Laudable Efforts

After several fruitless efforts to make sure humanitarian aid reaches some needy towns of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the European Union has activated a humanitarian air bridge to Goma. The operation which involves the transporting essential supplies which has been highly welcomed as will be used to scale-up the humanitarian response in the eastern part of the country, where the already dire situation keeps deteriorating. To mitigate this situation, the EU is organizing two flights from Europe, carrying a total of over 180 tonnes of materials, including health and nutrition supplies. From Europe, the two flights would jet to Nairobi, from where the supplies are transported to Goma. After the first two flights to Goma on 22 August 2023, a total of eight such flights have been scheduled to take place until the end of August 2023. The highly and long awaited new humanitarian air bridge operation follows a similar one between March and May 2023 that saw the supply of about 260 tonnes of aid that went a long way to improve the health of the population.
The government of DR Congo as well as African stakeholders have hailed the decision by the EU to aid the local population especially those in the eastern part of the country where there are currently over 6.2 million displaced people within the DRC. The rapid deterioration of the security situation in the east of the country has resulted in more than 1.1 million civilians becoming newly displaced since March 2022. Many live in hi...