Around 25.6 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are facing alarming famine risk as food insecurity has spiked in Africa’s second-largest country, United Nations humanitarian coordinator Bruno Lemarquis said on Monday.
Lemarquis made his remarks during the 17th Meeting of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT17) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for Central Africa that began today in Kinshasa, DRC. The UN representative added the DRC: “has immense agricultural potential with vast arable lands that remain entirely unexploited.”
In addition, he suggested that the country’s enduring conflicts and political tensions are exacerbating its paradoxical famine crisis.
The vulnerable population had to deal with constant displacement and destruction, crushing any hopes of establishing infrastructure and building resilience, he told the DRC’s Press Agency (ACP).
Climate change was another issue that Lemarquis said has deeply affected the already vulnerable population, pushing one in four people in the DRC onto the brink of famine.
“If we want to improve the efficiency and productivity of Central Africa’s agricultural sectors, we must chart a new path together starting now,” Lemarquis stated, underscoring the untapped potential of the country’s agricultural resources, which, if harnessed, could drastically improve food security.