DRC / UNHCR INSUFFICIENT FUNDING

STORY: DRC / UNHCR INSUFFICIENT FUNDING
TRT: 6:55
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: SWAHILI / ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 25-27 JULY 2022, BUNIA, ARU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

SHOTLIST:

25 JULY 2022, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

1. Wide shot, displaced people’s camp
2. Wide shot, children playing in the camp
3. Close up, child’s face looking on
4. Med shot, children standing
5. Close up, woman looking on
6. Med shot, Pirache Torashi, Internally Displaced Person walking in the camp
7. Wide shot, Torashi walking up to her door
8. Close up, Torashi’s hands as she unlocks a padlock
9. Close up, Torashi walking through the door
10. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Pirache Torashi, Internally Displaced Person:
“When we reached here, we were confronted by many hardships; we suffered a lot. You wake up in the morning to do casual work like fetching water for people, digging the gardens, and doing laundry for people. Sometimes you work the whole day, and the person pays you peanuts that cannot even help you improve your livelihood and provide for your children. We suffered a lot.”
11. Wide shot, Torashi going to fetch water
12. Close up, Torashi fetching water into her jerrycan
13. Wide shot, Torashi standing at the water point
14. Med shot, women and children, fetching water
15 SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Pirache Torashi, Internally Displaced Person:
“UNHCR helped us. They started training us to make soap, a skill we did not have. After teaching us theory, we began the practice.”
16. Close up, jerrycans in Torashi’s shelter, pan to her sitting on the bed, holding bars of soap
17. Close up, bars of soap
18. Med shot, Torashi holding bars of soap
19. Close up, soap on display
20. Close up, Dominique Hyde, UNHCR, Director, Department of External Relations, talking to Torashi
21. Various of Hyde standing, talking to Torashi
SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Hyde, Director, Department of External Relations, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“I’m shocked by the sheer unthinkable violence that has happened, that has displaced at least 5.6 million people across the country just because of violence. I’ve heard stories today of women who were raped. I have heard of families who have been destroyed all their savings, all of their homes, everything they had, they no longer have anything.”

27 JULY 2022, ARU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

22. Wide shot, overhead view of settlement
23. Med shot, children standing against wall
24 Wide shot, people fetching water

25 JULY 2022, BUNIA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

25. SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Hyde, Director, Department of External Relations, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“We simply can’t forget the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s one of the most unfunded situations in the world, actually the fifth unfunded, and it just means that we are not able to provide the displaced populations, the populations that have had to flee violence and conflicts with shelter, with food in some cases, with water and with the protection and the safety that they need and that they deserve.”

27 JULY 2022, ARU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

26. Wide shot, Philip Angunda, South Sudanese refugee walking in his compound
27. Med shot, Angunda sitting with his family
28. Close up, Angunda’s face
29. Wide shot, Angunda sitting with his family
30. Close up, woman looking on
31. Close up, hands shelling groundnuts
32. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Philip Angunda, South Sudanese refugee:
“We have children who are eager to get an education, but the schools are very far away. The market is also very far away. Otherwise, we have no challenges with our host communities; we live together peacefully.”
33. Wide shot, Hyde walking with Angunda
34. Close up, Hyde looking on
35. Med shot, woman shelling maize
36. Wide shot, Hyde talking to Angunda and his family
37. Close up, maize in basket, pan to woman’s hands
38. SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Hyde, Director, Department of External Relations, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“When he came here first in order to get any firewood, they were cutting down all the trees, which was really causing a lot of conflict in the community and the host community as well, and they were cutting down the trees just to do a bit of charcoal. So UNHCR came in, and we really prioritised replanting of trees so that we could also support the community but also investing in self-sustainability for this family.”
39. Med shot, Hyde, talking to field staff member
40. Close up, seedling
41. Med shot, Hyde planting tree
42. Close up, seedling
43. Wide shot, people working in field

STORYLINE:
Due to insufficient funding, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is unable to adequately respond to the rising humanitarian needs of refugees and internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR appeals for urgent funding for its operations in the DRC.

Without fresh funding, vital programs are likely to be cut, affecting education, health services, shelter, and other life-saving services.

At least 5.6 million people are displaced inside the DRC, Africa's largest internal displacement situation.

The DRC hosts 500,000 refugees, mainly from Burundi, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

While humanitarian needs are rising daily, UNHCR's funding is only half what it was last year.

The country is among the most underfunded UNHCR operations worldwide.

Only 19 percent of the US$ 225 million budgeted at the start of the year has been secured.

This has real implications for the lives of those forced to flee. During a visit to DRC’s Ituri province between 25 and 28 July, UNHCR’s Director for External Relations, Dominique Hyde, saw first-hand the strength in the face of horror demonstrated by forcibly displaced women, men, and children but also the real impacts of underfunding.

Protection risks in the DRC are already massive.

At the start of the year, the DRC hosted over half a million refugees, asylum seekers, and over 5.6 million internally displaced people.

Fighting between the Congolese Army and M23 in North Kivu Province has displaced an additional 160,000 people since April.

UNHCR and partners have recorded over 800 deaths from firearm attacks and machete raids on local communities in Ituri Province, which have driven 20,700 people from their homes.

The DRC also hosts some 500,000 refugees, mainly from Burundi, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, and South Sudan, making it the largest refugee-hosting country in the region. 

Many have been staying in camps, settlements, villages, or urban settings for decades, thanks to the generosity of the Congolese authorities.

56,000 South Sudanese refugees are hosted in the DRC; 80 percent are women and children.

UNHCR supports refugees and host communities by providing shelter and implementing livelihood projects, but severe underfunding means limited services.

Host communities and refugees are under pressure as the climate crisis, and extreme weather patterns impact natural resources like water and farming land.