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DRC Humanitarian Situation Report, July to August 2017

Countries
DR Congo
+ 2 more
Sources
UNICEF
Publication date

Highlights

• On August 1, 2017, the UNICEF Executive Director activated the Level 3 Corporate Emergency Response for the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a period of 6 months.

• In 2017 there have been 23,959 suspected cases of cholera and 528 deaths (fatality rate: 2.2%) recorded. The year 2017 is expected to be one of the worst year of the last ten years in term of cholera cases as the limit of 1,800 cases/week was already passed during the reporting period.

• On 16 August, 2017, the fishing village of Dyatsi in Ituri province was almost completely destroyed by a massive landslide, with more than 150 persons reported dead and about 279 children orphans reported (OCHA September 2017).

• The Education Cluster estimates that 937 schools have been attacked or relegated to military use since the beginning of the crisis in the Kasai region 11 months ago, and 404 of these schools were confirmed destroyed in the provinces of Kasaï and Kasaï Central alone.

Humanitarian Leadership and Coordination

• UNICEF continues its leadership at national and provincial level of four clusters (Education, NFI and Shelter, Nutrition, and WASH) as well as leading the Child Protection sub-clusters and acting as co-lead (with WFP and Mercy Corps) of the Goma-based Cash Working Group.

• At national the Inter-Cluster level, July to August 2017 period was focused on addressing coordination needs and challenges in the Kasai crisis. The UNICEF L3 declaration at the beginning of August, 2017 has facilitated the deployment of global cluster missions and surge capacity to support response and coordination needs. All Clusters are now mapping their proposed structure for the Kasai emergency.

• Other key initiatives in which the clusters were involved during this reporting period included (a) development of a multi-sectoral rapid evaluation tool for use in new crises like the Kasais, (b) update of the cluster mapping matrices for the country; and (c) supporting the new RRMP cycle – phase 8 in finalizing the guidance documents and indicators in order to ensure coherence between RRMP and the clusters. Preparations have also started for the 2017 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) processes.