Panel details

Panel organiser(s) will be presenting	In-Person & Online
Number of paper presentations	2

Abstract

In the last decades, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become a theatre of humanitarian crises. In recent years, the eastern DRC has experienced the surge in violence that has resulted in significant loss of life, trauma, displacement that has exacerbated an already dire situation for millions of people. For Goma alone, the fighting in January 2025 has caused nearly 3,000 deaths, thousands more injured and leading to at least 7.8 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the DRC. The acute crises revolved around massive displacement near Goma in the North-Kivu province, repetitive heavy flooding and domestic fire in South-Kivu, in Kinshasa and other provinces and similar contexts in Africa. Face to these crises, different actors intervened and continue to intervene in delivering humanitarian assistance targeting multiple actions. Direct responses to IDPs’ needs, attempt to improve accountability and governance while delivering aid and efforts to foster advocacy actions on behalf on affected communities. Contributors will examine what happened in 2024 and 2025 with the massive displacement around Goma, sexual abuse in IDPs’ camps, heavy flooding and domestic fires in South-Kivu, Kinshasa, other provinces and elsewhere in the country in Africa in particular and worldwide in general. This panel seeks papers that address how humanitarian actors operate in those contexts, what actions have been effective and what needs to be done by doing so in the DRC and elsewhere across Africa, developing countries and worldwide. Questions that need to be answered by panellists are (among others):
(i) What are the common patterns of those crises (massive displacement, sexual abuse in IDPs’ camps, heavy flooding, domestic fires)?
(ii) What are the basic needs in the context of limited governance efforts by the State actors?
(iii) What has been jointly done by the State and Non-State actors?
(iv) What is the state of social accountability and advocacy in the efforts to better deliver aid?

Paper presentations