To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to respond to the United Nations’ briefing at Geneva this week which stated that over two million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are at risk of starvation if they do not receive urgent humanitarian assistance.
Answered on
22 March 2018
UK Bilateral aid over the next 5 years (2017-2022) will support 350,000 children under the age of five with vital nutrition and humanitarian assistance.
In December last year, the former Minister for Africa, Rory Stewart announced additional support which includes a focus on critical lifesaving nutrition interventions. Our wider programming also addresses and contributes to tackling the causes of malnutrition. For example our water and sanitation programme provided over 2 million people with a source of clean drinking water between June 2013 and July 2017 and through our health programme we have reached over 760,000 people with home visits and supplements for pregnant women.
We continue to review the needs and the capacity to respond to critical humanitarian needs in the DRC. We are actively lobbying for other member states to step up their support. The international donor conference on the 13th April will provide a further opportunity to raise awareness of the critical situation in the DRC and for the government of the DRC (GoDRC) to demonstrate that they will also work to address the causes and consequence of this humanitarian crisis.