Congo Files - Part 2
FR-S1 · UNHCR displacement camp aerial at sunset
7 million people. The largest displacement crisis in Africa. Every tent in this image is a family.
7 million displaced. More than half are children. Sexual violence documented as a weapon of war. The most underfunded humanitarian response on earth. UNHCR, OCHA and MSF named the figures. The world has not named the response.
FR-S2 · Column of displaced people walking red dirt road
7 million displaced · Largest in Africa · UNHCR 202502 / 07
7 million people displaced. The largest displacement crisis in Africa. More than the entire population of New Zealand.
As of 2025, more than 7 million people are internally displaced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making it the largest displacement crisis in Africa.
OCHA reported that by March 2024, Petit Nord alone accounted for nearly 1.7 million internally displaced persons, with an additional 500,000 spilling into neighbouring South Kivu.
The January 2025 fall of Goma triggered further mass displacement from a city of two million. UNHCR documented the crisis as one of the most severe and most underfunded globally.
Source: UNHCR 2025 · OCHA figures cited in UN Report S/2024/432 · MSF field reporting 2025
FR-S3 · Three children at UNHCR shelter
Children · UNHCR camps · Eastern DRC · 202503 / 07
More than half of the displaced are children. UNICEF named this one of the worst crises for children anywhere on earth.
UNICEF documented that children make up more than half of the internally displaced population in eastern DRC.
In displacement camps around Goma, MSF documented acute malnutrition rates exceeding emergency thresholds. Mpox, cholera and measles spread rapidly in overcrowded conditions.
Access for humanitarian organisations was frequently blocked by AFC/M23 forces, which imposed taxes on UN food shipments and obstructed medical supply routes.
Source: UNICEF documentation 2025 · MSF field reports, eastern DRC 2025 · HRW June 2025
FR-S4 · MSF worker treating patient
MSF · Medecins Sans Frontieres · Eastern DRC · 202504 / 07
MSF called eastern DRC one of the most dangerous places on earth to deliver humanitarian assistance.
MSF reported that healthcare facilities were deliberately targeted throughout the conflict. AFC/M23 forces imposed an $8,000 tax on every UN food ration truck entering Goma from Rwanda, refusing to recognise the UN's tax-exempt status.
Eighteen customary chiefs were removed from their territories by M23/Rwanda according to the UN June 2025 report, with civil servants and civil society leaders fleeing intimidation and torture.
Source: MSF field reports, eastern DRC 2025 · UN Group of Experts S/2025/446, July 2025 · OCHA access reports 2025
FR-S5 · UN report on conflict-related sexual violence
UN Secretary-General · Conflict-related sexual violence · Named finding05 / 07
The UN's own report states it plainly. Conflict-related sexual violence continues to be used as a tactic of war. Impunity persists.
The UN Secretary-General's annual report on conflict-related sexual violence documented the DRC as one of the most affected countries in the world.
HRW reported on June 18 2025 that M23 forces had engaged in systematic sexual violence in occupied territories and called Rwanda, as occupying force, potentially responsible for war crimes under the designation "DR Congo: M23 Armed Group Forcibly Transferring Civilians."
The UN called on all parties to prevent, respond to and end sexual violence. No binding accountability mechanism has been established.
Source: UN Secretary-General report on conflict-related sexual violence 2025 · HRW June 18 2025
FR-S6 · Displaced persons register by lamplight
Names of displaced persons · Eastern DRC · Each line is a person06 / 07
Every line in this register is a name. 7 million names. The world's most underfunded displacement crisis.
UNHCR's DRC operation is among the most chronically underfunded humanitarian responses globally. In 2025, UNHCR reported funding shortfalls forcing reductions in food rations, shelter and protection services.
The people registered in camps around Goma are not statistics. They are named. They have ages. They have places of origin. They were displaced by a conflict directly documented by UN investigators as involving foreign military command and control.
Source: UNHCR funding reports 2025 · OCHA humanitarian needs overview DRC 2025 · UN Report S/2025/446
FR-S7 · Yellow jerrycan on cracked earth
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
7 million displaced. The largest crisis in Africa. Sexual violence as a weapon of war. The most underfunded response on earth. What does it take for the world to say this has a name, a cause, and an address?
Next week: the supply chain. Coltan, cobalt and the corporations between the mine and your phone. Named, documented, on the public record.
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