By Blessing Chinagorom
The United States, through US Agency for International Development USAID, has announced nearly $424 million in health assistance to address ongoing catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
This was disclosed by the Agency in a statement released on Wednesday stating that this amount includes $414 million in humanitarian assistance to support people experiencing persistent humanitarian needs resulting from conflict and displacement.
This announcement was made in Kinshasa on Wednesday by the U.S. Ambassador to DRC Lucy Tamlyn and U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture Jeffrey Prescott.
While the fund also includes an additional $10 million in health assistance to respond to the current mpox outbreak in the DRC and in other affected countries. “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”, the Agency added. 
It stated further that this announcement includes over $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 largest provider of humanitarian assistance to the DRC and the largest bilateral donor to DRC’s health sector.
“This Fiscal Year, the US 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.
It said the US government will continue to support humanitarian partners to deliver lifesaving assistance to communities in dire need, adding that this 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”, the Agency said.
The humanitarian situation in the DRC has deteriorated significantly in recent years, exacerbated by ongoing conflicts in the country’s eastern regions.
Since 2022, the Congolese army has been battling M23 insurgents, leading to the displacement of over 1.7 million people. This has contributed to a record total of 7.2 million internally displaced Congolese, according to UN estimates.
The scale of the crisis is reflected in the UN’s aid appeal for the DRC, which stands at $2.6 billion for this year. However, this appeal is currently only one-third funded, highlighting the urgent need for international support.
The World Health Organization has warned that over one million children in the DRC are at risk of acute malnutrition, underscoring the critical nature of the situation.
