The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that a staggering 6.9 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been displaced due to conflict and increasing violence, primarily in the eastern region of the country.

Years of rebel conflict and recurrent natural disasters have helped fuel one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

Most of those forced to flee their homes live in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika, according to the data collected by the United Nations.

In North Kivu alone, up to one million people have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict with the Tutsi-led rebel group M23, IOM said.

“For decades, the Congolese people have been living through a storm of crises.

The most recent escalation of the conflict has uprooted more people in less time than was rarely seen before,” said Fabien Sambussy, IOM’s head of mission in Congo.

IOM said since June, it had built 3,347 emergency shelters and distributed 7,715 kits with non-food supplies, but warned that operations remain underfunded.

(Reuters/NAN)