Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have received food after the Colonist Report Africa investigation.

This comes a week after The Colonist Report Africa revealed the extent of hunger and food scarcity at the Kanyaruchinya camp, which resulted in the felling of trees in the protected Virguga National Park, despite the European Union’s € 92 million assistance to IDPs.

The report also revealed that since 2024, no support has been given to Kanyaruchinya IDP camp, despite the European Union’s € 92 million assistance to IDPs.  On August 22, 2023, two European flights were reported to have delivered over 180 metric tonnes of health and nutrition supplies to the country. 

The Colonist Report on February 6 witnessed World Food Programme employees distributing food to displaced people, including the people from the  Kanyaruchinya camp that was captured in our report.

Each household receives 12 kg of cereal (flour), 3.6 kg of beans, 0.9 litres of oil, and 0.15 kg of salt as food items. The food relief provided by World Food Programme officers is estimated to have cost $27.57 per household.

This assistance does not occur frequently, according to Bahati Ndobo, one of the camp block leaders, and the food received is estimated to last for one month. 

IDPs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have received food distributions, but they have not received any cooking supplies. As a result, many of the displaced people will still invade Virunga National Park and cut down trees in order to obtain fuel for cooking, roasting, and heating food.

The Colonist Report Africa learned that some displaced people are selling the flour distributed for 1000 Fc to traders who use it for doughnuts. They claim that the flour was the cause of their diarrhoea. The Colonist Report Africa was unable to independently verify the claim due to a lack of supporting evidence.

Editing by Kevin Woke