5 ay önce

US announces $424M in DRC aid

The US Embassy says $414 million will be allocated to "humanitarian assistance" and $10 million for "health assistance" to respond to the current outbreak of the mpox.

AP

The US Agency for International Development is also donating 50,000 mpox vaccines to the DRC, the country most affected by the epidemic, it added. / Photo: AP

The United States has announced $424 million in aid and humanitarian assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is facing disaster as a result of armed violence in the east.

The aid announcement was made by Lucy Tamlyn, US ambassador to the DRC, and Jeffrey Prescott, US representative to the UN food and agriculture agencies, while on a visit to the DRC on Wednesday.

According to the press release from the US Embassy, $414 million of this package will be allocated to "humanitarian assistance".

The remaining $10 million is earmarked for "health assistance" to respond to the current outbreak of the mpox virus in the DRC and other affected countries in the region, according to the statement.

The US Agency for International Development is also donating 50,000 mpox vaccines to the DRC, the country most affected by the epidemic, it added.

As of August 3, the African Union's health agency counted 14,479 confirmed and suspected cases and 455 deaths in the country, representing a case-fatality rate of around 3 percent.

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Armed violence

Plagued by armed violence for 30 years, eastern DRC, particularly the province of North Kivu, has been in crisis since November 2021 with the resurgence of the M23 rebels.

In the space of two and a half years, the M23 has seized vast swathes of territory, going so far as to almost completely encircle Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, to which hundreds of thousands of displaced people have flocked.

There are at least 7.3 million displaced persons in the DRC, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.