” the source has explained. More than 1.5 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, further exacerbating health risks for mothers and children, the source emphasised. Finally, the FAO and the WFP also warn that humanitarian aid remains largely insufficient to meet needs and that, without urgent and sustained investment, the crisis risks worsening further, with potentially irreversible consequences for millions of people.