©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti
Outside the city of Goma, an eastern, war-torn part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 32, 500 people live in temporary shelters – a sea of white tents meets the blue sky on the horizon, in one of the many Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) sites. Just 18 kilometres from the frontline, the shots and explosions can still be heard, especially at night, bringing back memories of being forced to leave the peaceful places these dwellers once called home.
Now, they live here in Rusayo 2 IDP camp to escape the persisting conflict in the region and to protect themselves and their children, hoping to one day start a new life.
Rusayo 2 is currently at maximum capacity, forcing new arrivals to settle in a spontaneous extension of the camp. This overcrowding not only strains the camp’s limited resources but also exposes more people to security risks, as residents remain vulnerable to attacks from armed groups.
The risk of food insecurity is getting worse as the camp grows. This reality is not hard for any outsider to see.
“The situation in many sites is incredibly alarming in terms of people’s ability to access the most basic services, whether it is sanitation or housing. The Rusayo 2 IDP camp is already full, with an additional 30,000 people coming and no sufficient space available to accommodate them. The food security situation is extremely critical here – especially for the newly arrived, but also for longer-term residents,” says Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on her visit to Rusayo 2.
The DRC is facing a prolonged humanitarian crisis, fuelled by the ongoing armed conflict and recurrent weather extremes, triggering massive internal displacement and pushing millions to the brink of hunger.
Just in the period between January and July 2024, the conflict forced more than 1.4 million people to leave their homes. Overall, camps are hosting seven million IDPs, 89 per cent of whom are in the eastern provinces.
In terms of food insecurity, most IDP sites are classified at the Emergency Level [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 4], meaning that people are experiencing critical levels of acute food insecurity, with large gaps between when they eat and when they don’t, and high levels of malnutrition. For the first part of 2025, projections suggest a similar situation.
Due to the worsening conditions, FAO has made an appeal for USD 330 million for next year for emergency agricultural and resilience interventions.
“Emergency agriculture is a cost-effective, impactful and dignified way to support the most vulnerable in the DRC. But we need to move beyond just making the humanitarian response more effective and use agricultural interventions also to enhance resilience to future shocks,” says Rein Paulsen, FAO Director of Emergencies and Resilience.
Bechdol, Paulsen and FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, visited the Rusayo 2 camp and other FAO project sites to assess the needs on the ground and determine solutions to scale up FAO’s response.
At the moment, FAO is assisting 25,000 vulnerable households, or approximately 150,000 people, in North Kivu and Ituri, including the Rusayo camp, through unconditional cash vouchers, micro-gardening and livestock production inputs. This support enables IDPs to meet their immediate food and other basic needs.
However, there is much more to it.
“In this camp, FAO is not only supporting the realization of basic human rights including the right to food, but also focusing on building the resilience of the most vulnerable households. Seeing these critical components – this dual focus – in FAO projects has been really encouraging. On the one hand, you see the extreme need and on the other hand, you see some optimism, some excitement and some enthusiasm that comes from the camps, from the residents, from the IDPs themselves,” Bechdol says.
FAO’s micro-gardening kits have helped families, even on only a few square metres of land, to grow an array of vegetables, including eggplants, tomatoes, cabbage, ground nuts, spinach and amaranth.
“We visited IDP sites and saw the lifesaving impact of micro-gardening and related interventions which are providing nutritious food in the middle of these IDP sites,” says Paulsen.
Many families also integrate micro-gardening with rabbit and chicken breeding, using waste from the animals to fertilize the soil and boost productivity.
Quality vegetable seeds and small animals provided by FAO ensure that people have access to nutritious diets on a daily basis and also generate income by selling animal products as well as agricultural produce.
Visiting the home of Riziki Ange, a mother of ten living in the IDP camp, Bechdol describes, “Not that long ago she received just a small number of rabbits from FAO. It was one male and three females that have now become 32 rabbits.”
“She was so excited by just having that little bit of support to get her started and expand her activities. You could tell she had even become almost entrepreneurial in the way that she was taking on this activity,” Bechdol recounts.
Empowerment of rural women
At the other end of Lake Kivu, in Bukavu, hundreds of women gather together as part of Dimitra Clubs to discuss local challenges and ways to tackle them. Dimitra Clubs are a pivotal initiative supported by FAO that empowers rural populations, particularly women and youth, to trigger social, environmental and economic transformation in their communities.
For club members, FAO organised a series of trainings on maximising agricultural productivity through sustainable farming practices. The women also received quality seeds and animal breeding support to produce more food, allowing them to sell the surplus in marketplaces with a view to one day starting their own businesses.
“It is really encouraging to hear these women’s personal stories of how their lives have changed since the start of the project and to learn how eager they are to see more engagement from FAO. We need to do so much more to boost rural women’s economic empowerment, support income-generating activities and improve their access to resources and markets,” Bechdol says.
Unlocking the potential of innovation
In the same area of South Kivu, neat green rows of seed multiplication gardens catch the eye. These sites are supported by the National Agricultural Study and Research Institute (INERA), with which FAO has established a robust partnership.
FAO has supplied INERA with quality seeds and equipment, such as seed counters, moisture meters and seed storage facilities, to enhance the evaluation and conservation of seeds. Such advancements are critical to supporting improved crop yields and boosting overall agricultural output.
“There is a critical need in research centres like this one. It [the Centre] is crucial to help local farmers grow their own nutritious food in required quantities. We have to integrate innovation, technologies and data tools into our emergency work,” Bechdol says.
Seed multiplication techniques are a game changer in agriculture. However, it is not the only area where innovation plays an important role in this region. A couple of miles down the road, a state-of-the-art fish hatchery and feed mill stand out as a critical initiative established by FAO.
The feed mill operates as a modern facility dedicated to producing high-quality animal feed using locally sourced, raw materials. By ensuring that livestock receive nutritious feed, the mill significantly improves animal health and productivity.
Complementing the feed mill, the fish hatchery focuses on breeding and raising fish fingerlings, particularly tilapia and catfish. This hatchery not only provides a sustained source of protein in the region but also distributes fingerlings to local farmers.
While observing the facilities, Bechdol says, “There is such an untapped potential here for significant agricultural productivity and profitability. The unique contribution that FAO can really bring about is to help build this type of resilience into the country’s agricultural space.”
Through increased support to projects that combine emergency agricultural and resilience interventions, like these in DRC, people can not only sustain their livelihoods but also create a solid foundation for recovery, even in times of crisis.
Source: FAO News And Media Office, Rome
– global bihari bureau
