In the latest episode of Everyday Emergency, we’re looking at the humanitarian crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC – a huge country in Central Africa that’s home to around one hundred and eleven million people.

The northeast of the country has endured decades of insecurity since the fallout of the 1994 genocide in the neighbouring country of Rwanda. Driven by ethnic tensions and a fight for resources, the conflict involves more than one hundred armed groups, such as the widely-known M23, as well as Congolese government forces and UN peacekeepers.

The most recent phase of the conflict has been rapidly evolving, and intensified since December 2024. It has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and resulted in many casualties and violent injuries across the provinces of North and South Kivu. Tragically, MSF staff members have also lost their lives.

To learn more about what’s been happening, and how MSF has responded, we spoke to Juliette Seguin, MSF’s Emergency Coordinator in Goma, DRC's capital city in the east of the country.

If you would like to support our life-saving medical work around the world, please visit msf.org.uk to donate. Thank you.

Presented by Kate Lee

Edited by Sandy McKee

Photo: MSF