Humanitarian aid: EU allocates €54.5 million to Africa’s Great Lakes region

The EU has announced today new funding of €54.5 million in humanitarian aid. This life-saving assistance will be devoted to the most vulnerable people affected by human-made or natural disasters, epidemics, and displacement in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The aid will address the needs of the most vulnerable in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo and Burundi, and will support Burundian refugees in the DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, said: “Many people in the Great Lakes region face conflict and violence, natural disasters, as well as recurrent outbreaks of epidemics such as cholera, measles and Ebola – a threat that recently re-emerged in the region. COVID-19 and its health and socioeconomic implications further exacerbate the humanitarian situation. The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is very worrying. The EU’s assistance will be used to provide food, health and protection assistance, enhance emergency and disaster preparedness, and increase access to education for those displaced.”