Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mass displacement, food insecurity and disease outbreaks in the context of recurrent violence between an array of armed groups are among the many humanitarian challenges facing the DRC.

Insecurity Insight monitors sentiment towards the aid sector on social media and documents conflict events affecting aid operations, education, food and water systems, health care and protection, as well as conflict-related or political-related sexual violence and explosive weapons use in the DRC.

Our data can be downloaded on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) and corresponding reports can be accessed below.

The work in the DRC has been supported by the H2H network.

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Ebola

2025 SHCC Chapter (EN)

2025 SHCC Chapter (FR)

Global Health Map

Datasets on HDX

Ebola

Social Media Monitoring

Understanding how aid actors are portrayed online is increasingly critical. Social media narratives shape community perceptions of humanitarian organisations and can influence operational access and staff safety. As online discourse becomes more central to how aid is understood and contested, monitoring these narratives is an important component for aid acceptance, security management, programming and communication with affected populations.

By tracking both emerging and entrenched narratives on social media, Insecurity Insight provides insight into how public sentiment towards aid actors in the DRC. It aims to support policymakers and humanitarian practitioners in strengthening community acceptance in a rapidly shifting aid environment.

Social Media Analysis

Réseaux Sociaux

Health Care

Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on health care in the DRC, and based on its data, the DRC chapter (in English and French) of the 2025 Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) report Care in the Crosshairs identified 325 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2025. In these incidents, health facilities were damaged or destroyed 59 times and health supplies looted 111 times, while at least 32 health workers were killed and 41 kidnapped.

In 2025, incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care nearly tripled in eastern DRC amid escalating armed conflict, mainly driven by M23 advances, representing 87% of total incidents in the country. Health centers, children’s hospitals, medical warehouses, and pharmacies in eastern DRC were attacked, bombed, deliberately set fire to, looted, and repurposed for non-medical use, while health workers and patients were killed, kidnapped, injured, and threatened, and in one case a nurse was raped. Attacks on health care workers occurred at hospitals, at their homes, and while traveling. Recorded health worker killings nearly tripled, and all reported kidnappings in 2025 occurred in eastern DRC, nearly doubling in number from 2024.

Published every two weeks, Insecurity Insight’s Attacks on Health Care New Brief tracks global threats and violence as well as protests and other events affecting the delivery of and access to health care. Explore our interactive map to see where incidents happened.

SHCC Chapters (EN)

SHCC Chapters (FR)

Other Health Reports

Conflict and Hunger

Insecurity Insight monitors conflict events contributing to food insecurity in the DRC as part of its conflict and hunger project. Our in-depth report examines food-related violence in Ituri and North Kivu provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1 July 2023 and 31 July 2024. The report highlights how systemic violence against farmers, pastoralists, fishers and merchants in eastern DRC has driven millions of people into a state of chronic food insecurity. The persistent use of roadblocks and the looting of food by armed groups suggest that violence targeting food security is a deliberate tactic combining economic and strategic motives. Data covering the same period is accessible for download here.

Additionally, Insecurity Insight has published a shorter more recent briefing documenting food-related violence in North Kivu and Ituri provinces between August 2024 and January 2025 which is accessible here.

Food security and conflict-related sexual violence

Food-related livelihood activities such as tending fields, foraging for food or fetching water can also make women and girls vulnerable to conflict-related sexual violence attacks in conflicts where conflict parties use such violence. This report examines 81 examples of sexual violence committed by conflict parties across Africa, including the DRC, the Middle East and Asia between January 2020 and January 2023 to better understand the complex links between conflict-related sexual violence and food insecurity.

Conflict and Hunger reports

Incident Monitoring Briefs

Sexual Violence (CRSV)

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in the DRC is widespread, particularly in rural communities. Perpetrators of sexual violence include unidentified armed groups, various Mai-Mai militia groups, soldiers of the DRC and South Sudanese armed forces.

Our latest report examines 81 examples of sexual violence committed by conflict parties across Africa, including the DRC, the Middle East and Asia between January 2020 and January 2023 to better understand the complex links between conflict-related sexual violence and food insecurity. The report highlights how food-related livelihood activities such as tending fields, foraging for food or fetching water make women and girls vulnerable to conflict-related sexual violence attacks in conflicts where conflict parties use such violence.

Following the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Eastern part of DRC in August 2018, reports of widespread sexual exploitation, harassment and abuse emerged. Insecurity Insight’s analysis report highlights some of the key learnings on reporting sexual violence, exploitation and abuse from the DRC’s 10th Ebola response. We also work with local organisations in the DRC to strengthen reporting and monitoring of incidents of sexual violence.

CRSV Reports

Education

Attacks on schools, teachers and students pose a significant threat to education in the DRC. Reflecting the gravity of the problem, it was reported in May 2023 that over 150 schools in North Kivu province in the east of the DRC had been attacked by armed groups since January with some of these schools rendered inoperable.

Insecurity Insight documents such incidents. Our data is available for download here.