US to give $414 million in humanitarian aid for Congo

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. said on Wednesday it would provide nearly $414 million in humanitarian assistance for the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 25 million people need such aid, nearly a quarter of the country's population.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Jeffrey Prescott, told Reuters a significant amount of that money would go to United Nations agencies and aid groups providing urgent food assistance, healthcare and nutrition support, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene.

"This funding also includes direct support (of) agricultural commodities from American farmers," said Prescott, who will formally announce the aid in Kinshasa on Wednesday with U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn.

It takes total U.S. funding for DRC since October to $838 million, said Prescott.

Congo's army has been battling M23 insurgents since 2022, and renewed fighting in the country's east has driven more than 1.7 million people from their homes, taking the total number of Congolese displaced by multiple conflicts to a record 7.2 million, according to U.N. estimates.

A U.N. aid appeal for $2.6 billion for DRC this year is only one-third funded and the World Health Organization warned last month that more than one million children are at risk from acute malnutrition in Congo.

Prescott said he hoped the U.S. funding would encourage other countries to also "step up as well" and help DRC.

The U.S. will also provide $10 million for health assistance and donate 50,000 mpox vaccines, Prescott said.

Mpox, a viral infection that can spread through close contact, is usually mild but can sometimes lead to death. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

The current mpox outbreak in Congo has already seen around 27,000 cases, and claimed more than 1,100 lives, most of them children, since the beginning of 2023.

(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline)

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Don Durfee and David Gregorio)