Council members "expressed great concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation, which has reached catastrophic levels in some parts of the country", said the statement.
The council "emphasized the need to address the presence of armed groups in the country" and renewed its call for "transparent, credible and inclusive elections".
The members of the Security Council expressed great concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation, which has reached catastrophic levels in some parts of the country, leaving at least 13.1 million Congolese in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 7.7 million severely food insecure people
Conflicts and climate disasters, particularly drought, drove the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger up by about 15 percent last year and the situation is getting worse, according to the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).
The report shows, last year 124 million people in 51 countries faced crisis levels of hunger compared to 108 million people in 48 countries in 2016 and 80 million in 2015.
There are at least 2.7 million internally displaced persons in the DRC
At least seventy armed groups are believed to be currently operating in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite the stabilizing presence of nineteen thousand UN peacekeepers, the stronger militant groups in the region, continue to terrorize communities and control weakly governed areas of the country, financing their activities by exploiting the country’s rich natural resources. Millions of civilians have been forced to flee the fighting: the United Nations estimates that currently there are at least 2.7 million internally displaced persons in the DRC, and approximately 450,000 DRC refugees in other nations.
In addition to the violence caused by armed groups, President Joseph Kabila caused further political instability by postponing the scheduled 2016 election to stay in power after his term ended.
In this regard, the members of the Security Council emphasized the need to address the presence of armed groups in the country and reiterated their call for transparent, credible and inclusive elections, which are crucial for lasting peace and security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
